Exploring Our Fluid Earth

Here's my micro-evolution lesson plan thing .

Also, since this IS a review. I loved this activity. I thought it was easy to understand (especially for me, and I'm not an expert in anything bio--living things are so messy). And, it was definitely easy to do. The potential for discussion and further extensions is phenomenal, and my kids were really engaged in the activity as well as discussing the outcomes of it. It was a great activity and I will definitely be doing it again next year.

I shared this activity with a 7th grade teacher at my school, and she fell in love with it. We're trying to do it this year--she's going to tackle the photosynthesis angle in 7th grade, I'm going to approach it from a wavelength perspective in 8th grade. We think it's OK to do the same lab in different grades because we're approaching it from different perspectives. BUT! i was wondering if anyone's done this lab in 8th grade, and what results they got.

Attached is my plan for the microevolution activity. One modification I made was for an extension activity about the evolution of peppered moths during England's Industrial Revolution.

e.g. I am wondering how to...

I used this lesson with my 9th grade Marine Science students. We had a great discussion about opinions, hypotheses, and modes, which took two class periods including the introduction, group work during class plus homework on the first day and group presentations on the second day. I will definitely do this lesson again next year, but at the beginning of the year.

e.g. I am wondering how to...

e.g. I am wondering how to...

As a modification for the Scientific Language activity, I turned Table 1.2 (the table in which students read a statement and determine whether it is an opinion, hypothesis, or theory) into a gallery walk. I did this by writing out each statement on large poster paper, making sure to leave plenty of room for student responses, and distributing them throughout the room. I had students rotate from station to station in groups of 4 and had every individual student carry a writing utensil.

2 questions:

1) Did anyone do a variety of fish species, or did you keep it to only a few?

2) For those on Kauai, if you did more than just what can be found @Times, where did you get your fish?

I had to reteach phenotype and genotype (online there is a great website with powerpoint slides using Harry Potter). Students had to also review types of bacteria.

I also went over some misconceptions about bacteria - e.g. if you are sick and the doctore prescibes some antibiotics, all the bacteria will die.

Students loved the activity. All my classes got the chance to do the activity. What a blast for students and me! I enjoy watching my students learn and work independently and cooperatively.

The students had fun and, at least, learning how to solve their own problems, follow directions, work independently, and learn from/teach each other. Wow!

Next time, I will use different types of fishes and spend time identifying the species and parts of the fish they choose.

I did not keep some fishes from the PD workshop. I bought frozen 'rabbit' fish from Pacific Market. I shall start investing in purchasing different types of fishes.

The main thing students are learning and having fun at the same time!

I decided to do a lecture for this activity with powerpoint slides. It took longer than I planned.
Next time, I will plan cooperative learning activities with the lecture.

Here is my lesson plan! I uploaded the PPT instead last week.

Here is my lesson plan on Scientific Language.

This was done as a fun (but educational) activity because it is not a good fit in my curriculum-physical science. Students had an unclear idea of what a fish is so we were able to clairfy and focus their ideas. I combined drawing a fish with the fish print and then a brief lecture on natural selection. This is a very engaging activity and students were proud of thier fish prints.

In order to make this a little bit more visual and interactive I had my students underline, circle, box and highlight (2 colors) the scientific language used in the reading passage. I think this helped them identify the facts, opinions, theories, laws and hypotheses in the article.

I would have liked to have some examples to share with students about science and non-science questions in their life. I had to come up with some ideas to spark their question development and they weren't very insightful. I was a little nervous about the supernatural explanations and giving examples that might be going a little too far with their belief systems. I felt kind of "safe" with Madam Pele and the volcano, but still felt like I was walking on eggshells.

I may alter my plan a little now that I've seen Lisa's powerpoint! Also, does anybody have a great idea for an unusual object??

Someone requested that I post the PowerPoint I made for the Scenarios activity. Hope this can help you teach the activity.

Attached is my lesson plan for presenting the modes of inquiry to my students. I also included the PowerPoint presentation I used to present each "practice" when it came up or was utilized in the scenario. The slides list each mode as well as give a student-friendly definition of the mode and provide an illustrative/representative picture of the mode.