TE802:GuidedLeadTeachUnitPlanandReport

Name:DillonRoss
School:CassTechHighSchool
MentorTeacher:FloniaChillis

SubjectTaught:HonorsBiology
GradeLevel:9th
DatesofTeaching:

PartI:InformationabouttheLessonSequenceandUnit
Topic Ecosystems
Students will be assigned an organism to conduct research on throughout the unit.
They will start as an organism and create a population with their fellow students
assigned the same organism. The students will learn about the symbiotic
relationships of their organisms. The students will research what type of ecosystem
Overview their organism lives in as well as their role in the food web. The students will be
given a scenario that alters the population of their organism and they must predict
what will happen to their species and create a plan to save their species. The
students will work in their population group throughout the lesson sequence. They
will be assessed on a written report as well as a brief presentation.

PartII:ClarifyingYourGoals
A. BigIdeas
Constructingexplanationsanddesigningsolutionstofactorsaffectingbiodiversityand
populationsinecosystemsofdifferentscales.Design,evaluate,andrefineasolutionfor
reducingtheimpactsofhumanactivitiesontheenvironmentandbiodiversity.Researching
andcreatingapresentation.Understandingthedifferentlevelsofbiologicalorganization.
Usingevidencetoexplainrelationshipsbetweendifferentorganisms.
B. ScientificPractices
Constructingexplanationsanddesigningsolutions.
Engaginginargumentfromevidence
Scientificknowledgeisopentorevisioninlightofnewevidence
C. StudentLearning
Constructingexplanationsanddesigningsolutionstofactorsaffecting
biodiversityandpopulationsinecosystemsofdifferentscales.
Performance
Design,evaluate,andrefineasolutionforreducingtheimpactsof
Expectation(s)
humanactivitiesontheenvironmentandbiodiversity.

Students will be able to research their own organisms and gather

information to inform their peers about the organisms background.
Lesson/Lesson
Students will be able to predict how changes in the ecosystem will
Sequence
affect their focus organism. Students will be able to design solutions to
Objective(s)
counteract changes in the ecosystem to manage the population of their
focus species.

PartIII:ExampleofanActivitySequence
A. StorylineforActivitySequence
Stage
Storyline
Previous
Characteristicsoflivingthings
Lessons
(priortounit)
Bioticandabioticfactors.Levelsofbiologicalorganization.Organism,
Lesson1
population,community,ecosystem,andbiosphere.
Symbioticrelationships
Lesson2
Lesson3
Lesson4
Lesson5

Heterotrophsandautotrophs.Foodchainsandfoodwebs.
Populationdynamicsandmanagementstrategies.Humanimpact.
Constructingexplanationsanddesigningsolutionstofactorsaffecting
biodiversityandpopulationsinecosystemsofdifferentscales.
Researchreportandpresentationonecologyofdifferentorganisms

Upcoming
Lessons
(afterunit)

Foodpyramid,conservationofmatter,conservationofenergy

B. ActivitySequence
Focus Constructing explanations and designing solutions to factors affecting
Objective biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.

1. Model-Coach-Fade Cycle

Stage

Teaching Activities
Students are given organisms and a scenario of an
Establishing the problem
environmental disturbance. This disturbance will alter
the population of their organism.
I will walk them through a scenario of a clownfish
population being affected by the water pollution killing
off different anemone. I will show them what my
prediction for the change in population will be and give
Modeling
them my reasoning. I will then create a management
solution to counteract the polluting of the water and
revitalize the anemones to help the clownfish
population to stabilize.
I will give my students similar scenarios for their
organisms and walk around the room as they discuss in
Coaching
their groups their predictions on how their population
will be affected by their environmental disturbance.
I will let the groups decide on their management strategy
Fading
on their own.
If groups seem off on their predictions of how the
environmental disturbance will affect the population of
Maintenance
their organism, I will ask leading questions to attempt
to coerce them to a logical prediction.
C. Lesson Plans
Lesson 1
Materials
Slips of paper with different organisms
Computers for students
1. Introduction (-- minutes)
Warm up
o What are biotic and abiotic factors?
Emphasize bio and a
o Discuss what they are giving examples
2. Main Teaching Activities (-- minutes)
Each student will be assigned an organism
The students will then have to form a population with their classmates that are the
same organism.
This population will be their new research group
The students will research what other organisms are in their community
Students will research what habitat their organism lives in and the ecosystem
3. Conclusion (--minutes)
Exit ticket

o Organize these terms from smallest to largest: organism, ecosystem, community,

population, biosphere?
o What is an ecosystem?
Lesson 2
Materials
http://www.cpalms.org/Public/PreviewResourceLesson/Preview/131012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSmL2F1t81Q
http://www.canopyintheclouds.com/files/lessons/Ecology-3Symbiosis_Lesson.pdf
Computers for students
Projector for videos
1. Introduction (-- minutes)
Warm up
2. Main Teaching Activities (-- minutes)
Show students video of different types of symbiosis.
Have pause when he explains a definition of mutualism, parasitism, and
commensalism.
Students must research their organism from the previous day and research which
type of symbiosis they have

3. Conclusion (--minutes)
Exit ticket
o What are the definitions for mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism?
Lesson 3
Materials
Paper
Colored pencils
Computers
1. Introduction (-- minutes)
Define autotrophs and heterotrophs
What is the difference between a food web and food chain?
2. Main Teaching Activities (-- minutes)
Students research the food web of their organism
Students draw the food web of their organism
3. Conclusion (--minutes)
What do all food webs have in common?
Lesson 4
Materials
Printed paper of different scenarios for each organism

1.

2.

Introduction (-- minutes)

Tell students of a scenario of the sea anemone being poisoned by water pollution.
How will that affect the population of clownfish?
What are some management strategies to help protect the clownfish?
Main Teaching Activities (-- minutes)
Each group will be assigned a scenario for their given organism
The students must predict what will happen to the population of their organism
Students will create a management plan to save their organism
3. Conclusion (--minutes)
Students will report what happened to their organism
What are some commonalities between the environmental disruptions in the scenarios?
o Manmade
Lesson 5
Materials
Projector
1. Introduction (-- minutes)
I will give a final presentation on the clownfish
2. Main Teaching Activities (-- minutes)
Groups of students present their organisms to the rest of the class
o Extra credit for them making a powerpoint, creating a song, or creating a
poem.
3. Conclusion (--minutes)
What was the most interesting thing you learned today?

PartIV:AssessmentofFocusStudents
Focus Constructing explanations and designing solutions to factors affecting
Objective biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.

An Assessment Task/Question that you alone or in collaboration with your mentor teacher
develop:
How will this alteration to your ecosystem affect the population of your organism? [each
student will have a different organism and different alteration to their ecosystem]
What are some possible solutions to the ecosystem problem to help conserve the
population of your organism?

An Assessment Task/Question from your TE 802 content leader:

It has been estimated that we are clearing almost 8,000 hectares of trees in the Amazonian
rainforest every year (for the purposes of cattle grazing and harvesting of timber for lots of
uses). Describe three kinds of problems that might result from this kind of activity. What
could be done to decrease the impact of this kind of disturbance?

PartV:AftertheUnitReport
A. Description of Changes in Your Plans
My example for my population alteration was changed from a clownfish to a lionfish.
Instead of me telling the students what happens to the lionfish I had them discuss and think
critically about what they thought would happen and what should be done. At the end of the
lesson, all of the groups did not discuss how their scenarios were similar.
B. Story of What Happened
I started the lesson with a warm up. The warm up asked what an autotroph was and what
a heterotroph was and to give examples. After the students worked on it individually, I had
them share with the class. Most of the students remembered from taking notes that
autotrophs are producers such as plants and heterotrophs are consumers.
I then went on to talk about the invasive lionfish in the Gulf of Mexico. I told the
students the lionfish are native to the Pacific Ocean and when released into the Gulf of
Mexico they had no natural predators. Their venomous spines protect them from most larger
fish. When introduced into the Gulf they began preying on small, native reef fish. I then
asked the students to write down in their predictions for what they thought would happen to
the lionfish population. I also asked them to write down how they thought the native fish
would be affected. After they wrote down their thoughts I asked the students to share with
the class. I repeated responses and asked the class what they thought when their peers
answered. The student responses varied from the lionfish population increasing drastically,
to the population increasing to a point and remaining stable. They general consensus was
that the native fish population would be reduced.
Next I had the students think of solutions to solve the lionfish problem in the Gulf of
Mexico. The students wrote down management strategies they thought should be put in
place. They then talked with their table about the best strategies to deal with the lionfish.
When I had the class report out on how they planned on solving the problem, I actually had
some of the best scientific discussion this year so far. Students were critiquing each others
ideas without me needing to encourage them. They kept the conversation on topic and
seemed to think critically about the pros and cons of each plan. After the discussion, I told
the students what people are actually doing to solve this problem.
Next I gave each group a different problem that was occurring with their focus organism.
They had to predict what would happen to the population of their organism. They also had to
come up with a strategy to resolve that problem. For an Exit Ticket, I had the students
answer the content leader assessment question.
C. Making Sense of Focus Students Responses

Pseudonym

Academic Standing

BS

High

AJ

Average

DM

Low

Personal Description
African American girl
Bengali girl
African American boy

Excellent Responses
Your/Your Mentor Assessment Task/Question:
Oxpecker Question 1
Trophy hunting and poaching of large game animals (such as rhinos, hippos, and zebra) is
on the rise in the savanna. How will this affect the oxpecker?
If trophy hunting increases, then this could potentially decrease the oxpecker
population. This is because oxpeckers have a mutualistic relationship with big game
animals. The oxpecker benefits from the large animals by eating parasites off of them.
With less big game animals, the oxpeckers would have less hosts to eat parasites off of,
decreasing their prey availability.
Oxpecker Question 2
What are some possible solutions to reduce the trophy hunting and poaching in the region
that might benefit the oxpecker?
People could increase the restrictions on trophy hunting, provide more security to
parks and reservations, create more protected areas, provide education to the local people, etc.
TE802 Content Leader Assessment Task/Question:
Different types of problems include: deforestation, loss of habitat, loss of biodiversity,
loss of oxygen production, loss of tourism, etc.
Some solutions might include, not clearcutting, planting more trees, subsidizing farmers
in other areas, promoting tourism, create sanctuaries and reservations.
Finding and Explaining Patterns in Student Responses
The students in the oxpecker group answered the first question by saying, This could
affect the Oxpeckers population due to the fact of the food sources. Oxpeckers needs these
large game animals due to the fact they contain what energy they need (food) and these are
the pest on them such as; ticks and botfly. They seemed to understand that the oxpeckers
rely on the large animals for food, but did not explain what kind of relationship they had with
each other. The students also did not describe how the population of oxpeckers would be
affected.
For the second question the oxpecker group replied, There are many solutions but, 1
solution is that we could simply make signs for areas where not to hunt or simply ban
hunting from that area or even region. These solutions would likely reduce the poaching of
the large game animals.
For the content leader assessment question, BS answered, There will be less energy
throughout the [food] pyramid. Animals could lose their habitats. Animals and plants could
become extinct because of the factor of the loss of tress. For the second answer she wrote,

They could build a nature area reservation. I think she had a fairly deep understanding of
the consequences of the clear cutting. She when saying the pyramid has less energy, she
noted that the producers in the ecosystem hold most of the available energy in the ecosystem,
and by removing them the ecosystem has less energy. The animals will also have less habitat
potentially leading to extinction. Her solution of creating a reserve is a practical one.
DM seemed to have a decent grasp of the concept for the assessment questions. He said
that the clearing would result in deforestation, habitat destruction, and messing up the
ecosystem. His solution to the problem was to not cut trees down for lumber in that
rainforest. This solution was not exactly a well thought out plan, but it shows that he does
understand what is causing the problem.
It seemed as though AJ understood the assessment task. Her responses to the first part of
the question were, destroying homes for animals, destroying the environment, and we will
eventually run out of trees. Her solution to the problem was to provide homes for animals.
D. Improvements to Your Lesson Plan
If I were to redo my lesson I would make several improvements. The first improvement I
might make would be to use an example species that may be more relevant to the students.
Some of my students had seen a lionfish before, but most of them had not. If I had used a
species they were more familiar with they may have come up with better solutions to the
problem.
A second improvement I might make would be to have the students compare their
population alterations to find similarities and patterns. I created the list of questions, but
many of them are real life problems that are happening to actual species around the world. If
the students can see the patterns that causes these problems, many of which are manmade, it
may give them a deeper understanding of the subject.
A third improvement to my lesson would be to use more think pair sharing. I did a lot of
call and response in the beginning of my lesson, which is good, but it does not allow all
students to participate. I find myself calling on the same five students in class every day. By
asking them a question and having them write it down I can increase engagement with all of
my students instead of a select few.
E. Changes in Your Understanding of Science Teaching
After teaching this lesson, I learned by giving the students critical real life problems, they
can come up with creative solutions. They can also maintain open discussions with these
topics and work together to weigh the pros and cons of different solutions. I do not have to
continuously tell the students what is wrong with their solutions but I can ask the other
students to give critiques and improvements to their plans.

Attachments
Grading Rubric
Summary Comments. The criteria for grading were described in the sections above.
Overview

Big Ideas
Scientific Practices
Performance Expectations
Storyline
Activity Sequence
Lesson Materials and Activities
Assessment Tasks
Story of What Happened
Analysis of Focus Students
Responses
Improvements to Activity
Sequence Plan
Changes in Your Understanding
of Science Teaching
Final Grade =