Ecosystems: Interactive Interconnections - Sue White Key Concepts:
Ecosystems
This lesson was developed to support an ecosystems unit and integrates science, communication, writing, listening, and problem solving.
Essential Academic Learning Requirements Connected to Lesson:from Washington State Commission on Student Learning Technical Manual
SCIENCE: 1.3 understand how interactions within and among systems cause changes in matter and energy
Interdependence of life: explain how organisms interact with their environment and with other organisms to acquire energy, cycle matter, influence behavior, and establish competitive or mutually beneficial relationships
Environmental and resource issues: explain how human societies’ use of natural resources affects quality of life and the health of ecosystems
Pre-Assessment:
This lesson follows an ecosystem preassessment which involved the students analyzing a wetlands picture and answering prompts to assess their prior knowledge of ecosystem concepts. The students have also read some text introducing these concepts. This lesson is an attempt to make these concepts more tangible to a diversity of learning styles. It is also an attempt to instill some ownership in the learning about ecosystems.
Developmentally Appropriate/Grade Level
This lesson is developed for a fifth/sixth grade at Mill Pond Intermediate in Yelm. One way to adapt this to a variety of learners is to organize the animals cards into more difficult and less difficult and distribute them according to abilities and exposure to these concepts without the students knowing this is happening. This lesson complements the reading by providing a tangible way to explore abstract ideas.
Instructional Resources:
Materials:
Teaching Procedures:
INTRODUCTION: (approximately five minutes)
Assessment Procedures:
Reflecting on how well the students seemed to understand these concepts will help determine what to do next in this unit. Also, by asking the students to write in their journals will give them a chance to reflect as well. It may be important to reflect as a group on how well folks were managing themselves outside in a somewhat unstructured activity.
Extensions: