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Biology Form 3
First lesson: “Characteristics of Living Things”.
Time: 90 minutes
Aim: The students should be able to give reasons why things are classified as living
and non-living.
2. The students should be able to mention the 7 vital functions.
3. They should be able to give the definition of them.
4. They should be able to give examples.
Plan how you will
arrange the room
and the resources
needed
Plan how you will
introduce the
questioning
session
Plan how you will
establish the
ground rules:
Plan the fist
question that you
1. I start explaining the aims of this lesson in the lab.
Students sit where they want – preferably on the first
bench to be closer to me.
2. Then we walk out to the garden where they can sit on the
benches there. (change the environment of the lab helps
them to think better as we are no longer in the same
environment where most of the lessons occur)
3. Then we enter in the lab and students sit in groups at 4
ends of 2 benches.
4. At the end of the lesson they will come back on the front
bench for the conclusion.
Resources: power point presentation; classwork handouts;
note handout; homework handout; envelops with problems;
pictures of life cycle of frog; kangaroo with joey in pouch;
butterfly complete metamorphosis and grasshopper incomplete
metamorphosis.
1. I will be using the 5E model: Engage, Explore,
Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate. So I will introduce the
questioning session when we arrive on the benches in
the garden.
Here the benches take 3 students each. So the students will
deceide where they want to sit (most probable near their
friends).
Q1: (Engage) In groups of 3 look around you and on the paper
write down a list of 6 living things that you see around us and 6
non-living things. I want to hear you discuss together and
describe the criteria you use to deceide if the thing is living or
non-living.
1. Students sit where they want. The reason is that they
will automatically chose to sit near the students with
whom they have good relationships and with whom they
can talk and discuss without reservations or shyness.
No one puts up her hand to answer as I will be asking everyone
what they discussed in their reflection time.
In groups of 3 look around you and on the paper write down a
list of 6 living things that you see around us and 6 non-living
Josephine Ebejer Grech B.Ed. (Hons.) Biology
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will use
Plan how you will
give thinking time
Plan how and
when you will
intervene
things. I want to hear you discuss together and describe the
criteria you use to deceide if the thing is living or non-living.
All of you will speak. Every student in each group will give me
2 items you write and explain to us the criteria that you decided
on. So your answers need to be not short ones – a few sentences
long. (5 minutes for writing down the list and 15 minutes for
the answers).
5 minutes to discuss in groups;
15 minutes – approximately 1 minute for each student to tell us
her answer. I am keeping in mind that there will be repeated
answers that would take less time.
When a student replies, I will bounce answers to other students
in the same group to elaborate on the criteria they choose.
I will intervene with alternative questions when I hear a
misconception but I will not say wrong or right until they
themselves say the right answer by reasoning aloud together and
arriving at the right criteria. I must be careful as to see that
while one group is replying, the other groups are paying
attention.
Plan what
questions you
could use for the
plenary at the end
of the lesson
Planning: 1. After that the students arrive in class, I give them 1 minute to talk
freely about anything they want. Then I will ask them to focus only on the lesson.
After a short explanation – (describing the aims of this lesson – as shown above), I
ask them to take a paper and pen and walk outside. (1 minute)
After an activity outside, we will walk back into the lab.
Procedure:
Introduce the problem and give time for individuals to think. State clearly at the
beginning of the lesson that I will encourage them to reflect, think and reason.
They are encouraged to provide extended thoughtful answers without being
afraid of making mistakes. Reasoning means “Thinking Aloud”.
1. Take the students in the garden and sit down on the benches. Ask them to
look around them and list 6 living things and 6 non-living things. I am going
to make sure you have plenty of time to think. After 5 minutes ask them to
read out their lists.
2. Ask them to describe their criteria for deceiding why they are living or nonliving. (15 minutes for their answers and reasoning)
3. Back in class: Collect initial ideas on the board – write down the list of vital
functions that they had mentioned outside. (3 minutes)
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4. Ask them to stay in 4 groups at 4 ends of 2 front benches, and draw a concept
map of their knowledge of the vital functions. During this step the students
need to think and brainstorm their previous knowledge of vital functions.
5. After 5 minutes discuss. Make sure to listen to everyone (not one after the
other but at random as not to make it obvious whose turn it is). Don’t make
judgements or say right or wrong. Bounce answers to other students to
elaborate more on each point and bring out more and more ideas. Construct a
concept map together. Ask the students to write down their ideas on the
board. 10 minutes. Allow students time to engage with the problem.
When they ask questions, ask them a question that offers strategic
guidance rather than technical help. Ask: How are we going to review
progress so far?
6. Write down the definitions of the vital functions as on notes. This step of
writing is aimed at changing the format of the lesson i.e. not only listening and
discussing but writing too. 5 minutes
7. Explore. Distribute 4 envelops, one for each group, and ask to think for 5
more minutes. In the envelops there are the questions on page 3 of this
document.
8. A representative of each group comes out and describes to the others what
animal her group discussed and add to the concept map any points that were
previously left out. 10 minutes (2 minutes each group)
9. Elaborate: See the power point about vital functions (5 minutes) and work
out the problems on the last slide.
10. Evaluate: Classwork as to check if the aims of this lesson were achieved:
Classwork: Handout. To be worked in groups but every student fills in the answers.
(15 minutes)
Class correction of classwork: 10 minutes)
11. Handout of page 8 for homework.
Reflection abou this lesson:
1. It took me a long time to paln this lesson. I realised that I went into more
depth than I usually go and it is not possible to dedicate all this time to each
and every lesson that I do as I don’t have the time (20 lessons + 2 Primas + 2
Prize Day + volontary 2 eTwinning projects + Connecting Classrooms project
+ singing club during breaks). I end up doing much of the work and
corrections at home after the housework, errands, taking care of my 3 years
old son, and when my son and my husband sleep at night I go on my PC to
start working on school things”).
2. Another reflection is that after 12 years teaching most of the reasoning and
decisions I put down on paper, I usually do them mentally without writing
them down. This project is making me aware of some points that I usually
take for granted and I am making more effort to be aware to use the 5E model
during my lessons and use more critical thinking questions that require open
ended answers that need reflection. Many answers can lead to more quetions
that sometimes not even I as a teacher know the answer to them and I need to
do further research about them.
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Examples of questions:
For example when we were outside in the garden students asked amongst
themselves: Is the bench living? It is made up of wood. Wood comes from trees.
But the fact that the tree was cut to take its wood, and we don’t know for how
many years it has been here, does it make it a living or a non-living? Then when
they asked me, I replied: Think of what you as a living thing do to make you
classified as living and then think of the bench. Then they asked: But I eat and
drink and move and breathe and the plant is living but it doesn’t feed, drink,
moven and breathe. And I replied: Doesn’t it? Perhaps you need to think
deeper. And they kept talking amongst themselves: If the plant doesn’t feed it
dies. Yes, my mum says if she doesn’t water the plants they die, so they do drink,
and then someone else said: perhaps the plants eat from the soil. But they don’t
move. Another one said that the plant that her mother has in the kitchen always
grows towards the window and when her mother makes it look towards the table,
the day after she finds it looking again at the window, so the plants do move in a
way. Etc etc etc. . . . I think that not saying right or wrong, and bouncing back
their answers to themselves, helped them out to reflect deeper and think more.
Usually we tend to cut a long story short because we are pressed by time and we
give the answers to the students. But this extra reflection time can be saved form
repeating the lesson and revising before exams as when students come up with
their own conclusions after their own reflection, makes them remember more the
concepts you are trying to teach them.
The idea of constructing a concept map starting with the 7 words that they
discovered during the garden exercise and building it up as they think deeper was
a very good exercise as many more good ideas were coming out than I thought
they could.
I noticed more attention and more alertness when I was asking everyone (not by
turn). Students showed interest and developed their reasoning skills.
The exercise of the envelops made them think further about the vital functions e.g.
Movement: fish swims; bird flies; plant moves its flowers towards the sun; peron
runs or walks or dances; movement of food inside our gut; movement of our eyes
blinking; our heart pumping blood, our lungs inflating and deflating etc. . .
It was also a good exercise to understand that not all living things grow in the
same way e.g. complete metamorphosis of butterfly and incomplete
metamorphosis of grasshopper; life cycle of a frog as compared to the life cycle
of a human or kangarro.
Students kept asking:
So, miss, the caterpillar, and the pupa and the butterfly are the same organism?
And I answered: What do you think? And they kept reasoning aloud until they
concluded that they were the same organism growing in a different way.
Josephine Ebejer Grech B.Ed. (Hons.) Biology
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Note:
Characteristics of Living Things are those things that distinguish
between a living and a non living thing. They are also referred to as the
vital functions.
1.
Feeding (nutrition) – the process of taking in / synthesising food in
an organism.
2.
Respiration – is the process by which energy is produced from the
breakdown of food.
3.
_______________ – the process by which living organisms get
rid of waste products of metabolism and any excess water and
salts taken in with the diet.
4.
Reproduction – the way in which a species is perpetuated.
5.
________________ – an increase in size or mass or both in an
organism.
6.
Movement (locomotion) – when organisms move about or move part
of their body.
7.
_________________ – (sometimes called irritability) is the
ability of living organisms to respond to stimuli.
_______________– to take in good air and remove unwanted air from
an organism to the environment. This used to be considered as a vital
function, but not anymore since even non-living things exchange air.
References: Please Read the following pages from the following books: Biology
for Life – Roberts pg. 6-8
GCSE Biology – Mackean pg.292 summary
Pg 293 – 323 further notes.
Josephine Ebejer Grech B.Ed. (Hons.) Biology
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Classwork:
1. How do plants feed? __________________________________
2. How do animals feed? _________________________________
3. What are carnivores? _________________________________
4. What are herbivores? _________________________________
5. What are omnivores? __________________________________
6. What are parasites? ___________________________________
7. What are saprotrophs? __________________________________
8. What are scavengers? ___________________________________
1. Aerobic respiration is the release of energy from breaking down
food using ____________.
2. Anaerobic respiration is the release of energy from breaking down
food without using ________________.
1. What do plants excrete? _______________________________
2. What do animals excrete? ______________________________
1. Asexual reproduction means _______________________________
2. Sexual reproduction means ________________________________
3. Internal fertilization means _______________________________
4. External fertilization means _______________________________
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1. Cell division means when cells multiply and the organism grows.
2. Cell specialization means when the cells are given a particular job
to do and therefore there is growth.
3. Metamorphosis means change in the body of the organism when it
is growing.
4. Incomplete metamorphosis is when there is not a complete change
in the body of the insect while it is growing e.g. ____________.
5. Complete metamorphosis means when there is a complete change in
the body of the insect e.g. ______________.
1.
Some microscopic organisms move by means of __________ and
___________.
2.
Plants move when they change their direction of growth towards
the _________.
3.
Some organisms move by propelling their __________.
4.
Fish move by __________.
5.
Birds move by _____________.
6.
Humans move by _____________________________________
_________________________________________________
1. Plants sensitivity is shown by ___________.
2. A person can be sensitive to _________, __________, _______
3. When a person responds to a stimulus s/he _________________
__________________________________________________
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Homework:
Match a number in Column A with a letter in Column B. The first one
is done for you.
A
Feeding
Movement
Respiration
Reproduction
Excretion
Growth
Sensitivity
Answers:
1.d
2.
2.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
B
a. production of energy
b. increase in size or becoming more complex
c. respond to a stimulus
d. food is needed to obtain energy and growth
e. change place or direction to grow and/or search
for food
f. elimination of waste products produced by
metabolism
g. production of new individuals (offsprings) like the
parent or parents
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Which vital function is involved in each of these actions?
having breakfast
_________________________
watching the news
_________________________
a frog laying eggs
_________________________
a sparrow flying up into its nest_________________________
the production of carbon dioxide, alcohol,and energy by yeast________________________
when a seedling shoots out from the seed. _____________________
<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
3. This question is about the vital functions. Explain the meaning of
the following words.
i.
respiration _____________________________________________
ii.
nutrition _______________________________________________
iii.
excretion _______________________________________________
iv.
reproduction ___________________________________________
v.
sensitivity ______________________________________________
vi.
locomotion _____________________________________________
b. Which vital function is missing from the above list?
_______________________________________________________________
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3. Which questions didn’t work so well? Why was this?
I don’t know.
4. Which of the following 4 pricinples did you use? Give examples:
Planned questions that encourge thinking and reasoning – I did so especially in the
classwork handouts pg 6+7.
Ask questions in ways that include everyone – was trying to ask everyone and not
leave anyone out.
Give students time to think – every time I was allowing a few minutes to discuss
in groups – to help each other other. The aim was thinking aloud and expressing
to each other what they are reasoning in their minds.
Avoid judging students’ responses – sometimes I didn’t manage to do this, but on
the whole I succeeded well throughout the lesson.
Follow up students’ responses in ways that encourage deeper thinking – done.
What will you do different next time?
Allow more time for thinking and reasoning.
Be careful as not to be judgemental.
Ask more intelligent higher order questions.
Prepare more – I think that there is no limit of preperations for an excellent lesson,
but as I wrote at the beginning – even for us teachers time is limited for
preperations.
Josephine Ebejer Grech B.Ed. (Hons.) Biology