Science: The first iteration
Core Design
What: In this lesson we will help students develop and use models, understand cause and effect relationships, and observe ecosystems through the creation of an aquarium.
How: We are interested in how guiding questions and discussion can lead students to construct their own knowledge, as well as how to best differentiate instruction in a group setting. With these interests in mind, we plan on accessing students’ prior knowledge by asking open ended questions and having students teach each other concepts (Zone of Proximal Development). Last week we learned that within our small group, students demonstrated various levels of assertiveness and content knowledge of models and the materials we used to build the terrarium. It is our hope that by using our “one mic” rule and by giving each student an opportunity to physically contribute to the creation of the aquarium, we will maintain whole-group engagement.
Why: We hope that students walk away from this lesson understanding the significance of using models in scientific practice. We also want to ensure that students are able to learn about the scientific ideas mentioned in the “What” by physically creating a model that they can continue to observe and learn from after the lesson is over. This lesson activates a few of Gardner's multiple intelligences, including kinesthetic intelligence and spatial intelligence. As a team, we firmly believe that students learn best doing rather than hearing, and not just doing, but doing authentic exercises.
Goal(s):
K-12 Framework:
Classroom Arrangement and Management Issues:
Students will be seated around a “table” made of desks. There will be four students and three teachers. The classroom will likely be noisy and full of people, so we plan on using a “one mic” rule that will allow one person to speak at a time. We noticed that two students dominated the conversation last week, so we plan on monitoring how often students are speaking in order to maintain a balanced conversation.
Plan:
Hook (7-9 minutes):
Assessment:
Students will be assessed in a variety of ways. First, they will be assessed informally during the lesson by means of the students' responses to our discussion questions. Additionally, the students will be filling out graphic organizers about their observations. Though there are other ways to assess the students knowledge, those will be best implemented after an extended period of observation, making them more suitable for the classroom teacher than for us.
Anticipating Student Responses:
Accommodations:
In our lesson last week, we noticed that some of the students came into the project with different levels of prior knowledge and conversational assertiveness. After last week's lesson, the relevant prior knowledge should be more similar between the students. To facilitate equal access to the conversation, we will use a microphone that is necessary to talk. Though our preference is that the students pass the microphone back and forth, if the microphone gets "stuck," we will make sure that it gets to more quiet students. This will involve us paying close attention to the conversational dynamics of the group.
What: In this lesson we will help students develop and use models, understand cause and effect relationships, and observe ecosystems through the creation of an aquarium.
How: We are interested in how guiding questions and discussion can lead students to construct their own knowledge, as well as how to best differentiate instruction in a group setting. With these interests in mind, we plan on accessing students’ prior knowledge by asking open ended questions and having students teach each other concepts (Zone of Proximal Development). Last week we learned that within our small group, students demonstrated various levels of assertiveness and content knowledge of models and the materials we used to build the terrarium. It is our hope that by using our “one mic” rule and by giving each student an opportunity to physically contribute to the creation of the aquarium, we will maintain whole-group engagement.
Why: We hope that students walk away from this lesson understanding the significance of using models in scientific practice. We also want to ensure that students are able to learn about the scientific ideas mentioned in the “What” by physically creating a model that they can continue to observe and learn from after the lesson is over. This lesson activates a few of Gardner's multiple intelligences, including kinesthetic intelligence and spatial intelligence. As a team, we firmly believe that students learn best doing rather than hearing, and not just doing, but doing authentic exercises.
Goal(s):
- Students will develop an understanding of the world around them (cause and effect, energy within systems, life cycles of organisms, symbiosis, etc.) through the creation and use of a model.
- Students will develop and practice observation skills through the close observation of the model.
K-12 Framework:
- Scientific and Engineering Practices: Developing and using models
Our lesson is related to developing and using models because students work together to build a miniature terrarium and aquarium system. This model that the students will build and sustain serves to represent a larger ecosystem. - Crosscutting Concepts: Cause and Effect
Students will observe the relationships within their terrarium/ aquarium system. They will observe and analyze how different actions create or change certain outcomes. - Disciplinary Core Ideas: Life Sciences: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems
By closing the system, students will observe how matter and energy are conserved and transferred within their model.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.1.C: Pose and respond to specific questions by making comments that contribute to the discussion and elaborate on the remarks of others.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.1.D: Review the key ideas expressed and draw conclusions in light of information and knowledge gained from the discussions.
- Terrarium (created previous week)
- Plastic Bottle with hole cut in top
- Distilled Water
- Clear Duct Tape to seal the system
- Snails
- Beetles/Pill Bugs
- Crickets
- Fish
- Paper towels
- Plastic cup
- 1 or 2 sprigs of elodea
- 10 to 15 duckweed plants
- 3 dropperfuls of algae
- Gravel for bottom of Aquarium
- Observation Worksheets
Classroom Arrangement and Management Issues:
Students will be seated around a “table” made of desks. There will be four students and three teachers. The classroom will likely be noisy and full of people, so we plan on using a “one mic” rule that will allow one person to speak at a time. We noticed that two students dominated the conversation last week, so we plan on monitoring how often students are speaking in order to maintain a balanced conversation.
Plan:
Hook (7-9 minutes):
- Revisiting and reviewing last weeks’ activity of assembling terrarium (“Can anyone tell me one thing they remember from last week?”). 1-2 minutes.
- Discussion of changes in terrarium since last class (one observation and one suggestion from each student: “What is one thing you have observed in your terrarium in the last week?” and “What is one thing you might change to make the terrarium even better?”). 3-4 mins.
- Review discussion norms, including “1 mic” rule, sharing of responsibilities, and others students may suggest. 1-2 mins.
- Introduce aquarium. 1-2 mins.
- Allow each student to hold the aquarium. 1 minute.
- One student gets and places 1 cupful of gravel in bottom of aquarium. 1-2 minutes.
- A different student uses the gravel cup to add water to the aquarium until it is approximately 3 to 4 cm from the top. Teacher will instruct student to be careful of not adding too much for fear of overflow when parts are joined. 2-3 minutes.
- Ask each student to observe how many cupfuls of water were added. Have one student mark in marker on the bottle a “water line” (“Why might we be marking a water line?” and “Do you think the water line will change? Why or why not?”). 1 minute.
- Get out wet paper towel. 1 minute.
- Elodea. 5-6 minutes.
- Have one student retrieve 2 sprigs of elodea and place them on a wet paper towel.
- Have one student measure the plants and record their size (“How do we measure plants?,” “What is the best tool?,” and “What are the best units?”).
- Have one student place the plants carefully into the aquarium and plant them in the gravel, allowing them to float freely.
- Duckweed. 5-6 minutes.
- Have one student retrieve duckweed plants.
- Observe the duckweed plants (they will be very small). Ask students how we might measure them, since they are so small. If no student suggests it, suggest estimation (“How might we estimate 10 to 15 plants?”).
- Give a student a spoon. Student will use spoon to scoop estimated 10-15 duckweed plants onto wet paper towel.
- Another student will place the plants carefully into the aquarium.
- Have each student observe the duckweed plants and count them (“How many duckweed plants are in the aquarium?” and “How come you can count them now?”).
- Algae 5-6 minutes.
- Have one student retrieve algae, placing 3 dropperfuls into cup.
- Observe algae in cup (“Can you see the algae?,” “What do you know about this algae?,” “What do you think the algae will do?,” and “How might they change?”).
- Have one student carefully place algae in aquarium.
- Teachers will place the animals in, demonstrating how to handle living things carefully. 2 minutes.
- Teachers will assemble terrarium on top of aquarium. 1 minute.
- Each student draws system as they see it, using careful observation (“How are the aquarium and terrarium related?,” “How do you think the model might change over time?,” “What do you still need to do to sustain this system? Anything at all?”).
Assessment:
Students will be assessed in a variety of ways. First, they will be assessed informally during the lesson by means of the students' responses to our discussion questions. Additionally, the students will be filling out graphic organizers about their observations. Though there are other ways to assess the students knowledge, those will be best implemented after an extended period of observation, making them more suitable for the classroom teacher than for us.
Anticipating Student Responses:
- During our “Hook” we expect at least one student to suggest adding the aquarium portion the the terrarium we built last week.
- We plan on handling all of the insects in order to prevent students from causing accidental harm to the creatures. Last week one of our students who was holding the seeds accidentally spilled them, so we would like to prevent a similar situation with the insects.
- One student in our group demonstrated a considerable amount of background knowledge on the materials we used in our terrarium. In the case that she is very familiar with materials we will use in the aquarium, we will have her explain what she knows to her fellow students (using the Zone of Proximal Development).
Accommodations:
In our lesson last week, we noticed that some of the students came into the project with different levels of prior knowledge and conversational assertiveness. After last week's lesson, the relevant prior knowledge should be more similar between the students. To facilitate equal access to the conversation, we will use a microphone that is necessary to talk. Though our preference is that the students pass the microphone back and forth, if the microphone gets "stuck," we will make sure that it gets to more quiet students. This will involve us paying close attention to the conversational dynamics of the group.
ReasoningWhile we did not receive feedback on our lesson before we taught it, each of our choices was based in thinking about how to elicit student input, predictions, and prior knowledge in the construction of our model. We thought about letting students have "hands on" experience making their aquarium, and we wanted to make sure the students had opportunities to ask questions and think about why each element went into their aquarium and what role it would serve in the system overall, given its eventual connection to the terrarium we had already made together. Knowing that we would not be in the class again, we hoped to leave the students with a system they could tend and monitor themselves as well as something that would help them think about the world around them.
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