Download MSTINQ Jonathan, Maryam, Arielle Reduced Version

MST Inquiry Unit
Plants and Animals
By Maryam, Jonathan, and Arielle
The Circle of Life lesson
summary
 In order to understand plants and how the air, water
and sun are involved in plants manufacturing food,
students will be given plants in order to assess what
kinds of differences and variables are involved in
growing plant species, and develop a draft to be used for
Microsoft Excel. After watching an informative video
they will then fill out a scavenger hunt sheet in order to
understand the terms and processes involved in
photosynthesis, then come together and share their
findings on what they have learned.
Lesson Standards

Blooms Taxonomy: Application, Analysis, and Knowledge

Garners Multiple intelligences: naturalistic, spatial, linguistic, interpersonal

NYC Science Scope & Sequence

Inquiry skills (2): Interpreting Data- Analyzing data that have been obtained and
organized by determining apparent patterns or relationships in the data.

Creating models -Displaying information, using multisensory representations.

Process skills (2): xiii. Observe, analyze, and report observations of objects and events. xx.
Compare and contrast organisms/objects/events in the living and physical environments

NCTM Math Skills

Process standards- Recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics.

Content Standards- sort and classify objects according to their attributes and organize
data about the objects

ISTE Net Standards For Literate Students: List standard (s) Creativity and innovation
2(d) Contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems. Research
and information fluency 3(b) Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically
use information from a variety of sources and media.
Procedure
 Students are placed into groups of 3 (though if there is an even
number of students in the class, 4 students per group) and
assemble a K-W-L chart about plants, completing it after reading
the text and watching an informative video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPqnYYI2Uq8
 After watching it, each group will receive plants (each group
receiving one species of plant out of seed plants, flowers, and
herbs) and record its length, then finding out the other lengths of
the same plant from other groups to make a data chart showing
growth. A rough draft of their graph is made on graph paper and
students use Microsoft Excel to put the graph in a program after a
demonstration.
 With the spreadsheet they just created they will design a line
graph for a longitudinal representation displaying their results
about growth.
 Students will then fill out a web based scavenger hunt for more
information.
Scavenger Hunt
 1) What is the tallest plant that exists?
 2) What is the smallest plant that exists?
 3) Name three species of poisonous plants.
 4) What is a definition for a carnivorous plant? Include one
example of it as well.
 5) List one product that comes from plants.
 6) What is the definition of an invasive plant?
 7) What kinds of plants live in the desert? List three.
 8) What are three plants that live in the ocean?
 9) What is the definition of a weed?
 10) What is the definition of a parasitic plant and an example
of one?
KWL Chart

KWL
EXAMPLE
Know
Want to know
Plants are
living things
How do plants Plants use
become big?
chloroplasts to
make sugar for
Where do
food
plants come
from?
Plants make
their own food
Plants need
water to live
Learned
Mathematical Charts
First
Seed Plan
Flowers
Herbs
Second
4
3
3
Third
6
5
5
Length in inches
Plant growth levels
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Seed plant
Flowers
Herbs
First
Second
Third
Stages of plant growth
7
7
8
Target
3
Satisfactory
2
Unsatisfactory
1
Behavioral
Objective 1
KWL Chart
Student
completed KWL
chart in all three
parts after
reading text
(100%)
Student
completed 1
part of KWL
after reading
text (50%)
Student did not
complete KWL
at all
(0%)
Behavioral
Objective 2
Excel Graph
Students
assembled/corre
ctly labeled
graph using info
they gathered
(100%)
Student
assembled
graph using
correct info but
had minor
errors
(50%)
Student was
unable to
complete graph
(0%)
Behavioral
Objective 3
Scavenger Hunt
Student filled
out scavenger
hunt correctly
by putting all
terms in proper
place (100%)
Student
completed at
least 5 questions
in proper place
(50%)
Student was
unable to
complete
scavenger hunt
sheet
(0%)
Competition For Resources
Summary
 In order for students to become familiar with identifying
competition for resources they must be aware that in any
biological community, there may be several things in short
supply for the organisms. We call these things resources,
and the struggle to obtain them is competition. Students will
be asked to fill out a KWL chart. Once that is complete,
students will hear the story “Squirrel seeks Chipmunk” by
David Sedaris. After the read aloud the students will finish
the chart. Once that is complete they will fill out a Venn
diagram in excel. Students will construct different types of
creative graphs and then display them to their classmates.
Lesson Standards

Blooms’s Taxonomy: Application, Evaluation, Comprehension, and Knowledge

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence: Visual/spatial, logical/ mathematical

Children’s Literature- Squirrel seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris

NYC Science Scope & Sequence

Inquiry skills: Gathering and organizing data, creating models communication

Process skills: Classify and group objects

NCTM Math Skills

Process standards- Use mathematical models to represent and understand quantitative
relationships, formulate questions that can be addressed with data, display relevant data to answer
them.

Content Standards- Multiplicative thinking, equivalence

ISTE Net Standards For Literate Students

List standard (s)- Creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, solve
problems, use technology, research and information, evaluate.
Procedure
 Students will be handed a K-W-L chart and placed into groups.
Working in a group can combine all of their knowledge together
and it can help those who are struggling to fill out the chart.
 Next the class will watch a video about competition and
predation. While they are watching they are to write down notes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1aRSeT-mQE
 After watching the clip the students will have a read aloud.
 Next after the read aloud is complete the students will fill out the
last section of the KWL chart and compete Venn diagram of
squirrels and chipmunks.
 Then, students will be shown a photo on a tumblr blog
http://namibiawesome.tumblr.com/) to count how many
animals of each species are present and create both a bar or pie
chart out of it on Excel, showing them how much does each count
for in percentages (5/11 = 45% rounded and 6/11 = 55%rounded)
KWL Chart
Know
Want to know
Squirrels and
How do animals have
Chipmunks are similar competition for
animals because they
resources?
are both mammals
How are squirrels and
chipmunks different?
Learned
Competition is an
interaction between
species or an organism
dealing with a lack of
resource
Venn Diagram & Photo &
Filamentality
*Burrowing
mammals
*Both store
foods
http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listanimalsja.html
Math Graphs
Species 1 Species 2
Antelope
5
Zebra
6
Zebra
Antelope
6
5
Af r ican animals That Ar e Relat ed
African animals that are related
6.5
6
5.5
5
4.5
Species 1
Species 2
Ant elope
antel ope
Zebra
zebr a
Target
Satisfactory
Unsatisfactory
Objective 1
Differentiate
between
squirrels and
chipmunks in
Venn Diagram
Student gives
very detailed
venn diagram
that
differentiates
the two and
was labeled
correctly
(100%)
Student gave
some details
between
squirrels and
chipmunks but
had some
minor details
missing
(75%)
Student did not
have enough
details to
complete
diagram
(0%)
Objective 2
Complete KWL
chart on
Squirrels &
chipmunks
Student
completed
KWL chart in
all 3 parts after
reading text
(100%)
Student
completed one
or two parts of
KWL chart
(75%)
Student did not
complete KWL
chart at all
(0%)
Objective 3
Apply visual
info to create a
pie and a bar
graph
Student
counted
correctly to
make 2 graphs
that showed
information in
the photo
(100%)
Student had
some errors in
the completion
of two graphs
from
photo(75%)
Students did
not two graphs
at all from
photo
(0%)