Agenda | Teaching Notes |
---|---|
Total Time: 3 hours of instruction Section 1 1. Opening A. Reviewing Focusing Question and Learning Target (15 minutes) 2. Carrying Out an Investigation A. Gathering Data from Duckweed (10 minutes) 3. Analyzing and Interpreting Data A. Scientists Meeting: Analyzing and Interpreting Data (25 minutes) B. Engaging in Argument: Duckweed and Habitat (25 minutes) Section 2 1. Obtaining Information A. Habitat Stations (50 minutes) Optional Extension: Frog Habitat Observation Section 3 1. Engaging in Argument A. Identifying Evidence (30 minutes) B. Scientists Meeting: Building Understanding (25 minutes) |
Purpose of lesson sequence and alignment with NGSS standards:
How it builds on previous work in the Life Science Module:
How it connects to the CCSS Standards and EL Education's Language Arts Grade 3 Module 2:
Possible student misconceptions:
Possible broader connections:
Areas where students may need additional support:
|
Lesson Sequence 4: Overview
Total Time: 3 hours of instruction (divided into three sections)
In this lesson sequence, students return to the cause and effect relationship between an organism and its habitat. They think specifically about the habitat of duckweed and how a pond can be a healthy habitat for frogs in each stage of the life cycle. They continue to practice constructing arguments with a claim, evidence, and scientific reasoning.
Long-Term Learning Addressed (Based on NGSS)
Construct an argument of the observed relationships between environment and survival of an organism (surviving well, less well, or not at all). (Based on NGSS 3-LS3-2 and 3-LS4-3)
This lesson sequence explicitly addresses:
Science and Engineering Practices:
- Analyzing and Interpreting Data: Analyze and interpret data to make sense of phenomena, using logical reasoning, mathematics, and/or computation. Students collect and analyze data on duckweed to understand that duckweed grows well under certain conditions. Note: This Science and Engineering Practice is not explicitly aligned with 3-LS3-2 or 3-LS4-3.
- Engaging in Argument from Evidence: Construct and support an argument with data, evidence, or a model. Students construct an argument about the observed and researched relationship between the habitat and an organism's ability to survive well. They use the gathered evidence from research about a frog's habitat to argue which part of a pond habitat is most important.
Crosscutting Concepts:
- Cause and Effect: Students routinely identify and test causal relationships and use these relationships to explain change. Students identify the cause and effect relationship between the habitat and an organism's ability to survive well.
Disciplinary Core Ideas:
- LS4.C Adaptation: For any particular environment, some kinds of organisms survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all. Students look at how different parts of a habitat provide the needs that organisms (duckweed and frogs) have in order to survive well.
- LS3.B Inheritance of Traits: The environment also affects the traits that an organism develops. Students observe how the different parts of a simulated habitat affect the growth of duckweed.
Lesson Sequence Learning Target
- I can explain the effect that the habitat has on how well an organism survives.
Ongoing Assessment
- Student science notebook: Habitat entry
- Engaging in Argument: Duckweed Section
- Scientists Meeting: Building Understanding
Agenda
In Advance
- Read each section and complete the Preparing to Teach: Self-Coaching Guide.
- Select a duckweed plant that is growing well to use as an exemplar in Section 1.
- Prepare Habitat Stations (see supporting materials): Decide how to set up the three stations in your space. Consider duplicating resources so that fewer students are at each station at a given time. Do not create more than six stations (two of each kind). Consider augmenting the stations with the optional materials suggested.
- Determine groupings for the Habitat Stations.
- Review the Back-to-Back and Face-to-Face protocol (see Classroom Protocols pack).
- Post: Unit 2 guiding question, lesson sequence guiding question, lesson sequence learning targets, Habitat anchor chart, Planning a Frog Pond anchor chart, Norms of a Scientists Meeting anchor chart, and Scientists Do These Things anchor chart.
Optional extensions:
- Frog Habitat Observations: Consider visiting local pond(s) to explore frog pond habitat. Create a note-catcher for students to gather evidence from what they see at the pond about the food, water, shelter, and space available. This information can be used as evidence as they create their frog pond design and argument in Lesson Sequence 5.
Vocabulary
habitat = the natural home of an organism
food = resources needed to grow (plants need water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide from the air to grow; animals eat plants or other animals)
water = clear liquid without color, taste, or small (water is needed for every organism to survive well; how much water an organism needs, where the water is found, and the health of the water are all considered in a habitat)
shelter = a place to live; an animal lives near, on top of, around, or inside it
space = the amount of area that is available to use; the area or amount of space an animal or plant needs to survive well
organism = a living thing, like a plant or animal
Materials
General Materials
- Student science notebook (from Unit 1, Lesson Sequence 1; one per student)
- Habitat entry (page 42 of student science notebook)
- The Pond Is a System entry (from Lesson Sequence 3; page 38 of the notebook)
- Environment and Organisms' Traits entry (from Lesson Sequence 2; page 32 of the notebook)
- Habitat anchor chart (begun in Lesson Sequence 2)
- Planning a Frog Pond anchor chart (begun in Lesson Sequence 1)
- Exemplar duckweed plant (from Lesson Sequence 2; one to display)
- Norms of a Scientists Meeting anchor chart (begun in Unit 1, Lesson Sequence 1)
- Scientists Do These Things anchor chart (begun in Unit 1, Lesson Sequence 2)
- Habitat Stations (for teacher reference)
- Highlighters (one per student)
Science-Specific Materials (gathered by the teacher)
- Duckweed Investigation materials (from Lesson Sequence 2)
- Teacher Duckweed Investigation materials (from Lesson Sequence 2)
- Teacher science notebook (from Unit 1, Lesson Sequence 1)
- Materials to augment the Habitat Stations (optional)
- Jar of pond water
- Live specimens of common pond plants
- Live specimens of common bugs found in and around a pond
- Abiotic features of ponds like a cup of mud, rocks, small fallen tree branches, or logs
Opening
Section 1: Opening | Preparing to Teach: Self-Coaching Guide |
---|---|
A. Reviewing Focusing Question and Learning Target (15 minutes)
"Do you have the three parts of a habitat on your cross-section diagram?" (Responses will vary.) "Are habitat needs different for different parts of the life cycle?" (Yes. Frogs always need food, shelter, space, and water but not always the same kind.) "What else do you need to know about the food, water, shelter, and space to design a frog pond so that frogs can survive well?" (Responses will vary.)
|
(1) How are my students doing with learning targets? How can I support them in their self-assessment? |
Work Time
Work Time | Meeting Students' Needs |
---|---|
Section 1: Carrying Out an InvestigationA. Gathering Data from Duckweed (10 minutes)
"What will a duckweed plant that is growing well look like? What will be the size of its leaves? The color of its leaves? How many times will it reproduce and make more plants?" (The leaves will be full, the color will be green, and it will reproduce at least one time.)
|
(1) How familiar are my students with gathering data? What support will they need? |
Section 1: Analyzing and Interpreting DataA. Scientists Meeting: Analyzing and Interpreting Data (25 minutes)
"What are the norms of a Scientists Meeting?" (take turns talking, build on one another's ideas, disagree respectfully, ask questions to clarify information)
"I see that in my control, where I didn't put the ice cube in every day, the duckweed plants were all bright green, there were more plants, and the leaves grew bigger. I also see that in the Test 1 and Test 2 cups, the plants stayed bright green but there weren't as many as in the control cup and they were not as big. Because the color of the leaves stayed the same but there were fewer plants and the leaves were smaller in the cold water, I think I can claim that duckweed does not grow as well in colder water--so I don't think the deep or shady parts of the pond are best."
"What do you think the data in your Duckweed data table suggests?" (Responses will vary.)
"How much?" "How many?" "Was there anything surprising in the data?"
"How did you decide what to do next? What was surprising about that information?"
"Did anyone get similar results? How are they similar?" "Did anyone get different results? How are they different?" "Does anyone see something this group might have missed?" "Does anyone have any questions for this group?"
"Are there inconsistencies in the data?" "Did we collect enough data?" "What did this data make you wonder?" "What further information might be helpful?" "How might you get that data?" "What further questions do you have?"
|
(1) Consider measuring the temperature of the water during the initial and final reading to practice gathering data and using a thermometer. (2) If my model experiment yielded no clear results, I can model finding "inconclusive" results. |
B. Engaging in Argument: Duckweed and Habitat (25 minutes)
"What evidence do you have about the conditions where duckweed grows best?" (This list generated on the board about the duckweed data.)
"Is the evidence we collected from reading and collecting data through an experiment good evidence? Why or why not?" (It is good evidence because it is from a variety of sources.)
"What space in the pond seems to have conditions like the variables that seemed to make the duckweed grow well? How do you know?" (Responses will vary but may include: The deep parts of the pond have colder water; the edge of the pond has water with more debris.)
|
(1) Based on the student arguments constructed in Lesson Sequence 2, what kind of support do my students need? (2) What specific students should I work with during this time? (3) Would students benefit from working with their investigation groups instead of alone? |
Section 2: Obtaining InformationA. Habitat Stations (50 minutes)
|
(1) How will I set up and distribute materials at stations? (2) How can I best group students for information gathering? (3) How can I best support students during station learning? (4) What can students work on if they finish the stations early? (5) How will I signal to students it's time to move? |
Section 3: Engaging in ArgumentA. Identifying Evidence (30 minutes)
"What is the most important part of the frog pond? Why?"
"What is your first piece of evidence from your notebook that supports your claim in response to the question 'What is the most important part of the frog pond?'" "What is your scientific reasoning?"
"What is the second piece of evidence from your notebook that supports your claim in response to the question 'What is the most important part of the frog pond?'" "What is your scientific reasoning?"
"Discuss if your evidence or your partner's evidence was good evidence. Did the evidence support (make sense with) the claim? Is there evidence you could collect that would help support your claim?"
|
(1) Would my students benefit from doing this exercise a few more times? |
B. Scientists Meeting: Building Understanding (25 minutes)
"What are the norms of a Scientists Meeting?" (take turns talking, build on one another's ideas, disagree respectfully, ask questions to clarify information)
"We know that the environment can affect the traits of an organism. We saw that with the Hungry Bullfrog game. We confirmed that with the duckweed experiment. Who can explain how the results of the duckweed experiment show us a cause and effect relationship?"
"What are some things you learned about the habitat of a frog?" (Responses will vary.)
"Can someone paraphrase what Student A said?" "Who thinks something similar to Student A? "Who thinks something different from Student A?" "Can you add to what Student A said?"
"How is the surface of the water in a pond part of the habitat for frogs?" (Responses will vary. Frogs eat some of the bugs that live in the surface of a pond.) "How is the bottom of the pond part of the habitat for frogs?" (Responses will vary but may include: Tadpoles and froglets swim in the pond water; eggs are sometimes sheltered by plants in the pond.) "How is the edge of the water in a pond part of the habitat for frogs?" (Responses will vary but may include: Tadpoles often live and eat in the shallow water at the edge; adult frogs jump out into the plants on the edge of the pond.)
"When you participated in the Back-to-Back and Face-to-Face protocol, you made an argument in your notebook about the pond (or a frog's habitat)."
"What did you argue was the most important part of a frog's habitat? Why?" "Is one part of the pond more important than others, and why?" "How are the parts of the pond important to the life cycle of the frog?" "What if one part of the pond (give a specific example) was gone--would the frog survive? Would it complete its life cycle? Why or why not?" "What made you change your argument?" "What are other examples of how a habitat can provide the needs of a frog so that the frog survives well?"
"Why do you think you have different conclusions from Student A's?" "With what in Student A's argument do you disagree? On what points do you agree? What evidence do you have to support those ideas?"
"What have you learned that will help you complete your task to design a frog pond where a frog will survive well?" (Responses will vary but could include: the necessary parts of a habitat and how they relate to a frog's life cycle.) "What information are you still lacking?" (Responses will vary.)
|
(1) What are some additional questions I can ask if my students aren't seeing the connections?
|
Copyright © 2013-2025 by EL Education, New York, NY.
Next Generation Science Standards © Copyright 2013. NGSS Lead States. All rights reserved. “Next Generation Science Standards” is a registered trademark of Achieve. Neither Achieve nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it. Next Generation Science Standards are subject to the public license located at https://www.nextgenscience.org/trademark-and-copyright.