Biology Partnership
(A Teacher Quality Grant)
Lesson Plan Construction Form
Identifying Information:
(Group Members and Schools, Title of Lesson, Length in Minutes, Course Level)
Title of Lesson: Classification of Living Things: Sally Mander’s Family
Length: 50 minutes
Course Level : 9th & 10th Biology
Members:
1.
TC Brewer , Port St. Joe
2.
Heidi Montgomery, Franklin County Schools
3.
Patricia Piland, Taylor Co. High
4.
Travis Moore , Mosley High School
5.
Michele Brewer , Haney Technical School
6.
Mandy Tinsley, Arnold High School
7.
Steven Byrd, FAMU DRS
8.
Mentor, Lisa Davis
Motivation:
PRETEST 5 Minutes (see attached)
5 Minutes for Introduction/Motivation
Begin the lesson by warming students up with a review that will illustrate useful
groupings of plants, animals, and non-living objects. Ask students to volunteer
objects (such as a pen, a book, a coat) for scientific observation. Then add living
objects such as plants or animals to the collection. Line up the objects on a table
or in one area of the room. Now ask the students to observe the group.
Ask students questions such as:
How many different ways can you find to group or pair these elements?
Which elements are non-living objects?
Which are living organisms?
What features determine whether something is alive or not?
After the discussion, expand the activity by asking students to choose a living
organism from the original group and then group it with two other living
organisms in the classroom.
Ask students:
What features did you use to group the organisms?
What might be the purposes of these features?
5 MINUTES Video on Classification (see link below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7tVnQ4tVKk&feature=em-share_video_user
Needed Materials & Set-Up:
Materials needed:
Pictures of salamanders
Dichotomous Key worksheet
Paper
Pencil
Computer
Set-Up:
Students will sit in desks that have been pulled together in rows facing the front
of the room. The instructor will be in the front of the room giving the
instructions. Each group of two students will receive a group of pictures of
salamanders. Students will complete worksheet using pics.
The classroom set up is attached.
Outcomes
Standards:
• SC.912.L.15.6:
Discuss distinguishing characteristics of the domains and kingdoms of living
organisms.
• SC.912.L.15.4:
Describe how and why organisms are hierarchically classified and based on the
evolutionary relationships.
• LACC.910.RST.2.5:
Analyze the structure of the relationships among concepts in a text, including
relationships among key terms (e.g., force, friction, reaction force, energy).
Objectives:
The student will classify salamanders based off the traits they are given from the
worksheet and they will be able to do this with 60% accuracy by the end of the
class period. (Analysis)
K-12 Science Standards:
1. Scientific and Engineering Practices
8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
2. Crosscutting Concepts
6. Structure and function
Presentation and Participation:
Lesson Sequence and Instructional Strategies (55 minutes)
1. Motivation (15 minutes total):
Day one: Give the students the pretest the day before the main lesson. This gives
the teacher time to grade it to see concepts that students do and do not
understand. (10 minutes) Assign relevant reading from the text book.
(Instructional Strategies: Other: homework)
Day two: The video clip will be shown and the motivating question will be posed
to the students to start them thinking about why classification of organisms is
necessary. (5 minutes)
2.
Lecture (15 minutes)
Lecture will be presented with a Prezi (http://prezi.com/hzqmbrjyqjem/171-and174-classification/) (15 minutes) (Instructional Strategies: Behavior: Lecture,
Discussion, Vocabulary Building)
3.
Activity (20 minutes):
Students will do the salamander dichotomous key activity (see attached) (20
minutes) (Instructional Strategies: Other: Cooperative Learning and Practice and
Application/Process: Solving Problems)
4.
Lesson wrap up (10-15 minutes)
Give students their post-test. Have them grade their posttest to let them see how
they improved. Answer any questions and address ideas that need it.
(Instructional Strategies: Other: Feedback)
Questions:
(3 higher order—analysis, synthesis, evaluation)
1.)
What are the eight main parts of the taxonomic system in order from the
most encompassing to the most specific? (Analysis)
2.)
Why do you think Linnaeus devised his system of binomial nomenclature,
instead of relying on common names? (Analysis)
3.)
How can you explain and justify Domain Archaea being separated from
Domain Bacteria? (Analysis)
4.)
Can you elaborate on the reasons there has been controversy over the
classification of the giant panda? (Synthesis)
5.)
How would justify and explain the genus splitting of Felis into the genera
Felis and Panthera? Was this a necessary classification step? Do you agree with
this action? (Evaluation)
Reflection:
POST TEST 5-10 minutes (see attached)
After the lesson concludes the students will take the post-test the following day.
Students will have five to ten minutes to complete the post-test. The instructor
will conference individually with students regarding pre-test and post-test scores
the following day. Students will receive feedback on their dichotomous key with
salamanders by the instructor walking to each group to check off that they
correctly named each one on their worksheet.
Safety:
A brief discussion will be had with regard to the lab being a place of professional
educational work and “horseplay” will not be tolerated.
A standard lab safety discussion will be conducted in which students are
reminded of safety procedures already in place from previous activities. Their
attention will be directed to lab safety posters present in the area.
Although the activity being practiced does not include any sharp objects it will still
be conveyed to the students the importance of conducting themselves in such a
way that promotes safety for all.
Transformative:
(Accommodations for at least 2 special needs students)
Special Needs Student #1: This student is classified ESOL, having Spanish as his
first language. The student will be provided a printed Spanish version of all
written materials. The Teacher will also model the correct procedure for
measuring the salamanders to learn the basic steps of the activity. The student
will also be paired up with another capable student to be able to assist him with
the activity if needed. The Teacher will check with this student periodically to see
if he needs any assistance.
Special Needs Student #2:
This student is visually impaired, although not blind. The student will be provided
with written materials in large print. This student will be paired up with another
capable student to be able to assist her with the activity if needed. The Teacher
will check with this student periodically to see if she needs any assistance.
Special Needs Student #3:
This student has Dyslexia. The teacher will read aloud all of the instructional
materials needed as well as perform auditory feedback for this activity. This
activity is a tactile exercise which will be helpful for this student. This student will
be paired up with another capable student in case this student is in need of
assistance. The Teacher will also check with this student periodically to see if he
needs assistance.
Utilize:
1. The Pre-Test/Post-Test Challenge: Comparison of Pre-Test and Post-Test will be
the first area of concern. If students do not show measurable improvement, then
there may be one or more problems with the Lesson Plan:
a. Pre-Test and Post-Test may not fit the activity closely. If so, we can revise them
to more closely match the lessons learned in the activity.
b. The activity may fail to demonstrate the concepts explored in the Pre-/Post-Test
in a way that the students can comprehend. If so, we may need to adjust the
activity (or the Teacher’s narrative regarding the activity) until the concepts are
more clearly represented.
c. The higher order questions may not challenge the students to effectively
grapple with the information to achieve a deeper understanding of the content. If
this is the case, we will need to work to ask more helpful questions and guide the
students to better understand the content.
2. The Standards Challenge: We will need to assess the clarity of the coverage of
our selected standards. We will need to ask the following questions and make the
necessary adjustments:
a. Do the pre- and post-tests conform well to our standards, and does good
performance on the pre- and post-tests correlate to mastery of the standards by
our students? This would be measured in the longer term (such as a chapter or
unit test)? If the pre- or post-tests are found to be inconsistent with our
standards, we would need to make adjustments to the questions to more closely
align with the selected standards.
b. Does the activity properly direct students to a deeper mastery of the selected
standards? In this activity the key standard is quite broad (discuss classification of
characteristics on a hierarchial basis), yet this activity focuses more narrowly on
the concepts of classification of animals; and resulting scientific name using a
dichotomous key. We would need to limit our critique to the narrow focus, rather
than whether the activity covers the entire standard.
c. Do the higher order questions direct students to a deeper understanding of the
standards? If the higher order questions do not aid in the students’ understanding
of the selected standards, we need to edit or rewrite them to fit the standards
better.
3. The Time Challenge. From pre-test to post-test, there are several components
in this activity. The sum total of these components may take longer than the
allotted time. Included in our plan is the flexibility to move the first component to
the previous day and the last component to the following day. Also, every teacher
(along with his or her students and his or her school) creates a unique culture that
moves at its own pace. We must be flexible to adapt this plan to each individual
classroom’s culture.
4. The Facilities Challenge. While we can anticipate that the most teachers can
quickly fit the activity to their own space or facilities limitations, there may be
spaces that require more changes to the activity.
5. Strengths: This lesson encourages higher level thinking as described in Bloom’s
taxonomy. Students will consider questions which require the use of analysis,
synthesis, and evaluation in order to give an acceptable answer. For example,
students are involved in analysis by the question: “How can you explain and
justify Domain Archaea being separated from Domain Bacteria?”
Their evaluative skill is enhanced by dealing with questions such as: “ How would
you justify and explain the genus splitting of Felis to the genera of Felis and
Panthera? Was it a necessary classification step? Do you agree with action?”
6. Reteaching Event: Students may have difficulty pronouncing scientific names
and fail to realize the importance of this lesson and a comprehensive classification
system. They need to envision themselves as biologists at a national, or better yet,
an international conference, trying to communicate without the benefit of any
common language. This quick activity might bring clarity to the students: Divide
the class into groups of three or four, and tell them you are about to give them a
descriptive fact sheet on an animal that must be kept secret from the rest of the
class. There are many names for the pill bug including wood louse, armadillo bug,
potato bug, sow bug, isopod, roly poly. The groups will each have the same
descriptive fact sheet with a different common name. After ten minutes to
prepare, each group spokesperson will report out for two minutes. It will be
interesting to see how quickly they catch on to the ruse. It should be abundantly
clear that common names do not work in the scientific community. Science is
concerned with clear, reproducible findings. Dependence upon common names
would lead to confusion, needless duplication of research, and
miscommunication. Then write on the board the scientific name in binomial
nomenclature: Armadillidium vulgare. Note: In fact, there are 15 genera in the
Family Armadillidiidae, but we may, or may not, choose to discuss that at this
time. It does go to show the preciseness of scientific classification, however.