Hannah Moriarty

Teaching and Learning

LAP Bird Beak Buffet

Dr. Letina Jeranyama

3/20/14

LAP: Bird Beak Buffet:

  1. Content: Describe what it is you will teach. What is the content?

In this specific lesson students will simulate natural selection and experience it first hand through aninteractive and engaging activity. Students will act as Darwin’s finches and survey the different islands (desks) they are presented with. Through logical reasoning students will make assumptions about which birds are best suited for these different environments and are able to eat the resources available on each island. This will help students to get a first hand perspective as to how natural selection works and how it helps to shape different populations based on the environment and available resources.

  1. Learning Goal(s): Describe what specifically students will know and be able to do after the experience of this class.

After the experience of this class students should be able to describe natural selection in their own words as well as provide examples. Students should be able to reference Darwin’s finches and describe the process that happens in order for natural selection to occur. Students should be able to understand how Darwin came to these realizations about natural selection and describe how an environment can shape the way in which its populations lives and it’s species evolve into a population that better meets the requirements in order to live in this population.

  1. Rationale: Explain how the content and learning goal(s) relate to your Curriculum Unit Plan learning goals.

This lesson will take place four lessons into this specific unit. Students have already learned what evolution is and they have been exposed to ways in which natural selection influences different species of animals throughout history. Today students will simulate natural selection in stations and exemplify how natural selection works in various areas based on the environment of that area as well as the food supply available to the species of animals we are dealing with. After this lesson students will further investigate how natural selection is influenced such as gene flow and how certain animals are classified based on similar characteristics that they share. This lesson will serve as an end to the introduction to natural selection where students will start to further investigate ways it effects various populations throughout the world and the different outcomes that have resulted due to natural selection.

  1. Assessment: Describe how you and your students will know they have reached your learning goals.

I will assess if my students have met their learning goals in various ways throughout this lesson. First I will have each student answer a warm-up question that we will discuss together as a class. The students will have to go through a total of six stations and fill out a worksheet at each station assessing which beak is best “fit” for that specific environment. I will assess my students based on their ability to complete each station as well as their accuracy in their assumptions about the different species of birds. Finally each student will be required to fill out an exit ticket at the end of class. This will help me to determine which students need more individualized attention and which students are truly grasping the key concepts of this lesson.

  1. Personalization and equity: Describe how you will provide for individual student strengths and needs. How will you and your lesson consider the needs of each student and scaffold learning? How specifically will ELL students and students with learning disabilities gain access and be supported?

I.E.P:

My students with I.E.Ps will receive similar accommodations as my students who are E.L.Ls as well as the rest of the class. All students will receive written and oral instructions as well as view a video on natural selection to help strengthen their knowledge on this topic. Students will also be required to answer a warm-up question that will help us to talk about natural selection openly as a class. The students will also work in groups to understand how natural selection works and the importance of natural selection to help different communities evolve. Students will be going through a series of hands on stations that will help them to fully understand natural selection from a first- hand perspective. Finally all students will be required to fill out an exit ticket that will help me as a teacher decipher who has truly grasped the concepts at hand and who needs more individualized attention.

E.L.L

I will offer my students who are E.L.Ls similar accommodations to as my students who have I.E.Ps as well as the rest of the class. Each student will be required to answer a warm-up question that will get them thinking like a scientist and get them thinking about natural selection. Students will be able to view a video on natural selection to strengthen their knowledge on the topic. The video will have Spanish subtitles so they have an easier time following along. The students will also work in groups understand how natural selection works and the importance of natural selection to help different communities evolve. Students will be going through a series of hands on stations that will help them to fully understand natural selection from a first- hand perspective. Finally all students will be required to fill out an exit ticket that will help me as a teacher decipher who has truly grasped the concepts at hand and who needs more individualized attention.

  1. Activity description and agenda
  2. Describe the activities that will help your students understand the content of your class lesson by creating an agenda with time frames for your class. Be prepared to explain why you think each activity will help students on the path toward understanding.
  3. Warm-Up Question:
  4. What does the phrase “Survival of the fittest mean”
  5. How does this phrase describe or relate to natural selection
  6. This question will help the students to start thinking about natural selection and how this process occurs
  7. Student Guided Notes:
  8. As a class we will discuss the concept of “fitness” and how it relates to natural selection
  9. Video-Clip:
  10. The class will watch a short video-clip on natural selection
  11. This will serve as a review to help the students further strengthen their knowledge of the material at hand
  12. Activity:
  13. Students will go through a series of stations that signify “islands”
  14. At each station there different utensils (beaks) the students must use these beaks to collect different specimens of food and transport them back to the birds nest
  15. This will simulate natural selection and at each station the students must answer different questions pertaining to that individual station and which beak was the most successful and why
  16. Exit Ticket
  17. How was natural selection demonstrated in this activity
  18. What are some factors that might affect natural selection or how a population evolves?
  19. Students will be asked to answer this question as a way to determine if they have met their learning goals and which students need more individualized attention
  1. What particular challenges, in terms of student learning or implementing planned activity, do you anticipate and how will you address them?

Since this is a rather interactive activity I can see students getting a little wild and out of hand. In order for students to complete each station effectively and thoroughly I will offer them an incentive so that they cooperate. I will keep reminding the students in order to get an A for the day they must go through each station and answer the questions at each station. I will also allow them to eat the supplies at the stations if they are able to get through the stations without any issues.

  1. List the Massachusetts Learning Standards this lesson addresses.

5.1Explain how evolution is demonstrated by evidence from the fossil record, comparative anatomy, genetics, molecular biology, and examples of natural selection.

5.3Explain how evolution through natural selection can result in changes in biodiversity through the increase or decrease of genetic diversity within a population.

  1. Reflection
  1. In light of all areas of planning, but especially in terms of your stated purpose and learning goals, in what ways was the activity(ies) successful? How do you know? In what ways was it not successful? How might the activity be planned differently another time?

Overall I felt this was an extremely fun and engaging activity it kept the students interested and was fun for them to do. I feel that often times having students act out or “live” certain concepts or scenarios helps them to better absorb and understand the information at hand because they are experiencing it firsthand. If I were to do this activity again I would have done it before I had students read articles on how natural selection affected different areas. I might have done this lesson as my first lesson or introduction to natural selection. I feel this lesson may have better met the needs of my class as a whole if I conducted it earlier in the unit as opposed to a four lessons in. This lesson has taught me that sometimes starting off with an activity to bring the students in may help to make more lessons engaging as opposed to doing an activity a couple of days in.

  1. What did you learn from the experience of this lesson that will inform your next LAP?

This lesson has taught me to be braver as a teacher and to try activities at allow the students to get a little loud and rambunctious. Even if students are being loud they are still learning and enjoying themselves. I’ve also learned that sometimes you should start the unit with an extremely engaging activity because it will motivate the students stay focused for the lessons to come. I have learned classroom activities can be loud and still effective. I have learned that classes don’t need to run a certain way for