Exploring Our Fluid Earth

Does anyone have ideas for an on-campus follow-up activity the students can do to collect real data and apply what they've learned in this simulation activity? I don't feel like I'll be able to organize a full-on field trip at this point in the year, but I would like for this activity to have meaning for the students. If I tell them that they are learning and practicing these skills in the simulation so that they can apply it in a real situation, I think it will be more motivating and interesting for the students. However, the follow-up activity will need to be an on-campus activity.

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This is a perfect activity to teach sampling methods. I especially liked the opportunity it gave them to change their hypothesis as data was collected. Next time I will think of ways to make it more of a science connection to what we're studying. For example giving marine names to the different colors of candies would give my students an environmental connection that they would not think of on their own.

This is a great activity for teaching sampling methods in the classroom. My goal is to extend it into the field. I think it would have gone a little smoother for me if I had given a little more instruction on sampling methods before having students "invent" their sampling strategies. I wasn't able to complete the quadrat percent method with my students. They quickly lost interest, especially when their transect covered only substrate. This activity was challenging with the number of students, student groups and the size of the study area.

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Squid lesson plan.

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My students loved this activity - naming the organisms (although it took too long), placing the transects, collecting and recording the data. It generated some of the deepest conversations we had this year. Yay!

We prepped this Activity over 2 class periods by reading the website explanations and examples. Then we set-up our "mock reef" in the classroom just like the one in the TSI workshop. We used three patterned sheets, 18 shoe boxes and all of the blue tickets, orange 1/2 cards, pink index cards, and green popsicle sticks that TSI provided for "organisms". We used the transects, quadrats, % coverage and all the data sheets. Each Table Group had 4 students, who each participated in the Sampling Activity by having a chosen role.

I have done this lesson before but I liked the added aspect of taking a small sample (individual) and comparing it to the larger sample (class sample). It made the students really stop and think what their sample really meant and to compare it to the big sample (class) and the population as a whole (entire bag) and even the whole world (M&Ms factory percentages)

Here is the lesson and lab write-up for the Sampling for Abundance lesson.

So... here's my 2nd lesson plan. It's what I'm going to be doing my power point. It's a homebrew (obviously) and it's a bit different. But, it makes sense in my head. Basically, i'm using solar panels and sun tea to teach heat transfer and the seasons. The kids are going to do one of the 2 labs and then teach the other group.

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I know this was more mod 3. I wanted to use the TSI frame work to plan the dissection for the anatomy unit of Biology.

Here is what I did to model what we had in class. Still want to find blankets for this activity.

I just did this lesson, after doing the M&M sampling design activity which I thought was helpful because they could apply the knowledge gained to this activity. However, I don't think that they were as engaged. I set up a mock tide pool in my classroom, which isn't very big, so I think in the future I would try to do something out side with more space. Also this lesson look a very long time, I even had an extended period and used all the time possible. Any suggestions on how to reduce the amount of time and make it more engaging?

Lesson plan and pictures of students.

I used the Moon model lab as my choice activity to help my students review the phases of the moon before the HSAs.

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