What

Our goal is to help the four students in our group build a bottle aquarium, the second part of the
self-contained ecosystem that they are creating. The objective of this activity is to allow students to
observe a self-contained aquatic/terrestrial ecosystem, and in this way understand the concept of an
ecosystem is and how organisms interact with each other in this system and with their environment. In
addition, we want them to understand the concept of a model: this small synthetic system is a model for
a larger pond or stream ecosystem. Models are important in science, and we want students to
comprehend their usefulness. This lesson also connects with the three areas of the Framework,
encompassing a number of practices, cross-cutting concepts, and core ideas in life science (see the Why
section below). It supports the development of Common Core Standards in English/Language Arts
relating to understanding subject-specific texts and participating in group discussions (see below).
Finally, this lesson provides a way to explore our overarching questions. Kellys question has to
do with differentiation. Since we have already worked with these four students, we have a better idea of
their temperaments and learning needs, and we have planned this lesson with their needs in mind (see
Accommodations) Liannas overarching question has to do with helping students establish a growth
mindset. These fifth graders were enthusiastic participants in our first lesson, which indicates that they
are interested and engaged in doing this kind of science. Our goal is to sustain this interest while
introducing important scientific concepts such as ecosystems and modeling, and engage them in
scientific practices. In this way we hope to help them see themselves as scientists, capable of conducting
investigations and understanding scientific concepts.
How
This is a materials-based lesson, which is a highly effective form of science instruction because it
allows students to engage in scientific practices themselves and to construct their own knowledge. Our
technique for the previous lesson, and which we will use here, was a round robin-style procedure, in
which each student had a list of steps and took turns reading the steps and performing each step with
the materials. This format provided a systematic and efficient way for all students to handle the
materials and remain involved in the activity. One change we are making is to provide observation
sheets at the beginning of the lesson so that students can make observations when they are not
handling the materials; we hope this will help keep them focused on the lesson. In addition, we plan to
be more purposeful about having students identify each part of the ecosystem, and start to describe
their interactions, and use scientific vocabulary. Finally, we plan to ask more purposeful questions: we
plan to do this at the beginning to have them reflect on what they have already done and predict what
might happen next; we also plan to explore the content of the lesson through a group discussion as the
very end, in which purposeful questions will push students to reflect on their observations and construct
their own knowledge of these concepts.
Why
When planning this lesson we decided to focus on materials-based instruction, which gives
students a chance to actually do the science. This in turn leads to better learning transfer and more

engagement on the part of the students. As per our association with the Lea school, we are doing a
lesson with a group of four student, who we also taught last week. During the procedure part of the
lesson, building the aquarium, our teaching group chose to do a round robin style of student
engagement. This style of student interaction allows for each student to participate in the materials
gathering and materials action fairly. This unit and lesson is important for multiple reasons but two of
the reasons that are most heavily emphasized are modeling and constructing models and understanding
ecosystems. Students need to understand how models work and having such a small self-contained
model makes it easy for them to see the model in action. Its hard for the importance of ecosystems to
overstated, as human beings are part of an ecosystem.

Goals/Objectives (Kelly)

SWBAT construct a model of an aquatic ecosystem

SWBAT start to record observations of ecosystem

SWBAT identify and record the different parts of the ecosystem

Materials
-1 terrarium
-1 bottle
-1 liters of water
-2 300 ml clear plastic cups
-paper towels
-1 or 2 sprigs of elodea
-10 -15 duckweed plants
-3 dropperfuls of algae
-1 dropper
-1 hand lens
-1 spoon
-1 metric ruler
-2 worksheets
Learning Environment and Management Issues (Kelly)
The students are arranged in a block of four desks. The classroom teacher was the one to arrange them
and as there is limited space in the class, as the guest teachers we have very little ability (and space) to

change the arrangement. One teacher stands at end of the block of desks so that all of the students feel
that they have attention from the teachers and also hopefully to manage behavior through proximity.
If a student misbehaves or goes off task, they will be redirected and have their attention focused
back onto the task. If there are severe behavior management issues, the consequence system of the
classroom teacher will be defaulted too, and she would be asked to step in. As we only guest teachers
we are unfamiliar with the consequence system in play in this particular classroom and the classroom
teacher will be able to implement much better than any of us.

Plan
1) Hook (7 min.) - We are so excited to be back! Emphasize that they worked really well as a
team last time, and that this will be important today as well.

Review from last week:

o

How often did you water your terrarium?

What did you observe over the week?

To what extent did your observations match your predictions?

What do you think will happen in the next week? What are you
wondering?

What do you think a model is, based on what we talked about from last
week? Why do you think it is useful in science?

Introducing the aquarium

o

What do you know about water environments?

Explain that we will be building the second part of this model, the
aquarium!

Briefly go over the things we will be putting in the aquarium (show

observation sheets)

Big Question: what does a living thing need to survive? (leave

unanswered to think about during the lesson)

2) Building the Aquarium (15-20 min.)

Distribute observation sheets

Ask Djime to be our Master Artist: make detailed drawing of aquarium for group
during the activity

Build aquarium step by step using list of procedures from teachers guide
(explain that we will take turns like last time, which they did really well. )
o

Each student has a copy

Students take turns: one student reads step and performs that task,
rotating around the table

During building, other students make notes on their observation sheets

*During activity, Djime will be sketching during down time

3) Group Discussion (10 min.)

Set norms: raise hand to contribute. Give your group members time to think
and try not to interrupt. Be respectful of others ideas: for instance, if you
disagree, you can simply say, I disagree and explain why. You can also say, I
would like to add something. You can also ask questions: they are important!

What living things do you see in this environment? (students contribute one or
two each; we will list the animals we are adding). Liz will be starting a web on
the white board, listing living and nonliving things after the model in the
teacher's guide.

What do you think they need to live?

What nonliving things do you see in the aquarium? How do you think they are
important?

As students begin to articulate relationships, Student Teacher draws them with

arrows on the web (have Djime draw for his group?)

What do you think will happen next week?

Why do you think we made this?

4) Conclusion (3 min.)

Return to models. What do you think this is a model of?

Introduce the term ecosystem: relationships among different living things,

between living things and their environment.

Explain how to make observations in science notebook

Thinks about the living and nonliving things in this ecosystem and how they are
related when you make your observations in the coming weeks

Total Time: approx. 40 minutes, leaving 5 minutes total for transitions

Assessment
Student responses during hook/review:
How do they understand the idea of a model? How do they talk about the usefulness of
a model?
What kind of observations did they make from last week?
What kinds of questions do they ask?
During activity: what kind of observations do they make? How detailed are they?
Student responses to discussion
Can they identify the different parts of the ecosystem (living and nonliving things)?
Can they identify what plants need to live? (light, water, air)
Can they identify some of the other relationships in this ecosystem?
What additional observations have they made?
What kinds of questions do they ask?
Anticipating Students' Responses
"A model is a small version of something." We ask, "How do you think a smaller version
of something is useful in science?"
List of living things might not include algae. We might have to explain what it is.
Students probably know that we need oxygen and might know that plants produce
oxygen. They might be unfamiliar with carbon dioxide: we can show diagram of the
cycle to explain.
They might not know that plants use light, water, and air to make food; we can
emphasize this.
Possible question: "How will the plants get water if we don't water them?" We ask,
"What does everyone think?" To probe further, "What do you think happens to water
when it is in the Sun?

Accommodations
If the material is too challenging
Some of the students may find the material challenging, at which point it is important to
reinforce the scaffolding from the terrarium lesson (what is a model, how can you observe a model,
what do you see) and if needed give the students more time to process a new concept. Most
importantly, the students must not feel pressured when learning and understanding new concepts, so
we need to be able to give them more time and make sure they do not feel rushed or pressured, from us
or from peers.
If the there is more challenge needed
If some of the students need more of a challenge we would ask them to go deeper with the
concepts. How do they think the plants are going to interact with each other? Why do they think
that? What other predictions can they make about whats going to happen inside the terrarium? What
is important about this lesson? Why do they think its important to learn this lesson?