Sarinelli



Course Title / Subject: 3rd-5th Grade Science Unit Title / Topic: Life Science (The Food Chain) Instructor: Lisa Sarinelli STAGE 1: IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS || · Identify how living things depend on one another in order to survive. · Sequence and describe the roles of organisms within a food chain. · Food chains exist within our community as well as, in all parts of the world. || # Must living things depend on each other? Producer, consumer, decomposer, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, food chain, predator, and prey ||^  || **// ( G.R.A.S.P.S.) //** || __Week 1__ You and your environmental studies team have been asked to research food chains that live in a specific environment. Your task is to design and present a food chain model that exists there. You will then present your food chain model to the town. You may pick how you would like to present it. Some examples include, but are not limited to, models, graphic sources, pictures, or acting it out. Your presentation must include: one to two plants and four to six living things in your food chain, how the living things in the chain depend on each other, and use of the key terms you learned throughout the unit.
 * East Dover Elementary School**
 * UbD Unit Plan **
 * **Standards and Established Goals: **
 * SC.5.5.A.1 ** - Identify the roles that organisms may serve in a food chain.
 * SC.5.5.A.2 ** - Differentiate between the needs of plants and those of animals. ||
 * **Understandings** || **Essential Questions** ||
 * ** Students will understand that … **
 * ** Students will understand that … **
 * 1) Do plants and animals need the food chain to survive? ||
 * **Knowledge** || **Skills** ||
 * **Students will know:**
 * 1) Animals’ teeth link them to the food that they eat.
 * 2) Why all animals depend on plants.
 * 3) Different food chains exist in different environments. || Students will be able to:
 * 4) Classify living things into producers, consumers, decomposers, herbivore, carnivores, or omnivores.
 * 5) Construct a model of a food chain within a certain environment.
 * 6) Explain what could happen if a food chain is broken. ||
 * **Key Terms:**
 * ** STAGE 2: ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE **
 * **Performance Tasks:**

Environments: Arctic, Tropical Rain Forest, Ocean, and The Rockaway River.

__Week 2__ After you have presented your food chain to the town (class), the mayor (teacher) has informed you that problems are taking place in your environment. The mayor has now asked your team to convince the town that they need to help save the living things in your food chain. Review the problem that your environment has and how it will hurt your food chain. Devise a plan to convince the town to help you. You may convince them in any way you wish. Some examples include, letters to the town, newspaper/magazine articles, or acting it out. Your goal is to inform the town (class) what can happen to your food chain if the problems are not fixed. You must also you vocabulary words from the unit to describe the situation.

__Problems: Arctic__- A company wants to open up a plastic factory nearby. What will happen to your food chain if chemicals and pollutants enter the water? __Ocean__- The town wants to drill for oil in the San Francisco Bay area again. If there is another oil spill how will this have an effect on your food chain? __The Rockaway River__: The town has reported Styrofoam, plastic, and bags of garbage on the edge of the river near Mercer Street. How will this disturb your food chain and what can you do to fix it? __The Tropical Rain Forest__: A construction company in the Amazon wants to cut down trees to build new homes. If there are not enough trees in your environment, how will this affect you food chain?

· Planning Guide · Vocabulary Quizzes · Graphic organizers with video clips · Activ-Votes Game Show Quiz · Open Ended response questions · Evaluation of other presentations · Self evaluation of presentation · Leveled-Reader Questions · Observations during centers || ** (W.H.E.R.E.T.O.) ** || Week 1 · Introduce unit with the essential question? Brief discussion of prior knowledge · View United Streaming Video Clip with correlating graphic organizer to motivate students about different food chains. · Hand out and explain the first performance task. Question/Answer Session · Model Performance Task Examples: o Using animal and plant puppets, act out a food chain that exists in the dessert. o Display an illustration of an arctic food chain of Promethean Board. o Hang a model of a backyard food chain made from index cards, drawings, computer printouts, and magazine clippings, put together by string. ·  Discuss the different representations of the food chain. Allow students to share their favorite presentation, elaborate on what they want to do, and share other ways of showing a food chain. · Group students according to their needs/abilities and assign them to their environment. · As an environmental team students will use a provided planning guide to decide what type of food chain model they will use to present their food chain. · During centers, students will plan, research, and design their food chain as a team. Teacher will meet with each group to check progress. · Presentations and reflective evaluations of food chains. · Game show with Activ-Votes (assessment quiz grade) Week 2 · Review essential questions. · United Streaming clip about what happens when a food chain is affected by change. Brief discussion. · Hand out and explain week two’s performance task. o Share a sample task of a newspaper article on the white board. o Use puppet food chain animals to model the task as acting it out. · Allow students to think, pair, and then share their ideas with the group. · Groups will meet and use their planning guide to decide what they will use for their final presentation. Groups will report their final plan to the teacher. · During centers students will have time to research, design, and complete their food chain plan. Teacher will meet with groups to check progress. · Presentations, papers, articles, etc. will be shared and/or collected. · Reflective evaluations.
 * Other Evidence:**
 * ** STAGE 3: LEARNING PLAN **
 * **Learning Activities:**

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How was it creating this lesson? Deciding on my topic was harder than I thought it would be. However, once I had my ideas, the lesson plan seemed to flow. I really like thinking the idea of thinking outside the box. I typically plan lessons like a teacher. For this plan, I found myself thinking more like a designer. Also, I really like that the students are being assessed on ideas that connect to the real world. I think this will intrigue and motivate them more than a regular lesson.

What difficulties did you encounter? Did you like the format? What are additional questions you now have?

As aforementioned, I had difficulty deciding what topic to choose. I originally wanted to plan a math lesson but had a hard time coming up with an authentic performance task. Once I switched to the subject area of science, I had a much easier time developing tasks and essential questions. The format was easy to work with. I did find that it took a long time to complete the entire plan. I am assuming, as Dr. Bachenhemier mentioned, that the lesson planning component will become easier with time. I am now wondering how this plan will play out in my classroom. The ideas seem great on paper, but I cannot wait to see the results with my students. In addition, I am eager to find out how the students react to authentic real world connection!

I just realized that my colors, headings, and text boxes from Word didn't format to the wiki!! I guess that would quality as a difficulty.

From Larry Manning Your UbD plan is a good one. I liked the format that you used. It seems to be a lot less complicated than the Word template. I really struggled with this assignment and I still don't know if I got it right. In your performance tasks, I particularly like the problems that you will be presenting to the class in Week 2. This works well with your big idea. One suggestion about your essential questions-- your theme is sound, but the phrasing should be broader in scope to develop critical thinking. Overall, you seem to be following your plan and your learning activities are on task.