5-E Integrated Subject Lesson Plan

Title of Lesson: How much energy is required to provide the tuna for a tuna sandwich?

Lesson Planners (names): Sandra Jenny (as part of Clarke/Shenandoah team)

School(s) & School Division (if applicable): D.G. Cooley Elementary, Clarke County

Grade Level: 5

Lesson specific Science & Math SOL (or other standards covered). Describe desired gains in Knowledge/Skills/Behaviors for each, where applicable). These are your specific Learning Objectives for the lesson.

Standards (list) / Knowledge (Know) / Skills (Do) / Values (Be)
Math
2.1 Counting
5.17 Patterns
5.8c Metric conversions
3.17 Bar graphs
Science
5.6c Ecological characteristics of the ocean environment
3.5 Relationships among organisms in aquatic food chains
3.6 Ecosystems support a diversity of plants and animals that share limited resources
4.5c Flow of energy through food webs / Ecological characteristics
Relationship among organisms
Food chains
Food webs
Food pyramids
Energy flow / Investigation
Discovery
Kinesthetic learning / Appreciate how much energy is involved just to make a simple tuna sandwich

Level or Extent of Integration for this lesson Balanced Math & Science

Instructional time: One 60-minute class period

Materials needed: SmartBoard, example of a food chain from the previous day’s activity, example of a food web; organism “Hello” cards on “necklace;” colored disks (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple); kiddie pool or bucket; graph paper; food pyramid (printed or for display on SmartBoard; multiplication charts/calculators for students with accommodations); can of tuna (dolphin-safe) for display purposes only

Web resources used (if any; Give urls):

Advance preparation needed: Photocopy “Hello” cards (one for each student), laminate and place on yarn “necklace” or place in cardholder on lanyard; follow information on chart to determine number of colored disks or other color-coded representation needed

Assessment(s):

Formative: Engage: Student responses to review activity. Explore: How well students follow instructions and stay focused on their “roles.” Graphing activity: Observations of students’ graphing abilities. Explain: How well students follow along with guided calculations.

How will students demonstrate that they have achieved the lesson objective(s)? Evaluate: How well students are able to transfer pattern to a new problem.

How will you judge whether your teaching strategy is effective? Student engagement. Ask students through a follow-up survey.

Lesson Description (step-by-step teaching procedure):

Engage Share a marine food chain on the SmartBoard. Ask students if only one shark eats one dolphin? Does one dolphin eat only one rockfish? Does the rockfish eat only one anchovy? And so on? What does each organism represent? (population of a species)

Share a marine food web. What can you tell me about the web that is different from the food chain? Record responses.

In both the chain and web, are each of the populations equally distributed throughout the ecosystem?

Explore (Note: Attached are 17 cards. If there are more students in a class, the teacher can make a second set of cards and determine which ones to use for this activity.)

Students go outside to a designated area that is the “ocean” and seat themselves in a circle around a kiddie pool (or other container, like a bucket). The teacher explains that each student will represent a marine organism and will be given a name tag with their name and what they eat. Each student will also receive color-coded disks (or laminated paper, pompoms, etc.) that represent individual organisms within their population. Use the color-coded chart in the Attachment to determine the color disk each species receives. Species such as the eel (Level 5 consumer) will only receive one disk; others, like the scorpionfish, manta, and shark (Levels 3-4) will receive about 5; barnacles and blennies (Levels 2-3) will receive about 10; and zooplankton and phytoplankton will get 20 or more. It is better that they receive more disks than fewer.

The teacher explains that s/he will call a student’s name (or class number). That student will stand, introduce him/herself (“Hello, I am a Blenny”) and states what it eats (“and I eat zooplankton”). Zooplankton stands and places one of its disks in the pool, then introduces itself and states what it eats (“and I eat phytoplankton”). Phytoplankton stands and places one of its disks in the pool, then introduces itself and states “and I use nutrients and the sun’s energy to make my own food and produce oxygen.” Once the chain has been tracked to the beginning (phytoplankton) all participants sit down.

Play continues in this manner until all students have been called and their food chain tracked.

Select a few students to collect all the disks from the pool. While they are counting up each separate color, the teacher will ask the rest of the students to discuss their observations on the activity.

Students will return to the classroom where a chart of the colors will be created. From this data, students will create bar graphs. Start with yellow, then orange, red, purple, blue, and green.

Explain Once graphed, students should be able to turn their graphs on their side to see a pyramid with the phytoplankton on the bottom. Explain that this represents how much energy is required at each level to feed the level of organisms above it. Have students make observations based on this period.

Also explain that energy flows through a food web – it does not cycle through it. Share and discuss the visual below.

On average, only 10% (1/10 or 0.10) of the energy from an organism is transferred to its consumer. This means that a top-level consumer, such as a tuna (or a moray eel, as in the activity), is supported by millions of primary producers from the base of the food web or trophic pyramid.

Food webs throughout the world all have the same basic trophic levels. However, the number and type of species that make up each level varies greatly between different areas and different ecosystems.

Extend Suppose you wanted a tuna sandwich. How much energy would the tuna have required? Have students notice a pattern in the information below. Have them explain how you convert from grams to kilograms. Use individual white boards for students to calculate as you describe each trophic level of the chart below.

http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Life-in-the-Sea/Sci-Media/Images/Tuna-sandwich

NOTE: http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Life-in-the-Sea/Teaching-and-Learning-Approaches/Build-a-marine-food-web has an amazing alternative activity.

Evaluate The following activity is taken from http://csc.noaa.gov/psc/seamedia/Lessons/G5U5L2%20An%20Ocean%20of%20Energy.pdf

Engage students by creating a scenario. Tell them that the tuna’s name is Charley. He is very hungry and he wants to be a BIG tuna. (Charley doesn’t know that Starkist likes big tunas!) Explain that we must help him by figuring out how much energy is needed at the lower levels of the pyramid to support his big appetite. Explain that, starting from the base of the pyramid, only 10% of the energy reaches the next level.

If Charley is 5 kilograms, how many grams of organisms at each of the lower levels is needed to sustain him? Have students work in pairs to complete the pyramid, and solve Charley’s problem. Have students share their work and conduct a discussion to clarify their understanding of the process and correct any misconceptions.

Differentiation Strategies to meet diverse learner needs:

Attach Worksheets &/or Hand-outs, if applicable for this lesson

Homework Assigned (and applicable worksheets):