Lesson Plan

Day: M T W T F Date: 18/02/2016 Time: Period 3

Learning Area: HASS

Year: 9

Topic: Impact of food production on biomes

Curriculum content description: (from ACARA)

Human alterations of biomes to produce food, industrial materials and fibres, and the use of
systems thinking to analyse the environment effects of these alterations (ACHGK061)

Students prior knowledge and experience:

Students know what biomes are and the kinds of biomes found around the world. They have
also learnt about food production and productivity.
In the last lesson we covered the impacts of irrigation, clearing and agrochemicals on biomes.
Students researched on of these areas.

Learning purpose:
Investigation ways that the production of food and fibre has altered some biomes, for example,
through vegetation clearance, drainage, terracing and irrigation

Learning objectives:

Evaluation:

On completion of this lesson, students will be

able to:

Students need to identify the types of

environmental alteration from photographs
and explain their impact on a handout.

Identify alterations to biomes caused by

irrigation, large scale clearing and terracing.
Students will be able to discuss how these
alterations impact the natural environment.

Preparation and Resources:

30 x copies of handout featuring images of irrigation, clearing and terracing with questions.

Catering for diversity

There is a student in the class with ADD. I will need to be effective in managing his behaviour.
There is a wide range of skills and abilities in this class. The top students will finish activities
well before other students. I will need to ensure that they have other activities to move onto
when they are ready.

Timing: Learning Experiences:

3 mins

15 mins

10 mins

15 mins

10 mins
-

2 mins

Have students line up outside the class.

Once the students are quiet let them into the room and have them stand
behind their desk
Say good morning and let them sit down.
Ask students to open to the research summaries they completed last lesson
on irrigation, clearing and the use of agrochemicals.
Students were numbered 1 3 last lesson
Have students move into groups of three based on their numbers. Groups
need to feature a 1, a 2 and a 3.
Students are to read their summaries of their research to their group,
teaching each other about irrigation, clearing and agrochemicals.
Gain attention at the front of the room. Say, Year 9s, well go through what
you have learnt together
I will put the headings Irrigation, Clearing and Agrochemicals on the
board.
I will ask each group to share a point that they discussed about each area. I
will record their responses on the board.
Hand out images worksheet
Explain the task. Students need to identify what is occurring in each
photograph and outline three ways this impacts the environment.
Instruct students to begin task
Gain attention of class again by saying, Alright Year 9s, lets check your
answers.
Walk around the room asking students at random if they can identify what is
occurring in each photograph.
Ask students at random if they can explain a way the environment is being
impacted
Ask students to pack up and stand behind their desk
When everyone is packed and quiet dismiss students to their next class.

Lesson Evaluation:
Unfortunately, this lesson did not go as planned. As many students had researched very little in
the previous period I gave them more time at the beginning of this lesson to research and write
their summary. I spent much of the first half of the period helping students by directing them
to information and I assisted many in structuring their summary. More time was devoted to
getting students back on task than in the previous period.
As the first half of the period was devoted to helping students research and write their
summaries, or prodding them to complete the task, we did the summary as a class much later
than I had planned.
The class summary was difficult to complete as many students did not seem willing to
participate. I would ask a group to share one of their points only to be met with silence. After
some prompting in the hopes of directing them to an answer still nobody would open their
mouth. I moved onto another group to continue the activity but I did not want to begin
ignoring those who werent participating. I continued to come back to the quiet groups to try
and get their opinion on the topic. With limited success.
I do not know if I did the right thing by continuing to try and get a response from students who
seemed unwilling to participate in the class activity but I didnt want to start ignoring them
completely. These students did not seem to want to engage with me, even one-on-one. The
teacher said after class that these students were capable of producing good work but were
often lazy and unwilling to work and participate. I will need to develop skills to handle these
kinds of students in the future as I did not know what to do with them today.
Few students began to work on the handout. Some students had completed their research and
summary in the last lesson and so I put them onto the next task which they had no troubles
completing. For the rest, the research task, grouped teaching and class summary took up the
period.