Innovation New

Learning Ideas from the Land

Learners observe features of the land to identify helpful ideas and explain how these ideas can inspire simple innovations.

Grade

1-3

Duration

40 mins

Type

Hands on

Overview

In this activity, learners observe familiar features of the land to identify ideas that could inspire helpful innovations. They use drawings and simple words to show their thinking and use criteria to decide which ideas are most useful and why.

Instructions

What you'll need

Did you Know? Cards
Ideas for Innovations Worksheet
Crayons, markers, pencils
Chart paper or board space

Learning Launch

Review or complete Learning What Makes Innovation Helpful activity
1. Remind students that innovations are thing we create or build to to make life easier, safer, or better.
Explain to leaners that people often get ideas from helpful innovations by observing the land closely.
1. Many people, especially Indigenous people, learn from carefully observing plants, animals, water, soil, rocks, sunlight, and any other parts of the land.
2. By observing the land, people can come up with helpful ideas to makes designs that make life better, easier, and safer.
Display and/or distribute several of the images from the Did you know cards? Invite learners to look at these cards carefully and ask:
1. What do you notice that might help people or the land?
2. What ideas from the land could help people make something better or safer?
Encourage students to share different ideas and explain their thinking.
Organize learners into pairs. Ask the partners to choose one image card that shows an idea that could help people make something better or safer. Encourage them to discuss and choose a card together.
Distribute a copy of the Ideas for Innovation Worksheet to each learner. Direct each learning to do the My First Thinking section.
1. Learners can discuss as pairs but should individually fill out the My First Thinking sections using words or pictures to show ONE important idea from the land that could help people make something better or safer.
Explain to students that these are first ideas, and these may change as they continue learning.

Developing Understanding

Remind learners that an innovation is helpful when it:
1. Makes something easier or safer,
2. Helps people take care of themselves or others,
3. Helps take care of the land,
Model to students how to use these points about innovations with one of the images. Think out loud as you observe and connect to an idea, like:
1. “I notice the tree roots help keep soil in place. This might help prevent soil from washing away, which helps the land stay strong.”
Invite learners to look over their image and their My First Thinking ideas. Ask students to consider what makes an innovation helpful and clues from the pictures to check, change or add to their initial idea.
1. Encourage paired reflective thinking and they revise their idea.
Direct learners to the Growing My Thinking sections. Guide the pairs to share their ideas, one partner will be Idea 1 the other Idea 2. Guide them to consider:
1. What they notice about their idea.
2. How their idea can be used to make something better or safe?
3. Does their idea fit the criteria of an innovation i.e. easier or safer, helps people, cares for the land?

Reflect and Revise

As partners direct learners to the My Thinking Now section of the worksheet. Ask them to circle their most helpful idea. Ask students to explain why they think this idea is the most help based on the criteria:
1. This idea is most helpful because…
2. It makes something easier because…
3. It helps people by…
4. It helps care for the land by….
Have multiple volunteers share their ideas and thinking with the class.
Invite leaners to move to the final section of the worksheet My Thinking Forward by asking them:
1. Where is one place or thing you notice every day that could be made easier, safer, or better?
2. What idea from the land could help it?

Modify or extend this activity

Modifications

Reducing the number of ideas from two to one.
Completing the activity sheet as a class using one shared image.
Inviting learners to explain their thinking orally instead of writing or drawing.
Using teacher-selected images if independent image choice is challenging.
Providing sentence starters or labels for learners who need language support.

Extensions

Completing Learning What Makes Innovations Helpful (Activity 1) first to strengthen understanding of the criteria.
Taking a short outdoor walk to find ideas from the land in the schoolyard or neighbourhood.
Inviting learners to find an additional image from home or their community
Revisiting the same place in different seasons to notice how changes in light, temperature, plants, and water affect how people and animals use the space.
Inviting learners to consider how the same place may feel different for different people (e.g., younger children, elders, people using mobility aids, people carrying heavy bags).
Where appropriate, connecting observations to local Indigenous teachings about caring for land and relationships.

Curriculum Fit

Core Competencies

Communication

Focusing on Intent and Purpose
Working Collectively
Acquiring and Presenting Information
Supporting Group Interactions

Thinking

Questioning and Investigating
Reflecting and Assessing
Creating and Innovating
Evaluating and Developing

Personal and Social

Contributing to Community and Caring for the Environment
Resolving Problems

Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies 1-3

Big Idea

Designs grow out of natural curiosity (Gr.1)
Skills can be developed through play (Gr.2)
Designs can be improved with prototyping and testing (Gr.3)

Content

Factors that make design helpful (safety, ease, usefulness) (Gr.1)
Properties of materials (Gr.2)
Simple improvements to designs (Gr.2)
Using ideas from nature in building and creating (Gr.2-3)
Different purposed of designs (Gr.3)
Natural systems as design inspiration (Gr.3)

Curricular Competencies

Communicate and share designs using pictures, words, or simple models (Gr.1-3)
Identify needs and opportunities for designing (Gr.1-2)
Generate ideas from play and exploration (Gr.1)
Test and compare ideas with simple criteria (Gr.2)
Reflect and refine based on feedback or new learning (Gr.2-3)
Generate multiple ideas from land (Gr.3)
Use criteria to test whether an idea is helpful (Gr.3)

Science 1-3

Big Idea

Living things have features that help them survive (Gr.1)
Materials have properties that can be changed (Gr.2)
Indigenous peoples have deep knowledge of ecosystems gained through careful observation (Gr.3)

Content

Behavioural adaptations of living things (Gr.1)
How living things help the land (Gr.1)
Natural materials and their use (Gr.2)
Indigenous relationships with the land based on long-term observation (Gr.2-3)
Natural structures with specific functions

Curricular Competencies

Questioning and Predicting

Ask questions about the world around them (Gr.1)
Ask questions about patterns n nature (Gr.2)
Predict how natural features help living things survive (Gr.2)
Predict how changes in land affect living things (Gr.3)

Planning and Conducting

Observe and record relationships in nature (Gr.1-3)

Processing and Analyzing Data and Information

Interpret things in nature (Gr.1)
Make inferences about purpose/function of natural structures (Gr.3)

Applying and Innovating

Apply learning of living things to ideas connected to everyday (Gr.1-3)

Communicating

Communicate ideas using drawings, simple sentences, or models (Gr.1-3)

Assessments

In this activity, opportunities for assessment, in the form of ongoing guidance and feedback, are integrated throughout the instructional practices. These include:

Using learners’ initial and revised ideas to notice growth in understanding
Listening for how learners use image clues and criteria to explain their thinking
Noticing how learners use the criteria to judge which land ideas are most helpful
Using learners’ activity sheets to support feedback on clear communication through words and pictures
Observing how learners share, revise, and extend ideas in discussion

Teaching Notes

These teaching notes contain more guidance on:

Using the criteria with K–2 learners
Supporting connection to innovation
Supporting evidence-based talk
Indigenous perspectives: learning from the land
Clean energy connections

Using the criteria with K–2 learners

Use the criteria as simple “helping lenses” to guide observation and discussion. Encourage learners to connect their ideas to what they see in the image and to explain their thinking with simple evidence.

Supporting connection to innovation

The examples below are not intended as “correct answers.” They show possible ways learners may connect ideas from the land to helpful innovations. Encourage learners to connect their design ideas back to specific features they noticed in the image and to explain and justify their ideas using the criteria and evidence from images.

Woodpecker

Design directions: Protect • Cushion • Strengthen • Absorb bumps
Examples: helmets, knee pads, padded seats, safer playground surfaces

Spider Web

Design directions: Catch • Hold • Connect • Stretch
Examples: nets, safety mesh, flexible barriers

Cactus

Design directions: Save water • Protect • Stay cool • Stay safe
Examples: water bottles, shade tents, protective covers

Beaver Dam

Design directions: Slow • Control • Block • Guide water
Examples: flood barriers, water channels, small bridges

Bird’s Nest

Design directions: Shelter • Insulate • Protect • Carry
Examples: insulated homes, backpacks, safe sleeping spaces

Ant Mound

Design directions: Share space • Connect • Support • Work together
Examples: tunnels, group shelters, shared play spaces

Sunflower

Design directions: Follow light • Warm • Power • Grow
Examples: solar panels, bright windows, sun shelters

Moss / Ground Cover

Design directions: Cover • Protect • Soften • Hold moisture
Examples: garden mats, playground surfaces, erosion covers

River / Waterfall

Design directions: Move • Carry • Clean • Power

Examples: fountains, water wheels, transport channels

Tree Roots

Design directions: Anchor • Support • Stabilize • Hold firm
Examples: fence posts, foundations, anchors

Bee Hive / Honeycomb

Design directions: Store • Organize • Save space • Share
Examples: lunch containers, storage boxes, shelf systems

Supporting evidence-based talk

K–2 learners can give evidence when the language is simple, repeated, and modeled. Encourage talk such as:

“I think this is helpful because…”
“I know because I see…”
“This helps because…”

Invite learners to use clues from what they see, hear, or feel. Accept pointing, gestures, and partial phrases as valid forms of evidence, especially for emerging speakers and writers.

Use addition question prompts to guide thinking where helpful, for example:

Which part of this picture connects to one of the criteria?
How could this idea help someone design something easier or safer?
How could it help people or help care for the land?
What do you see that shows this?

Indigenous perspectives: learning from the land

Many Indigenous people view the land as first teacher and learn through close, respectful attention to relationships among all parts of the land. Many view land, water, plants, animals, and other elements as living and deserving of care and respect.

Keep this framing present-day and respectful, without suggesting that one Nation, story, or teaching represents all Indigenous Peoples.

Teachers are not expected to teach specific Indigenous knowledge. The focus is on shared values such as learning through observation, respect for relationships, and caring for land and community.

Clean energy connections (optional, keep concrete)

Keep energy ideas simple, practical, and connected to learners’ experiences. Focus on felt examples such as:

Shade can keep places cooler
Shelter can block wind and help places stay warmer
Sunlight can warm spaces and help plants grow

Use everyday examples, such as feeling cooler under a tree or warmer inside a building, to help learners understand how thoughtful design supports wise energy use.

Avoid technical language. The goal is to help learners see how land-based ideas connect to comfort, energy use, and care for places.

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