Lesson Plan for Implementing NETSS Template II!

(Open-Ended Exploration)
This second template or process is for more open-ended explorations where the teacher is doing less designing of specific activities and more facilitating open-ended student explorations. Template with guiding questions.

Date created/revised: 2/4/14 Teacher(s) Name Position School/District E-mail Length of Lesson Jill Nation Biology Teacher Palm Springs Unified School District jnation@psusd.us 14 school days starting 10/16/13-11/22/13

Grade Level(s) High School (9-12)

Title of Exploration

Coachella Valley Species Debate

Curriculum Connection Content areas The content area is Ecology, specifically native, non-native and invasive species and their effects on their ecosystems.

Essential learning/questions (What essential question or learning are you addressing? What would students care or want to know about the topic? What are some questions to get students thinking about the topic or generate interest about the topic? What questions can you ask students to help them focus on important aspects of the topic?) What can you do to help others change their behaviors in order to prevent the spread of an invasive species?

Standards (content and NETSS) (What do you want students to know and be able to do? What knowledge, skills, and strategies do you expect students to gain? Are there connections to other curriculum areas and subject area benchmarks?)

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CA Standards for Biology: Ecology 6.Stability in an ecosystem is a balance between competing effects. As a basis for understanding this concept (a.)Students know biodiversity is the sum total of different kinds of organisms and is affected by alterations of habitats.

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS):HS-LS2-6 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics Students who demonstrate understanding can evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem. ISTE Standards (NETSS): 2. Communication and Collaboration Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Challenge or assignment given to students (Indicate if there is an expected result, i.e., the task is open-ended but the answer is not.) Students are to address the issue of the invasive species in the Coachella Valley and decide the best options for removing them or defend a reason for keeping them. They are allowed to work in pairs or alone. Each assignment will include a Note Taking sheet showing research and sources. The final product must be a digital presentation of the work and argument (such as PowerPoint, iMovie, Powtoons, and others). Finally, students will be allowed to share their findings with students from a seventh grade Life Science class in Colchester, VT. They, in turn, will share their findings with us about their invasive species. Possible product or example result (What is a possible product students will do or produce to illustrate their learning? What can students do to generate new knowledge? How will you differentiate products? Note that you may not want to be too prescriptive about the final product to allow for student creativity.) Students are required to produce at least a three slide PowerPoint presentation, outlining the nature of their chosen species, the reasons it is considered invasive, and ways to treat or eradicate it. However, students are not limited to that. They may choose any digital presentation including, but not limited to Powtoons, iMovie, Knovio, or Prezi.

Assessment (How will you assess how students are progressingformative assessment? How will you assess what they produce or do?) Two forms of student work will be collected. First, the Note Taking sheet will be collected and students will receive a grade for completion and comments for improvement, as necessary. Second, the final projects will be graded by rubric.

Prerequisites Previous content knowledge for students to apply to this assignment (What prior knowledge would you expect students to have and how would you build upon this knowledge?) Students will be able to define native, non-native and invasive species and use them in sentences. Also, they will be shown an example of the final project from the VT teacher. They will be given a list of nine plants and five insects considered invasive by University of California Riverside.

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Previous technology knowledge for students to apply to this assignment (What technology skills would you expect students to have to complete this assignment?) The majority of students will know how to use Gaggle for retrieving assignments and turning in completed work, as well as for searching appropriate videos. Students know how to use PowerPoint, at least, and how to navigate a website.

How you would expect students to complete the assignment (Will students be expected to collaborate with each other and others? How will you facilitate the collaboration? What instructional strategies do you expect to use?) Students will be able to work alone or with one partner. Students who work with partners are to share all work completed via Gaggle and they will each receive the same grade. They will be given at least three library days to work on the computers there, and get help on the assignment. They area also encouraged to go to the library at lunch or after school or to work at home.

Tools and Resources (How does technology support student learning? What digital tools, and resourcesonline student tools, research sites, student handouts, tools, tutorials, templates, assessment rubrics, etchelp elucidate or explain the content or allow students to interact with the content? How can you differentiate content and process for students?) Tools provided to students Students will be able to use the iMacs in the school library at least three times during the project.

Resources provided to students The following resources will be provided to them: gaggle.net, PowerPoint, Coachella Valley Species Debate website.

Tutorials and templates provided students The students will be provided with the following templates: a copy of the VT Species Debate project by the VT teacher, a Note Taking Template, a Slide Show Template, the species list, Gaggle instructions and the final project rubric.

Resources/Tools to differentiate content or process for students Student resources will not change, but requirements may vary according to individual needs. Students with special needs will be given additional technology help, such as Dragon Dictation and the use of adaptive keyboards. Also, students who are learning English will have access to Google Translate and Spanish/English Dictionaries. Adjustments to volume and screen colors will be allowed as needed by students.

Timeline

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Students will be given the following schedule, which is subject to change: 1. Project Overview October 16, 2013 2. Research in library October 17, 2013 3. Research in library October 24, 2013 4. Note Taking sheet due to Gaggle Drop Box October 25, 2013 5. Library work day October 29, 2013 6. Final projects by November 1, 2013. 7. Meeting with Colchester Middle School, VT on Novermber 22, 2013 Closure and Reflection (including reinforcement activities and bridges/scaffolding to next level) (Will there be a closing event? Will students be asked to reflect upon their work? Will students be asked to provide feedback on the assignment itself? What will be your process for answering the following questions? Did students find the lesson meaningful and worth completing? In what ways was this lesson effective? What went well and why? What did not go well and why? How would you teach this lesson differently?)

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Overall, I believe the students enjoyed the project. Many of them were surprised to find out which common desert species were considered invasive and were potentially dangerous to it. Most students were able to complete at least a PowerPoint, and several were adventurous and tried Powtoons, iMovie and Domo Animate. They were particularly engaged when we held a Google HangOut with the school in VT. Both sets of students were very interested in the others research and opinions. We were able to share with two classes each, but were somewhat limited, due to the three hour time difference. Most students felt the entire process was worthwhile, however there were still those few who did not complete anything. Some of them needed more help with accomplishing the basic tasks, mostly due to the lack of exposure to technology in the past. But, I wold most certainly try this again next year. I was rather pleased with their work and their results. Timing is the only thing I would change. Ideally, it would be best if the classes in VT and my classes were working at the same time and we could hold a HangOut closer to the final due date.

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