Life Cycles Unit Plan

Unit Author John Bunker bunkerjohn73@gmail.com Unit Overview Unit Title: The Cycle of Life Unit Summary: This unit will develop students’ understanding of the life cycle concept by raising classroom organisms and investigating their needs and behaviors. Students are developing beliefs regarding plants, animals, growth, and the continuity of life, and it is vital for them to be based upon fact. By understanding the uniqueness of life cycle stages, students will be better able to appreciate the diversity of all living things. This also supports the school improvement plan by teaching cooperative learning skills. Life cycles is the final of three major units within the scope and sequence for Jefferson County School District (the previous two being electrical systems and objects in the sky). This unit is also meant to cross the curriculum to a unit on expository writing. Subject Area: Science Grade Level: 3rd Approx. time needed: 4 weeks Unit Foundation Needs Assessment Throughout this Life Cycle unit, experimental inquiry is critical to the students’ learning. By creating lessons that are highly engaging and hands on for the students, they are able to hypothesize regarding life cycles, making predictions as to what they believe life stages to be and look like. It allows them to develop their own ideas for testing these theories and to conduct the actual experiments to see the results. As these experiments are conducted, the students will be continually testing their theories and recording their observations using technology. Students are able to see first hand how life cycle stages of various plants and animals progress prior to teacher directed instruction which will provide the students with correct terminology and clarification of their observations and transfer of this knowledge. Framework model This unit follows a constructivist 5E model: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. With this model, the learning experiences are

sequenced for students to construct understanding of concepts. Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design, Backward Design model has also been followed, with direct alignment of learning objectives, assessment determination, and then instructional development. Marzano's 9 instructional strategies are also utilized throughout the unit. Please refer to “Instructional Design Notes” on each specific lesson for further details regarding the design of each individual lesson within the overall unit. Targeted content standards/benchmarks:

Colorado Model Content Standards and Benchmarks

Science Standard 3: Life Science: Students know and understand the characteristics of living things, the processes of life, and how living things interact with each other and their environment.

3.1: Students know and understand the characteristics of living things, appreciate the importance of the diversity of life, and begin to recognize the infinite number of ways that living things can interact with each other and with their environment.

B. Identify and classify a variety of animals and plants according to student-selected or teacher-selected characteristics.

Student Friendly: Describe what makes different plants and animals similar and different.

D. Describe the basic needs of animals (water, food, shelter, and air) and plants (water, light, air, and nutrients).

Student Friendly: Tell what plants and animals need to survive.

3.4: Students know and understand how organisms change over time in terms of biological evolution and genetics.

Student Friendly: Understand that plants and animals go through changes as they grow older.

Science Standard 1: Students understand the processes of scientific investigation and design, conduct, communicate about, and evaluate such

investigations.

1.2: Students will communicate observations, experimental methods, understandings, and results in a variety of ways.

Student Friendly: Describe what you discover, how you discover it, and what it means. Student objectives / learning outcomes: When given pictures of a plant, an insect, and some other type of animal, students will be able to develop posters and explain, either verbally or through writing, the prior life stages of the organism scoring a minimum of proficient according to the rubric.c. Curriculum Framing Questions Essential Question:

• How do living organisms change over time? Unit Questions:

• How do caterpillars, mealworms, and seeds change as they grow older?

• What is a life cycle? Content Questions:

• What are the differences and similarities between seeds and eggs? • How are insects similar? • What life stages do animals and plants go through?

Student Assessment Plan

Learner Outcome:

When given a picture of a plant or animal, students will be able to develop a Movie Maker movie to explain the life cycle stages of the organism scoring a minimum of proficient according to the rubric.

Assessment Formats and Methods:

Pre-Assessment including a Google Form Quiz and a visual “What Came Before?” poster. Rubric.

Post Assessment will be a capstone Movie Maker movie with embedded narration in addition to short test taken using Google Forms. Rubric.

Formative Assessments will be through Google forms, student

blogs, and anecdotal notes taken throughout the unit.

Peer Feedback

• Students will be able to comment on each others' blogs. • The students will also be working in lab groups which will be

encouraged to provide continual internal feedback. • Students will complete evaluation forms at the completion of the unit

for peer feedback.

Unit Details Prerequisite Skills

• Student should be familiar with classroom lab procedures including handling of scientific equipment.

• Students should have basic computer knowledge including how to find files, save images from the internet, and complete basic forms.

• Students should have basic knowledge of Power Point including inserting pictures, drawing tools, and text insertion.

• Prior to this lesson, students will be taught a lesson on blog creation. Instructional Procedures Some lessons will be conducted simultaneously because of time necessity. For example: The Mealworm investigation will be running concurrently with the Caterpillar investigation. Accommodations for Differentiated Instruction ILP student: Vocabulary and higher level words will be linked to definitions or explanations. Multimedia, hands-on, and differentiated assessments will assist the instructor. ELL: Hands-on investigation and multimedia. Gifted Student ALP: This unit will have many opportunities for students to take learnings to another level. More advanced students will be expected to produce more "polished" projects. Unit Teaser: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Materials and Resources Required for Unit Technology Hardware (check all needed equipment)

X Camera X Internet connection _Interactive Whiteboard _Clickers _Netbooks _Digital Camcorder X Computers X Projector _Video Conferencing

_Connections cables equipment

_Document cameras _Printer X Scanner

_ Other _______________

_DVD Player _PDA: iphone/touch, cell phones, digital readers, tablets

Technology - Software, Webware: • Movie Maker • Power Point • Kidspiration • Google Site for Unit • Misc. audio/video

Printed Materials • Heller, R. (1981). Chickens Aren't the Only Ones. New York: Grosset &

Dunlap. Supplies

• Brine shrimp eggs (I vial) • Bucket (for soil) • Cups, 10oz plastic (10) • Darkling Beetle Assortment Culture (2) • Film Canister (20) • Hand Lenses (class set) • Jars, small baby food sized (20) • Measuring cup, 1 cup capacity • Microscopes, 2 way (2) • Milk cartons, half pint size • Newspapers • Notebooks (class set) • Oatmeal or bran flakes • Painted Lady Butterfly Garden Kit (33 caterpillars) • Paper, drawing • Paper Towels • Pencils • Plastic jugs, 1 gallon size • Plastic wrap • Posterboard (can substitute large sheets of butcher paper) • Potting Soil, 10lb bag • Rubber bands (10) • Ruler, 30cm • Scissors (10) • Scoop (for soil)

• Sea Salt (brine shrimp hatching mix) • Spoon, plastic (10) • Sugar (in packets) (3) • Sweet pea seeds (60) • Water supply • Yeast (1 pkg)

Internet Resources All internet resources may be found through the unit website: http://sites.google.com/site/lifecycleunit/ ? Unit self assessment / and or Peer assessment Students will complete self and peer evaluations to complete at the end of the unit.

Narrative

Background/Rationale

While I am not currently connected with a class or school, I have decided to integrate technology with Jeffco's 3rd grade science unit, Life Cycles. This was a unit I taught when student teaching, and I see an importance for technology integration with district mandated units and hands--on investigations. As I plan to re-enter elementary education, I believe this unit would prove a good example of how I could incorporate technology into the everyday curriculum. With the critical importance of investigations for student learning, I could easily adapt these specific investigations to others I might conduct with students in the future.

Assumptions

Because this unit is being created for a hypothetical classroom, my unit focuses on the classroom technology environment I have seen most commonly in schools. It is also critical to plan for differentiated instruction, and I wanted to create a plan that focused on diversity, thinking of some specific students needs I have had in the past. These assumptions are meant only to provide a basis to follow.

• Mobile computer labs are available, but may need to be scheduled in advanced

• Classroom has four permanent computers (may be desktops or laptops)

• 24 students (12 boys and 12 girls)

• 2 students on IEP’s • 1 Gifted and Talented student • 5 English Language Learners • Students have previously had an introduction to technology and are

familiar with basic functions within Microsoft Office.

Unit Summary

This unit will develop students’ understanding of the life cycle concept by raising classroom organisms and investigating their needs and behaviors. Students are developing beliefs regarding plants, animals, growth, and the continuity of life, and it is vital for them to be based upon fact. By understanding the uniqueness of life cycle stages, students will be better able to appreciate the diversity of all living things. This also supports the school improvement plan by teaching cooperative learning skills. Life cycles is the final of three major units within the scope and sequence for Jefferson County School District (the previous two being electrical systems and objects in the sky).

Technology Use and Design Notes

The use of technology throughout this unit has been purposefully orchestrated to provide a learning experience beyond the traditional classroom and to provide data driven results. This is done primarily through following the work of Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski and their book, “Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Hubbell et al, 2007).” By focusing on the use of Marzano’s 9 Strategies for classroom instruction, this unit uses technology in a way that enhances the learning process through covering the spectrum of Bloom’s Taxonomy to engage the learner in higher order thinking processes.

To begin with, this unit has been created with all resources on a Google site, found here: http://sites.google.com/site/lifecycleunit/. This site will serve as a content management system for the unit as well as provide a location for both formative and summative assessments through Google forms. It serves as a “one-stop shop” for everything in the unit ranging from teacher lesson plans, student materials, and assessments. It will also host multimedia for students, links to student blogs, and important announcements. By having one location, students always know where to find the resource they need and may be more inclined to further investigate the unit while at home or other location with internet access.

The benefits of the website extend to the instructor of the unit by allowing the flexibility for student pacing, setting of personal objectives, and providing differentiation for students at all levels. Videos are embedded within the site to assist English language learners, students with reading deficiencies, and students with developmental disabilities.

Students will also set up personal blogs to record key observations and reflections. This blog space has been set up using Kidblog.org and can be found here: http://kidblog.org/MrBunkersClass/. This blog will also be linked directly to the unit website for easy access by students. By utilizing blogs, students are able to record and reflect upon their daily observations. They are able to insert pictures to compliment their written descriptions which allows for non-linguistic representation, one of Marzano’s strategies. Throughout their reflection process, students will be asked to identify similarities and differences which has been shown by Marzano’s research to have the largest effect size on student achievement (Marzano, 2004). The blogging forum is also ideal for providing students with recognition and immediate feedback, also proven strategies.

The overall unit structure of the unit follows a constructivist “5Es” Instructional Model: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. By following this model, learning experiences are sequenced so students can construct an understanding of the concepts, not simply recite and memorize information (Investigating Life Cycles Teachers Edition Level 3, 1999).

Throughout this Life Cycle unit, experimental inquiry is critical to the students’ learning. By creating lessons that are highly engaging and hands on for the students, they are able to hypothesize regarding life cycles, making predictions as to what they believe life stages to be and look like. It allows them to develop their own ideas for testing these theories and to conduct the actual experiments to see the results. As these experiments are conducted, the students will be continually testing their theories and recording their observations using technology. Students are able to see first hand how life cycle stages of various plants and animals progress prior to teacher directed instruction which will provide the students with correct terminology and clarification of their observations and transfer of this knowledge.

Taking this model and applying Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design backwards design principles, I focused on key learning objectives and specific benchmarks within the Colorado State Education Standards and developed directly aligned assessment. While this unit also meets several, if not all, NETS standards, the primary focus was to use technology as a tool to enhance the state learning objectives, not on the technology itself.

Another key component to this unit is cooperative learning. Again a research based strategy; students’ interacting with others helps students broaden their knowledge and understanding (Hubbell et al, 2007). Within today’s fast paced world, students must learn to work together to learn and produce. In working together to design Power Point presentations and movies in Movie Maker, students are required to take on specific roles and responsibilities and organize collaboratively.

Throughout the unit, students will utilize the brainstorming and organizing software, Kidspiration. Using this software, students are able to create a non-linguistic representation of the scientific process and life cycles of plants and animals.

References • Hubbell, E.R., Kuhn, M., & Pitler, H. (2007). Using Technology with

Classroom Instruction That Works [USING TECHNOLOGY W/CLASSRO]. Alexandria: Ascd.

• Investigating Life Cycles Teachers Edition Level 3 (BSCS Science T.R,A.C.S.). (1999). na: Kendall / Hunt Publishing Co..

• Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D. J., & Pollock, J. E. (2004).Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement (ASCD). Alexandria, VA: Prentice Hall.

• Mctighe, J., & Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by Design (2nd Edition) (ASCD) (2 ed.). Alexandria, VA: Prentice Hall.