KUTZTOWN UNIVERSITY

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

LESSON PLAN FORMAT

Teacher Candidate: Nicole Malack

Group Size: 20

Allotted Time: 45mins

Date: 4/7/15
Grade Level: 3rd Grade

Subject or Topic: Aquatic Ecosystems: Pollution

STANDARD:
4.5.3.C Identify different types of pollution and their types.
I. Performance Objectives (Learning Outcomes):
A. The third grade students will be able to identify the causes and effects of water
pollution.
II. Instructional Materials
A. Inquiry Sheet
B. Vegetable Oil
C. Trash
D. Water
E. Buckets (One per table)
F. Spoons
G. Droppers
H. Plastic bowls
I. Sponge
J. Tongs
K. Plastic Gloves
L. Oil Spill! By: Melvin Berger

III. Subject Matter/Content (prerequisite skills, key vocabulary, big idea, outline of
additional content)
A. Prerequisite skills
1. Knowledge about how one body of water flows into another.
2. Fine motor skills for grabbing and using tongs.
B. Key Vocabulary
1. Water Pollution- the contamination of a water supply.
C. Big Idea

1. Know about water pollutions and its causes and effects.

D. Additional content
IV. Implementation
A. Introduction
a. The teacher should review with the students about the
types of bodies of water they discussed the previous
days.
b. The teacher should explain to the students that they all
flow into one another.
c. The teacher should ask the students what would happen
if a piece of trash was dropped into a lake.
d. During the discussion the teacher should ask the
students what would happen if more and more trash
wee to be thrown into the water.
e. The teacher should write water pollution on the
board.
f. The teacher should ask the students what they think it
means.
g. The teacher should tell the students that water pollution
is a contamination of a water supply and write it on the
board.
h. The teacher should ask the students what they think it
means for something to be contaminated.
i. The teacher should explain that to be contaminating it
would have to be polluted by something.

B. Development
a. The teacher should pass out the buckets of water to
each table.
b. The teacher should pass out the gloves, tongs, droppers,
spoons and bowls, sponges, and tongs to each table.
c. The teacher should have the students pour some of the
vegetable oil into the water
d. The teacher should put some of the trash into each
tables bucket.
e. The teacher should pass out the inquiry sheet.
f. The teacher should explain to the students that they
have to make this now contaminated water, clean again.
g. The teacher should have the students write on their
inquiry sheet how they predict that they will make it
clean.
h. The teacher should have the students try and clean the
water using the tools provided.

i. After the students have cleaned a bit the teacher should

ask the students if the water is cleaned yet.
j. The students should then write on their sheet if their
prediction was correct and they made the water clean.
k. The teacher should explain to the students that the
water is cleaner but it is very hard to have the water
ever be the way it was before.
l. The teacher should have the students write on their
inquiry sheet what would happen if there were to be
animals living in the water below the mess.
m. The teacher should explain to the students that polluting
the water is very impactful to all the animals living in
the water.
n. The teacher should explain to the students that the
water is the animals home.

C. Closure
a. The teacher should read the story Oil Spill! By: Melvin
Berger
b. After the story the teacher should ask the students about
the story and how they felt.
c. The teacher should review the story and ask what ways
to prevent oil spills.
d. The teacher should then ask the students how harmful
can oil spills be.
e. The teacher should remind the students that all the
bodies of water we discussed connect to one another
and that polluting the water can affect millions of plants
and animals that reside in the water.
D. Accommodations/Differentiation
1. For Shelly, a student with Autism I would have her work with a
partner and have the partner take the objects out of the water
and have them discuss together and fill out their inquiry sheet
together.
E. Assessment/Evaluation Plan
1. Formative- The inquiry sheet.
2. Summative- There is no summative for this lesson.

V. Reflective Response
A. Report of Student Performance in Terms of Stated Objectives (Reflection on
student performance written after lesson is taught, includes remediation for
students who fail to meet acceptable level of achievement)
Remediation Plan
B. Personal Reflection (Questions written before lesson is taught. Reflective
answers to question recorded after lesson is taught)
1. Did the students connect with the message of the lesson?
2. Was I able to complete the lesson in the allotted time?
3. Were the students able to follow directions and complete the inquiry?
VI. Resources (in APA format)
Berger, M., & Mirocha, P. (1994). Oil spill! New York: HarperCollins.
Along the Way: Experiment ~ Can You Undo Water Pollution? (2010, April 21).
Retrieved April 17, 2015, from http://gironlife.blogspot.com/2010/04/experiment-canyou-undo-water-pollution.html