Biology Curriculum Methodology A Lesson Plan

University of Adelaide Template

1. Lesson Plan Information
Subject/Course: Biology Name: Andrew Ayliffe
Grade Level: Year 11 Date: Time:
Topic: Ecology Length of Lesson: 90 Minutes

2. Objective(s)
Objective(s) (Directly from Curriculum):
The biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems interact with each other to capture, transform, and transfer energy.

3. Content
What do I want the learners to know and/or be able to do?
Learners will understand:

How energy flows through a food web/chain.

Where energy may be transferred or transformed through a food chain/food web.

How much energy is lost through each trophic level.

What is Biomass.

Pyramid of mass, energy, numbers.

4. Assessment (collect data) / Evaluation (interpret data)

(Recording Devices (where applicable): anecdotal record, checklist, rating scale, rubric)
How will I know students have learned what I intended?
It will be visible during the class discussions but also during the worksheet and graphic organiser stage. During the
lesson and discussions, it’s important for the teacher to see if people are following along or need further explanation
to understand the point.
Formative feedback will also be displayed through the exit card.

5. Learning Context
A. The Learners
(i) What prior experiences, knowledge and skills do the learners bring with them to this learning
experience?
Students should have a solid understanding of ecosystems up to date and how food chains/webs work. They should
understand how abiotic and biotic factors play a role in ecosystems. Knowledge of photosynthesis is expected, and
trophic levels is also understood.

(ii) How will I differentiate the instruction (content, process and/or product) to ensure the inclusion of all
learners? (Must include where applicable accommodations and/or modifications for learners identified as
exceptional.)
The teacher will present most of the lesson as a guided discussion using images and props to create flow. It’s
important that the teacher is questioning the students and giving them time to all think of an answer. The props and
images are used to help aid and differentiate explanations. It also gives a visual example of what the teacher is
aiming to discuss.
Students are also allowed to get into groups to create their own food chain and this is when peer teaching will be
useful. This can help students who are struggling to be guided back into their zone of proximal development by their
peers.

The use of the fake turf example is to link the content of the PowerPoint and theory to real life examples. It lets
students visualize and the class discuss about population size vs tropic levels. This should help both the ‘battlers’
and the high achievers to help relate to the world around them.

The teacher will aim to do a guided class discussion for most of the presentation to question the students and see
what they are understanding. In doing so the teacher can start with really simple questions to get the ball rolling and
then gradually release the scaffolding to get the students thinking. Simple questions can be targeted at students
who ‘battlers’ might be so they can answer the questions and have a feeling of inclusion and reward. From here the
teacher can scaffold their way back to the harder content.

The worksheet could be further differentiated but its serves as more of a revision booklet. The students are also
encouraged to make mind maps or graphic organizers to support their learning.

Through using the variety of examples and ways to display the processes the lesson should have covered:
Read and write learners a way to pull the information from the slides for understanding.
Visual learners to gain information and context from the graphs, images & diagrams
Auditory learners gain information through the classroom discussion with each point and explanation of the
diagrams.
Kinesthetic learners understand through the demonstration where they can see, touch and feel the simulated
ecosystem.

B. Learning Environment
It’s essential that the teachers create a safe learning environment for the students to feel comfortable asking and
answering questions. It’s important that every student has a voice and feels they have the right to learn/be in that
class.
The environment should be a mix of guided classroom discussion and direct instruction. The students will also have
to apply the new knowledge to the worksheet and the exit cards.

C. Resources/Materials
1 PowerPoint presentation
1 Worksheet
Fake Grass
Lollies (Jellybeans, Frogs, Snakes)

6. Teaching/Learning Strategies

Time INTRODUCTION
How will I engage the learners? (e.g., motivational strategy, hook, activation of learners’ prior
knowledge, activities, procedures, compelling problem)

15 Welcome the students in and get them to analyse the African safari photos (Recap of consumers)
mins Get students to discuss what they see within the 3 images. They should hopefully be able to depict the
ratios between the primary and secondary consumers. Then get them to think about why this might be.
keywords to listen for: Energy, loss, food.

It’s important to quiz and scaffold the questions to move towards identifying what ecological mechanisms
are present within the images.
“so we can see a lion, what type of food eater is that? In an ecosystem what are the levels called? Where
would the lion be in the trophic level?”

15 Challenge students to create a foodchain using the image on the board. Each image they need to create a
mins food chain.

10 Class discussion about “what is energy” (question deep thinking)

mins “So we know how the energy moves from one animal to another” But where is that energy actually
held?”
Students should give a variety of examples, but it should hopefully lead them towards the concept that it is
chemical potential energy.
Ask the students “Where is the energy held?”
-Between the bonds
Like a compressed spring analogy.

MIDDLE:
Teaching: How does the lesson develop?
How we teach new concepts, processes (e.g., gradual release of responsibility - modeled, shared,
and guided instruction).

5 Where does the energy start in an ecosystem?

mins Ask the students to explain the energy flow through an ecosystem. Sun  Plants Animals

10 Display the energy flow through the system:

mins Start the energy flow by displaying how much energy is supplied by the sun. Then how much is actually
used by the plants.
Then display how it moves throughout the food system.

15- Make the ecosystem:

20 Build the mini ecosystem using fake turf. Ask the students to help you apply the ratios of consumers to the
mins grass.
Scatter them on the grass.
Then ask if there is any way to lay them out on the grass so it’s easier to visualize the populations.
Should be able to make a pyramid structure.

5 Efficiency of plants:
minu Discuss what percentage of light is used by the plants.
tes Use this to bring in the concept of energy moving through the ecosystem.

Rem Consolidation and/or Recapitulation Process: How will I bring all the important ideas from the
ainin learning experiences together for/with the students? How will I check for understanding?
g Solidify:
time Go through the worksheet/revision booklet individually. Make sure the students understand how much
energy is lost or passed on with each trophic level.

During this time the students can also be encouraged to make graphic organisers or mind maps to
remember where these parts fit into the ecology unit as a whole.

Exit card: 3,2,1 Three things you learned today, two things you found interesting, one question you
still have.
Last CONCLUSION: How will I conclude the lesson?
5 The conclusion should end with the exit card as well as the recapping of information within the videos at the
mins end. It puts the content into perspective with real life visual displays of the virus processes. The exit card
provides a nice formative feedback sheet for the teacher to see that the students understood the new
content.
7. My Reflections on the Lesson
What do I need to do to become more effective as a teacher in supporting student learning?

All students work best when they are learning inside but on the edges of their zone
of proximal development (ZPD) (Vygotsky, 1978). Complementary to that, we also
know that no two students are the same. So, for a class of 30 students, there are
going to be 30 specific “ZPD’s” to tailor for. There will obviously be some cross over
and similarities between the student’s “ZPD’s” (SACE, 2014). Within this cross
over/similarity zone is the appropriate depth to pitch the content to try can portray
the content to the students. There will always be outliers which will require some
extra effort. Through differentiation of the content delivery you can try to target the
majority of the students but there will be few who need a little extra help.
Differentiated instruction can come in many forms but all follow a similar trend.
They aim to increase the
According to Concordia University in Portland there are 4 main types of
differentiation (Concordia University Portland, 2014).
Lessons can be differentiated through:
- Content: Changing the content to best suit the learners using Blooms
taxonomy.
- Process: Altering the content is delivered to the students
- Product: Changing how the student demonstrates the mastery of the
content
- Learning environment: How the class is set. Group work/ individual work.

Many of the excellent teachers we see examples of already do this throughout their
classrooms regularly and from a student’s perspective you can see how it would be
beneficial. If implemented correctly and effectively within a classroom I believe
differentiation can really increase student engagement/learning.

The main challenge I personally find is just becoming comfortable with the
differentiation of content delivery and trying different techniques. But I think it will
hopefully become easier with the more I implement it within my lessons. The
actually changing of the worksheets to differentiate between learners I find a little
tricky as it’s hard to change their task but not be limiting them. I find it’s easy to
find ways to let the high achievers fly, but sometimes it can be a little tricky
scaffolding for the battlers within worksheets. Through presentations/discussions I
find it easier to scaffold for a class or specific students, but through worksheets I
need to improve.

There is an increased amount of time and effort which must be included into the
planning as it needs to be tailored to the students. This can make it tricky especially
when you are new to differentiation as there might be uncertainty of when to use
techniques. With experience I hope it becomes simpler.
The Concordia university also describes how some critics argue that there isn’t
enough research to support the benefits of differentiated instruction outweighing
the preparation time. I can see the critics side of the argument, but I personally feel
teaching is a profession where the level of effort you put in is the limiting factor to
the achievement of your students. If we put more effort into tailoring our lessons
around the students hopefully, we can increase the learning and enjoyment. (SACE,
2014)

Bibliography
Concordia University Portland, 2014. What is Differentiated Instruction?. [Online]
Available at: https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/examples-of-differentiated-
instruction/
[Accessed 18 July 2017].

SACE, 2014. Zone of proximal development. [Online]

Available at: https://www.sace.sa.edu.au/web/iea/research/assessment-insider/articles/zpd
[Accessed 18th July 2018].

Vygotsky, L., 1978. Interaction between learning and development. Mind and Society, Harvard University
Press, pp. pp79-91.