As a provocation, for the interdisciplinary unit, the animated Disney film titled, Wall-E (2008) and articles such as, Burgess (2016) on Hawking: Space colonies won't exist for at least 100 years, and BBC (2012) on Twenty top predictions for life 100 years from now, are catalyzed with discussions. The discussions will consider the topic of sustainability on Earth, the ways humans contribute to our planet's destruction, and how life might be different in 100 years. When considering how to design this learning task to be an authentic and engaging inquiry quest for students, we thought the above resources would be a great hook for the following reasons based on Friesen et al. (2015):
they give a strong sense of how this topic connects to the world outside of their classroom walls;
they provide an idea of why this topic is worth studying, since our interest in this unit is a direct mirror of how students will be just as interested;
they build natural curiosity and cultivate an attitude of wonder, as they are based on real world issues, problems and/or ideas;
they encourage complex thinking, which allows the students to actively explore their world;
and they provide the opportunity for students to intellectually engage (Jacobsen, Lock and Friesen, 2013), that is absorbing, creatively energized focus resulting in a deep personal commitment to exploration, investigation, problem-solving and inquiry essential to ensuring a rich learner experience.