Ecosystems

Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics is a topic that addresses how diverse elements co-exist in ecosystems. The ecosystem is the habitat in which diverse characteristics coexist. The name derives from the notion that different substances and organisms impact one another in diverse ways. As a result, the topic will elaborate on the relationships, energy, and dynamics within the diverse ecosystems.
Classroom demographic elements include the number of pupils in the classroom and the type of the classroom's focus on the topic. Student factors include their readiness to learn on ecosystems, and their ability to relate between what is learned in the classroom with their common knowledge (Llewellyn, 2013). These factors will affect the planning of the lesson in the sense that these factors will be looked at about how they might impact on the achievement of the lesson’s goals.

National / State Learning Standards:

The ecosystem topic on energy, interaction and dynamics is appropriate for grade seven students as they have already been introduced to the topic while in grade four and five.

Specific learning target(s) / objectives:

By the end of the lesson, the students should be able to clearly understand the concept of ecosystem.

Secondly, the student should also be able to understand the flow of energy. Additionally, the students should be able to mention some of the existing population and interaction within their environment.

Teaching notes:

The lesson falls in unit one of topic one in the grade seven science syllabus.

Agenda:

To introduce the lesson, the teacher will introduce all the terms in the topic (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2014). After that, the lessons will focus only the first subtopic which is energy; For the learning activities, the teacher will use various inquiry methods to engage learners in the topic and facilitate more understanding of interactions, energy, and dynamics. This will include the use of pictures showing how interactions occur and the presence of energy and dynamics in the ecosystems. The teacher will also optimize student participation in the lesson by asking them to list the energy sources and the dynamics within their ecosystems. Taking the students outside the classroom, whereby visible sources energy will be referred is going to work as a science inquiry method.

Each activity in the lesson plan is expected to take approximately seven minutes, whereby, the rest of the lesson will be spend discussing and elaborating more about the main topic.

Formative assessment:

The teacher will use oral assessment and written assignments to gauge whether the teaching and learning objectives have been achieved.







Academic Language:

Key vocabulary:

Carrying capacity which is the maximum total population that an environment can hold.

Demographics which refers to the nature of population in terms of age, gender, and race.

Habitat which is an area where an organism lives.

Food chain which is the flow of energy in an ecosystem.

Function:

The terms will enable the students to understand the numerous features of an ecosystem such as overcrowding, and flow of energy in the ecosystem.

Form:

The language structure will flow from simple to complex and from the known to unknown terms which will in turn enable the students to build on the already existing knowledge.











Instructional Materials, Equipment and Technology:

Pictures showing how interactions occur and the presence of energy and dynamics in the ecosystems will be used during the lesson as well as the surrounding environment to bring a clear understanding of ecosystem , energy, interaction, and dynamics.

Grouping:

The students will be grouped in groups of five as they walk around the environment and while observing the pictures and discuss the observable features in the ecosystem that relate to the topic at hand (Sharples et al., 2015).







II. Instruction

A. Opening

Prior knowledge connection:

Basing some of the ideas from the previously studied lesson, this is From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes, one gets to understand that the ecosystem has a way of modifying itself, and thus the energies and dynamics found within it impact on the molecules, modifying them into organisms.

Anticipatory set:

The lesson will enable the students to understand the ecosystem clearly and how the different features such as energy interact with others to bring about change in an ecosystem.

B. Learning and Teaching Activities (Teaching and Guided Practice):

I Do

Students Do

Differentiation

1 The teacher will introduce the vocabularies and materials to be used in the lesson.

2 The teacher will find out what the students know about the ecosystem

3 The teacher will provide detailed information regarding the topic, ecosystem, its subtopic energy and its interaction with dynamics in the ecosystem

4 The teacher will use the picture and take students in groups of five around the environment to increase their understanding of the topic.

5 The teacher will finally engage students by asking question regarding the topic to determine students understanding of the concept.

1 The students will observe and listen to the meaning of the vocabularies.

2 The students will explain and mention some of the elements they know about the ecosystem

3 The students will listen carefully and repeat after the teacher when it is necessary

4 The students will observe the pictures and the environment and determine factors that relate to the topic.

5 The students will answer the teacher’s questions based on their understanding of the topic taught.

The teacher will use accommodation strategy to ensure the needy students also understand the concept by grouping student in groups of five based on their learning ability.

Secondly the teacher will use visual materials such as the picture to bring about a clear understanding of the concept (Sharples et al., 2015).



Activities for first learners



Students who have a high rate of understanding will engage in a discussion as the teacher deal with the slow learners and other needy students.



III. ASSESSMENT

Summative Assessment:

The students’ discussion will be evaluated to determine their understanding of the concept. Additionally, the oral question presented to the students during the lesson will enable the teacher to determine whether or not the students have understood the concept. Finally, based on the students’ performance on their homework task, the teacher can establish whether or not the students understood the concept.

Differentiation:

The academically needy students will also be assessed based on their performances in the groups’ activity as well as their homework which is individual in nature.

Closure:



Firstly the students will discuss the picture in the classroom which will provide them with an opportunity to share what they have learns as well as learn from others. Secondly, students will discuss their environment in terms of ecosystem and the interaction of energy and dynamic

Homework:

The students will state and explain some relationship in their environment that best described their ecosystem and the interaction of energy and ecosystem dynamics. This will enable the students to apply the learnt knowledge into real life situation.







Rationale

The context of the video lesson plan takes into consideration the classroom and student factors. It aims at teaching the students from the known to the unknown, thus bringing a sense of familiarity to the topic. In the video, the teacher adheres strictly to the time frames given to the three sections of the lesson. The teaching and learning objectives are as well gauged through the assessment section of the lesson. In the lesson created, the teacher uses oral assessment and written assignments to gauge whether the teaching and learning objectives have been achieved. The context of the created lesson is found to differ with that in the video because of the different demographic and student factors. The created lesson plan also takes into consideration emergent issue that might bring about delays and a subsequent failure to achieve the lesson goals.















References

Dana, N. F., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2014). The reflective educator's guide to classroom research: Learning to teach and teaching to learn through practitioner inquiry. Corwin Press.

Sharples, M., Scanlon, E., Ainsworth, S., Anastopoulou, S., Collins, T., Crook, C., ... & O’Malley, C. (2015). Personal inquiry: Orchestrating science investigations within and beyond the classroom. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 24(2), 308-341.

Llewellyn, D. (2013). Inquire within. Corwin Press.