Sierra Nevada College Lesson Plan

Teacher: Viktoria Low Lead Teacher: Low

Grade/Subject: Fourth District: DCSD
Lesson Topic: Isopods movement School: ZCES
SNC Supervisor: Michael Lauletta Time Allotted: 65 min
Date: 4/12/18 # of Students: 20

LESSON CONTEXT
State Standard(s) (Standards this lesson addresses)
DCI- 4-LS1-1: Matter and its interactions:
 Plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth,
behavior, and reproduction.

SEP- Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

 Use evidence (e.g. measurements, observations, patterns) to construct or support an explanation or
design a solution to a problem.

CCC- Stability & Change

 Change is measure in terms of differences over time and may occur at different rates.

Student Personal Learning Goals (in addition to state & district requirements, what do students want to know
and understand about this lesson topic?)
I will measure how far an Isopod travels in five seconds.
I will predict about different obstacles that might inhibit the range of an isopod.

Formative Assessment: (How will mastery of the standard be assessed at the end of the lesson? This data can be
used to inform instruction within the classroom and as a department/grade level team/PLC.)
Mastery of the standard will be assessed by the student successfully completing the activity sheet and answering
the comprehension questions.

LESSON FOCUS
Objective(s): high cognitive demand for diverse learners Cognitive Level (DOK &
Bloom’s)
Students will observe and record the distance an Isopod travels in 5 DOK 1
seconds.
Students use mathematics to calculate the distance their isopod might DOK 1
move in one minute.
Students will take their data and add it correctly to a graphic DOK 4
representation of the class’ data in order to analyze any patterns in
movement.
Students can name variables that might affect the distance an Isopod’s DOK 2
range.

Connections to past learning or experience, building background

Remember last week how we explored what complex behavior response is? Why an isopod might react in a
certain way based on stimuli? Well this week we are going to take what we know about complex and simple
responses with our isopods to understand how and why they have migrated.

Essential Vocabulary Definitions

Range The geographic area in which an organism can be found
Migrate When an animal moves from one region or habitat to another.
Centimeter A unit of measurement. It takes 100 centimeters to make a meter.

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Strategy for teaching new vocabulary

Students will go over vocabulary prior to starting lesson by coming with a class definition for each word from
background knowledge and agreeing on a appropriate definition and adding it to the word wall.

Set (specific activity to review daily objectives, learning target & goal connection, and assessment with students,
activate background knowledge, and create interest in the lesson)
ENGAGE: Breaking News! Scientist have just discovered that the Douglas County Isopods came from Europe!
How do they know this? How did they get here? Talk with your science buddy about this!

Teacher Engagement (Sequence and Student Formative

Pacin Scope of Instruction (include instructional Engagement Assessment/
g strategies, questions, grouping, (discourse, written, Student Materials &
(times) differentiation and transitions) kinesthetic, etc.) Metacognition Technology
5 ENGAGE: Breaking News! Scientist Student Discourse Discourse and Powerpoint on
mins have just discovered that the Douglas discussion computer/
County Isopods came from Europe! projector
 How do they know this?
 How did they get here?
 Talk with your science buddy
about the different ways you
think Isopods might have
first got here to Douglas
County.

20 EXPLORATION: Introduce the word Student discourse, Activity sheet Word wall,
mins “Range” again to your students. Have whole group completed activity sheet,
students read the word wall and have instruction correctly centimeter rulers,
students talk with their science buddy post-its,
how isopods might still be expanding whiteboard,
their range in Douglas County. whiteboard
marker
Ask students to give physical
examples of physical features that
might prevent isopods from expanding
their range.

Using their arms, ask students to show

how far they think their isopod could
travel in just one minute.
Explain that if we measure how far an
isopod could walk in 5 seconds, we
can then figure out how far they might
travel in 60 seconds.

Model and explain how to take a

measurement of an isopod traveling in
5 seconds based on where you put
them on your sheet. Make sure to
explain in detail then ask for
questions.

We want two good trials where the

isopods are moving the whole time.

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Before students start, REMIND what

good Scientific behavior looks like.

15 EXPLAIN: Good scientist interpret and

minut analyze data and look for patterns! This
es is what we will do now. Turn the hand
out over and have students write down
their distance the isopod traveled in 5
seconds for both trials on each of the
post its. Have students come up and plot
them on the line plot on the board.

 Challenge students in buddy

teams to identify any patterns
on the histogram.
 Did all isopods move the
same?
 Does the data seem grouped?
Did some move slower or
faster?

10-12 ELABORATION: Explain to class how Written, discourse Activity sheet Tape measurer
mins to calculate how far an isopod walked in
1 minute by multiplying their 10 second
distance by 6.

Ask students to show original

outstretched arms to show how far they
originally predicted the isopod could
walk. Use the tape measure to reveal
actual distance the Isopod walked.

Talk about limitations for measuring

this way.
 What are we assuming?
 Could they maintain this all
day?
 What might affect the distance
an Isopod travels?
 Think about how far they
could walk in 24 hours if they
maintained the same speed?
 How could we change this
experiment to get more
accurate data on how far an
isopod could walk in 24 hrs?

*Possible Extension: Final fun fact!

Imagine if our isopod were human size?
How could we do this?

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5-10 EVALUATION: Ask each team to Individual work, Written on Pencil, activity
mins write on the back of their activity sheet student discourse Activity Sheet sheet
one thing that surprised them in today’s
activity (question 6 on sheet).

2-3 METACOGNITION: Please complete Individual written Written in science Pencil, science
min this exit ticket prior to leaving for response journal notebook.
recess.
1. How did you learn the
information that we covered
today?
2. What was the most helpful and
least helpful strategy you used
to teach yourself the
information?
3. What would you do differently
if you were to complete this
same exact lesson again?

Closure : specific activity to review content and progress toward objectives and goals
Next time, we will investigate why they choose to live where they do so be thinking about your background
knowledge and where you have found Isopods before in your life.

REFLECTION on INSTRUCTION
Teacher Candidate Reflection on the lesson (after delivery)
Was this lesson effective?
Did students take something away from it?
Did I have the everything I needed?
What could I have done to improve it?
What was student’s favorite part?
SNC: January 10, 2018

References:

Cramer, R & Johnson, J. (2018). Douglas County School District. Structure and Function:

Investigating Isopods.