Section 1: Engineering Design Cycle

A. Introducing the Challenge (10 minutes)

• Direct students' attention to the posted lesson sequence learning targets. Read them aloud as students follow along, reading silently in their heads:
• "I can imagine and plan a realistic animal that has internal and external structures that help it to survive in a specific ecosystem."
• "I can critique my partner's animal design and provide kind, helpful, and specific feedback."
• "I can create an explanatory model of my animal and the plants that surround it that explains how structures work together to support survival."
• "I can construct an argument to defend why my animal's specialized structures will allow it to survive in its ecosystem."
• Remind students that they have been learning about the structures and functions of plants and animals so that they can design an imaginary animal and setting with plants for Imagine Studios.
• Display the Performance Task: Animal Design Challenge Explanatory Model (1).
• Ask students to follow along as you read the task aloud. Answer any clarifying questions.
• Tell students that an authentic audience will be evaluating their final product. Share with students in your excitement that they will have a real audience to convince that their animal is real!
• Display the Designed Animal and Plant Setting Rubric. Tell students you are going to work together to fill in the specifics of the rubric. Ask students to turn and talk (2):

"What does a designed animal need to have in order to be realistic?" (Structures that come from real animals.)

"How can you convince someone that your animal can survive in a specific ecosystem?" (Include specialized structures that animals from that ecosystem really have.)

"What makes something high-quality?" (Has had multiple drafts and revisions, is neat and well crafted)

• Cold call pairs to share out. Record students' ideas on the displayed Designed Animal and Plant Setting Rubric. Refer to the Designed Animal and Plant Setting Rubric (for teacher reference).
• Tell students they will use the same Engineering Design Cycle they used in Lesson Sequence 10 to create a high-quality model of a fictional animal. Explain that the model they will use to create their animal will be an explanatory model, which they have had lots of practice with in their student science notebook (3).

C. Planning: The General Shape of the Animal (30 minutes)

• Refocus the whole group of students. Tell them they are now going to plan the general shape of their animal (1).
• Tell students this is just the first step in drawing their animal. Share that planning, drafting, receiving feedback, and revising are all steps they will follow to create a high-quality final product.
• Show the "Austin's Butterfly" video to demonstrate the process of creating, receiving feedback, and revising. Encourage students to consider what Austin may have been feeling throughout the process as they watch the video (2).
• Using a total participation technique, invite responses from the group:

"Based on the video, what was most important about the process that Austin went through to create his butterfly?" (Responses will vary: revising, receiving feedback.)

"What might you consider borrowing from Austin's creation process to include in your own?" (Responses will vary.)

• Ask students to turn their attention back to the Imagine section of the Explanatory Model and Survival Argument entry.
• Remind students to use this list as they move to the Plan section and begin drawing the general shape for their animal.
• Encourage them to focus on just the general shape (outline) of their animal and not specific details (3).
• Circulate to provide students with specific drawing guidelines, such as the following:
• Look at the whole page and get a sense of how much of the page should be filled with the illustration.
• Use a pencil, not a pen.
• Hold your pencil loosely and sketch light lines. Don't press hard and commit to a line at first. It's okay to have lots of sketchy lines on the page (without erasing the ones that are off).
• Later, you can choose the lines that look best and darken them a bit.
• Address any clarifying questions and invite students to begin.
• As students draw, consider having the animal cards from Lesson Sequence 2 available for students to reference for specific structures.
• Once students have drawn the basic shape of their animal, ask them to choose what two plants they will include as the setting for their animal. Consider having the plant cards from Lesson Sequence 2 for students to choose from.
• Remind students that they should consider what plants will survive in their ecosystem and be prepared to explain why those plants will survive.

E. Creating: The Details of the Animal (30 minutes)

• Give students the Materials for Animal Design Challenge Explanatory Model for the next draft of their designed animal.
• Remind students to use the feedback they received from their peer to revise and improve the next iteration of their animal.
• Have students complete another draft of their drawing, this one with more detail (1).
• Encourage students to use the colored pencils to add the body coloration/covering to their animal.
• Once students have drawn their animal, instruct them to add the plants that they have decided to include in their background. Remind them that one of their plants should be a type of grass. See Teaching Notes.

G. Revising: The Final Drawing of the Animal (35 minutes)

• Have students complete the final drawing or create another draft of their drawing based on feedback (1).
• Encourage students to use the colored pencils to add the body coloration/covering to their animal and outline the animal and plants in permanent black marker.

Section 2: Engaging in Argument

A. Scientists Meetings: Making Meaning (20 minutes)

• Ask students to bring their science notebooks and gather for a Scientists Meeting.
• Remind students that a Scientists Meeting is a conversation where they speak to one another as scientists and not just to the teacher.
• Direct students' attention to the Norms of a Scientists Meeting anchor chart (1):
• We take turns talking.
• We build on one another's ideas.
• We disagree respectfully.
• We ask questions when we don't understand.
• Share with students that the goal of this meeting is to organize their thinking around the Life Science Module guiding question:
• "How do the internal and external structures of plants or animals function together as a system to help them survive well in a given habitat?"
• Remind students that they may use any part of their science notebooks to provide evidence for their thinking.
• Ask students to think about the module guiding question on their own for 3-4 minutes and to flip through their science notebook to find evidence to support their thinking.
• Invite students to turn and talk with an elbow partner:

"How would you answer the module guiding question?" (Responses will vary.)

• Cold call several students to name the information the class collected to help them answer the guiding question.
• Then ask students to make meaning from the information. Ask questions such as:

"Why do you think ...?"

"What is your reason ...?"

"What made you change your explanation?"

• Help students build on one another's ideas by asking questions such as:

"Can someone paraphrase what X said?"

"Who thinks something similar to what X thinks?"

"Who thinks something different from what X thinks?"

"Can you add to what X said?"

• If students struggle with formulating their ideas around the guiding question, consider breaking the question into smaller pieces such as these:

"What is a system?"

"What is the relationship between structure and function?"

• As students share out, capture their thinking in the teacher science notebook. When you see that the class is coming to some conclusions on the concept of systems, note them on the Concepts Scientists Think About anchor chart (at the bottom of the systems column). As you see fit, and as students draw conclusions about the overall concept of structure and function, add these ideas to the bottom of the Plant Structures and Functions anchor chart or the Animal Structures and Functions anchor chart.
• Give students specific positive feedback on their thinking about the module guiding question. To help students see their growth, share a few of the observations from earlier lessons captured in the teacher science notebook (2).
• Invite students to return to their seats.
• Refocus students on the Scientists Do These Things anchor chart. Draw their attention to the "Engaging in Argument" column.
• Tell students that soon they will be asked to create an argument based on the claim that their designed animal and the plants that surround it will survive in their given ecosystem.
• Ask a student to read aloud what the class has already added to the "Engaging in Argument" column.
• Tell students that they are ready to make a claim that the animals they designed have the necessary structures to survive well in a given ecosystem, and that they will have to collect evidence to support that claim and evaluate that evidence.
• Ask:

"Where might you find evidence for what you have been learning?" (in science notebooks and on classroom anchor charts)

• Tell students that when they evaluate their evidence, they will consider whether or not they have enough evidence to support their claim (i.e., If someone disagreed with them, do they have enough evidence to support their view?). Because they have been learning all about structure and function, they should have plenty of evidence and reasoning to support their claim.
• Remind students that they should use their explanatory model as evidence.

C. Summative Assessment: Survival Argument (30 minutes)

• Introduce the summative assessment with language such as: "You all have been working hard to do the work of scientists: to make arguments based on evidence. Today you are going to show what you know independently."
• Distribute and display the Summative Assessment: Survival Argument (1).
• Read it aloud as students follow along, reading silently in their heads.
• Continue to clarify the task:

"You should defend why your animal will survive in the desert, grassland, or tundra."

"Be sure to explain what evidence you have for making this claim, and discuss whether or not you have enough quality evidence for making this claim."

• Check for understanding: "Give a thumbs-up if you understand and have an idea about the evidence that you will use." Note students who are unsure about what they will write and follow up with them once students begin working independently.
• Have students take out their student science notebooks and the final drafts of their explanatory model (the designed animals with background plants). Encourage students to refer to these resources if they are helpful.
• Answer any clarifying questions.
• Invite students to move to their desks and begin writing (2).
• Collect students' writing to formally assess.

B. Celebrating Learning (10 minutes)

• Celebrate the end of the Life Science Module by having students share their designed animals with the previously chosen audience. One-on-one or in small groups (1):
• Students read the labels on the final draft of their designed animal and background plants aloud.
• Students answer any questions from the audience about the animal or the plants surrounding it.
• Depending on the audience, consider setting up a structure for audience feedback. Example: "I like how you __________," and "I learned _________."