Life Science 1 Grade Plants and Animals

st

By Jami OConnor
September 18, 2011

A project submitted to the faculty of the University of West Georgia in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in Instructional Technology in the department of Educational Innovation

Approved By:

____________________________ Professor A

____________________________ Professor B

____________________________ Professor C

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Georgia Statehood
Table of Contents
Project Overview .................................................................................................................1 Background Information........................................................................................1 Instructional Problem .............................................................................................2 Proposed Solution ...................................................................................................3 Project Analysis ...................................................................................................................4 Statement of Need ...................................................................................................4 State Standards ............................................................................................4 Analysis of Standardized Testing Data ...................................................4 Contextual Factors Contributing to Need ...............................................4 Instructional Analysis.............................................................................................5 Audience Overview ....................................................................................5 Target Cognitive, Affective, and Motor Skills ........................................5 Perquisite Skills ...........................................................................................5 Instructional Time Requirements .............................................................5 Pretest Instrument .......................................................................................6 Modifications Based on Pretest .................................................................6 Diversity Analysis ...............................................................................................................7 Potential Types of Diverse Learners ....................................................................7 Potential Accessibility Issues .....................................................................7 Potential Cultural Issues ............................................................................7

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Potential Language Issues .........................................................................7 Appropriate Instructional Resources ...................................................................8 Appropriate Instructional Strategies ....................................................................8 Appropriate Assessment Strategies .....................................................................8 Design of Instructional Materials .....................................................................................9 Instructional Goals/Major Course Objectives .....................................................9 Behavioral Objectives .............................................................................................9 Instructional Units, Lessons, and Learning Activities .......................................10 Assessment Specifications .....................................................................................11 Instructional Materials .......................................................................................................12 Description of and Links to Instructional Materials ..........................................12 Formative Evaluation of Instructional Materials ...............................................13 Revisions of Instructional Materials .....................................................................14 Program Maintenance Plan ...................................................................................14 Implementation ...................................................................................................................15 Implementation Overview.....................................................................................15 Implementation Report ..........................................................................................16 Evaluation ............................................................................................................................18 Program Evaluation Plan .......................................................................................18 Student Evaluation Plan.........................................................................................19 Evaluation Data .......................................................................................................20 Analysis of Evaluation Data ..................................................................................20 Refection on Evaluation Results ...........................................................................21 Last Modified: December 6, 2011 Page 3 of 23

References ............................................................................................................................23 Appendences .......................................................................................................................24

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Project Overview
Background Information Students will be investigating the needs of plants and animals through technology based lessons, hands-on centers, lecture, Smartboard lessons and group collaboration. They will distinguish between different needs and similar needs. Students will also be able to identify covering of animals while using their scientific methods, research, investigation and forming hypotheses. Instructional Problem A first grade class will be taught the science standards about plants and animals. The standards cover the needs of plants and animals as well as parts of a plant and specific characteristics of animals. Proposed Solution Using best teaching practices, a plants and animals unit will be created. Included in the unit will be language arts, writing, math, centers, technology and research. Students will be taught using lecture, united streaming videos, small group collaboration, centers, hands on experiments and technology lessons such as Smartboard, webquests and internet research.

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Project Analysis
Statement of Need Students will investigate the characteristics of plants and animals. With identifying the needs of plants and animals, students will be able to distinguish between what plants and animals need and compare the two. They will also identify the parts of a plant and describe the importance of each part. After identifying different coverings of animals, students will be able to identify different types of animals. State Standards Life Science S1L1. Students will investigate the characteristics and basic needs of plants and animals. a. Identify the basic needs of a plant. 1. Air 2. Water 3. Light 4. Nutrients b. Identify the basic needs of an animal. 1. Air 2. Water 3. Food 4. Shelter c. Identify the parts of a plantroot, stem, leaf, and flower. d. Compare and describe various animalsappearance, motion, growth, basic needs.

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Instructional Analysis Students will be investigating the needs of plants and animals, plant parts and animal coverings using technology, centers, reading, research and collaborative groups. Students will research plants and animals and be able to explain the different and similar needs of plants and animals. By teaching the different parts of a plant, students will be able to identify the parts using technology, hands on activities and small group collaboration. Students will be able to demonstrate how the different parts of plants work and how each part assists with the needs of the plant. Audience Overview This unit will consist of 18 first graders. Five of the eighteen first graders are well below first grade level. There are no special needs of ESL students in the class. Target Cognitive, Affective, and Motor Skills Readings about the plants and animals will be on kindergarten and first grade levels. Smartboard activities will be on first grade and second grade levels. Students will create part of plants using materials in the classroom and be able to present how each part of a plant works. Using the Smartboard, students will manipulate pictures of animals and be able to sort them into similar groups based on the covering of the animals. Students will also play on line games to keep a plant alive. Using webquests and working in small group, students will research plants and animals with little assistance from the teacher. After completion of the unit, students will be able to explain how plants and animals survive and the needs of both. They will present a project based on an animal they have selected and explain what type of animal it is and how it survives in its habitat.

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Perquisite Skills Students must be able to read on a first grade, first nine weeks reading level. Students must have basic computer skills to work the technology and webquest activities. Instructional Time Requirements This unit should be administered over a two week time period (or less) using 30 minutes per day, 3 days a week of science instruction (3-4 hours total). Instruction may be given during language arts lessons, guided reading and writing as well. A time block to work the webquest must be given in order for the students to complete the webquest.

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Diversity Analysis
Potential Types of Diverse Learners The first grade class for this unit will consist of 18 first graders. Twelve of the students are girls and six are boys. There are two students that are on the tier process as they are performing well below first grade standards in reading, writing and math. These two students will need to work with students that are higher functioning or with the teacher. They are not capable of reading even on a kindergarten level so narration needs to be provided and web sites found that are on a basic kindergarten level. Instructions need to be read to them by the teacher and a class assistant needs to monitor the students to make sure they are on track. Potential Accessibility Issues One student is still struggling with fine motor skills. He has not been diagnosed with any form of special need, he only shows signs of difficulty cutting and using scissors. I will work with him and help him select items and pictures that will be easier and larger for him to cut rather than the smaller pictures. Potential Cultural Issues I have a vegetarian in the class. Although these lessons are not food based, the topic of eating animals will likely arise in the classroom. I will be sure to guide the instruction to make sure that students understand that not everyone eats meat and that only eating vegetables is ok as well and healthy. Potential Language Issues One student does not qualify for ESL as her English is very good but there may be some vocabulary words that she will not understand. These words will need to be taught to her and tested for her to gauge her understanding. Appropriate Instructional Resources Student dictionary Internet

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Voice recorder First grade readers Kindergarten readers iRespond Smartboard Laptops Worksheets

Appropriate Instructional Strategies Use voice recorder for narration for lower students Student pairing low with high One on one with teacher Use grade appropriate readers Grade appropriate websites Grade appropriate smartboard activities Vocabulary journaling words and pictures Break assignments into smaller chunks for lower level students Small group collaboration Review Project creation

Appropriate Assessment Strategies Oral Worksheets

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Smartboard Experiments Projects iRespond

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Design of Instructional Materials

Instructional Goals/Major Course Objectives This unit is for a first grade class based on the Georgia Performance Standards in science. The standards that will be covered are based on the basic needs of plants and animals, identifying four parts of a plant (roots, stem, leaves, flower) and the characteristics of animals. When this unit has been completed, first graders will be able to use technology to help them learn and research about plants and animals. They will also be able to converse with other students about the goals and objectives that are taught. Behavioral Objectives 1. Given a whole group instruction, completing an online activity and independent centers, the student will correctly identify the basic needs of plants and animals with 100% accuracy. 2. Given whole group instruction, small group collaboration and independent experiment, the student will correctly identify and describe the parts of a plant with 95% accuracy. 3. Given whole group instruction, small group webquest, independent work centers, the student will be able to correctly describe different animals, in written form, based on appearance, motion, growth and needs with 95% accuracy.

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Instructional Units, Lessons, and Learning Activities Lesson One Behavioral Objective: 1. Given a whole group instruction, completing an online activity and independent centers, the student will correctly identify the basic needs of plants and animals with 100% accuracy.
Gaining Attention Teacher will place out several different objects on a table: food, water, model house, fan, clothes, sun, toys, toy car, soil, books. Students will be asked to walk around and look at all the objects and try and find if they have something in common. (they do and dont, several items do not fit the basic needs of plants and animals) After students look at the objects, they sit in whole group in front of the Smartboard. Informing Learner of Objective Stimulating Recall of Prior Learning Presenting Stimuli with Distinctive Features. Teacher states the objective to the students. Explains that each plants and animals have needs but does not list the needs for the students. Give pre-test Whole group discussion about what a need is. There has been a previous lesson on needs and wants. Teacher will list what the students think are needs and wants. The teacher holds up each item and the class helps classify each item into 2 groups, needs and not needs. Teacher does not correct students decisions yet. Teacher pulls up a Smartboard lesson with pictures of animals and plants. Asks if the needs of plants is the same as animals? Are there any differences? The students and teachers work the Smartboard lesson together. After the Smartboard lesson, the teacher and students decide if they were correct in sorting their objects into needs and not needs of plants and animals. Any corrections will be made before breaking into groups. Guided Learning In the science journals, the students will draw a picture of the needs of animals and plants. They will label each picture and discuss which ones are the same and which ones are different. Eliciting Performance Students are broken up into small groups of 3. Each group will complete a laptop activity and 2 center activities.

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Laptop Center - There are 4 laptops and 2 desk tops available for the students to use. Each group will work at a laptop on a webpage to work with the needs of plants. Blooming Garden Game Growing Plants Game Plants and Animals Game

1. Center 1 Students will cut out pictures from magazines that are needs of plants. 2. Center 2 Students will cut and paste pictures from magazines that represent the needs of plants and the needs of animals. They must cut out the correct needs and paste them with the animal or the plant. Providing Informative Feedback Assessing Performance The teacher will walk around the rooms and watch the students/groups work. Teacher will provide guided questions for those that are showing difficulties. Students will write about the needs of plants and animals. Assessment will be made from all the student work of centers and writing. An iRespond test will be given to assess student performance as well (post-test). Enhancing Retention and Learner Transfer Language Arts lesson on synonyms and antonyms will be taught using the needs of plants and animals. There will also be a writing lesson about certain needs of people comparing the needs of plants, animals and people.

Lesson Two Behavioral Objective: 1. Given whole group instruction, small group collaboration and independent experiment, the student will correctly identify and describe the parts of a plant with 95% accuracy.
Gaining Attention Teacher presents class with four different foods: carrots, asparagus, lettuce and broccoli. Asks the class what they all have in common. Teacher will list the answers on chart paper. Informing Learner of Lesson Objective State the objective to the students. Ask the class as a whole group, if the foods that were shown to them are those parts of a plant? (root, stem, leaves, flower) Give pre-test

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Stimulating Recall of Prior Learning Presenting Stimuli with Distinctive Features Guided Learning

Review what the students learned in kindergarten; comparing different plants. Ask students what they know about plants and record on chart paper. Present the 4 vocabulary words for this lesson: roots, stem, leaves and flower. Match the vocabulary words with pictures of each.

Students will independently match pictures and vocabulary words at their seats. Discuss as a class what each part of the plant does and the importance of each function. 1. Roots take in water and nutrients from the soil.

2. Stem is like a straw and takes the water to the leaves and flowers. 3. Leaves capture sunlight to make food for the plant. 4. Fruit/Flowers allow the plant to be pollinated and seeds dispersed to create more plants Eliciting Performance Students are broken into small groups of 3-4. They are given the same foods that were introduced in the beginning. They need to sort the foods into the correct part of the plant. Carrot roots, asparagus stem, lettuce leaves, broccoli tops flower. Each student in the group will receive a worksheet that has a plant on it. They have to cut out each vocabulary word and glue it down on the correct arrow that points to the parts of the plant. In each science journal, the students must draw a plant and label the plant with the vocabulary words. Providing Informative Feedback Assessing Performance Teacher will meet with each group and discuss the foods and worksheets with each group. Teacher will ask questions to each group to discuss the importance of plants and their needs and the animals needs for plants. Students will receive a diagram of a plant and have to label the plant with the correct part and write what each part does. An iRespond test will be given to assess student performance (post-test).

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Enhancing Retention and Learning Transfer

Student will receive paper, string, a straw, leaves, and a fake flower. They will create a plant using these materials and glue them down on the paper. They will label each part of the plant they created.

Lesson 3 Behavioral Objective: 1. Given whole group instruction, small group webquest, independent work centers, the student will be able to correctly describe different animals, in written form, based on appearance, motion, growth and needs with 95% accuracy.
Gaining Attention Informing Learner of Objective Stimulating Recall of Prior Learning Presenting Stimuli with Distinctive Features Guided Learning Break students into groups of 3. Each group will be at a computer. Each group will complete a webquest based on animals and the objective. http://www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=79241 Eliciting Performance Students will work in independent centers after completing the webquest. Center work will be kept in their science folders. Center 1 There are different types of fabrics (fur, feather, scales, leather) and pictures of animals in this center. Students sort the animal pictures to match the fabric. They glue it down on a sheet of paper. Show an animal DVD video that has no words. Video has many different types of animals. Discuss whole group what they saw in the video. Record the different animals that the students call out on index cards and place in a pocket chart. State the objective to the class. Give pre-test Discuss the different animals in the pocket chart. Discuss coverings, how the animal moves, size of the animal, and the animals needs. Sort the animals into similar groups based on the discussions. Give students their own animal pictures and have them sort the animals based on the objective and glue down in their science journals.

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Center 2 There are verbs on cards in this center. (hop, walk, swim, fly, slither) There are pictures of animals and animal name cards. Students will sort the animals and word cards according to how they move. Record findings in science journals.

Center 3 Smartboard students will complete a Smartboard activity based on the objective.

Providing Informative Feedback Assessing Performance

Teacher will work the Smartboard activity with the students to assist the students in questions and to assess whether the students are gaining an understanding of the objective. Assessment will be taken in the small groups when they are at the Smartboard and their work in the journals and centers will be assessed. An iRespond test will be given to assess student performance (post-test)

Enhancing Retention and Learning Transfer

Students will write about the differences between pets and wild animals. They will compare/contrast the animals and their needs.

Assessment Specifications The iResond pre-test and post-test for each lesson are the same. There is an iRespond test for each lesson. In iRespond, the teacher can have the results graphed to see the areas of need for re-teaching and gains. iRespond is a quick way to see if the students are learning. Lesson 1 Assessments: In lesson one, the iRespond is being used for the pre-test and the post-test. It is the same test. It is an oral test and the students respond on remotes like a game show. All of the students work will be assessed as well to see if they are working towards learning the behavioral objective. Students center work will be reviewed and corrected to assure learning. The teacher will also walk around and observe and ask students questions to gain an understanding of what the student knows during the lessons.

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Lesson 2 Assessments: Lesson 2 has a power point pre-test and post test that the students will use the iRespond remotes to answer any questions. All of the students work will be assessed as well to see if they are working towards learning the behavioral objective. Students center work will be reviewed and corrected to assure learning. The teacher will also walk around and observe and ask students questions to gain an understanding of what the student knows during the lessons. Lesson 3 Assessments: In lesson one, the iRespond is being used for the pre-test and the post-test. It is the same test. It is an oral test and the students respond on remotes like a game show. All of the students work will be assessed as well to see if they are working towards learning the behavioral objective. Students center work will be reviewed and corrected to assure learning. The teacher will also walk around and observe and ask students questions to gain an understanding of what the student knows during the lessons.

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Instructional Materials
Description of and Links to Instructional Materials The materials for each lesson are in order of the lesson plans presented above. Lesson 1 Materials: Materials to be places out on a table: food, water, model house, fan, clothes, light, car, boat, bike, soil, book, jewelry, school supplies Smartboard lesson has pages of animals and plants with different pictures. Students can work the pages and learn which pictures are needs of plants/animals. More pages are used to learn definitions of needs. Science journals, pencils and crayons students will draw pictures of their favorite plants and animals and draw a picture of the needs. Laptop - There are 4 laptops and 2 desk tops available for the students to use. Each
group will work at a laptop on a webpage to work with the needs of plants. Blooming Garden Game Growing Plants Game Plants and Animals Game

Magazines, scissors and glue for students to cut out pictures of needs for plants and animals.

Lesson 2 Materials:

Four different foods will be shown to the class. Carrots, asparagus, lettuce and broccoli. Each food is an example of a part of a plant.

Chart paper will be used to record student responses about the food. Vocabulary cards root, stem, leaves, and flower. Picture cards of each word. Students match the pictures with the vocabulary cards.

Students will independently match pictures and vocabulary words at their seats. Discuss as a class what each part of the plant does and the importance of each function.

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Worksheet that has a plant on it. They have to cut out each vocabulary word and glue it down on the correct arrow that points to the parts of the plant.

In each science journal, the students must draw a plant and label the plant with the vocabulary words. Science journal, pencils and crayons

Brown, green and blue construction paper, string, beans, straw, fake leaves, flake flowers, glue, parts of a plant labels.

Lesson 3 Materials: Smartboard, LCD projector, computer video on animals (this is a DVD I have in the classroom, it is 15 minutes long) Animal pictures Science journals, pencils, crayons, glue stick 6 computers webquest - http://www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=79241
Fabric fur, leather, scales, feather Worksheet with animal pictures and animal names, glue stick (center, match the pictures to the type of covering (fabric) glue in science journal

Worksheet animal picture cards, vocabulary cards (hop, swim, walk, fly, slither)

Formative Evaluation of Instructional Materials Formative Evaluation Expert Review: The content of the standards were created and reviewed by an educator's group. I reviewed the content and collected materials that help enforce the standards and content. As a review with the students, we will have a whole group dicussion to collect ideas of what the students know or think they already know about the standard contents.

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Developmental Tryout: A worksheet for each standard will be given to the students as the lessons progress. These worksheets will be used to determine if the content has acurately been taught and learned. If the worksheets are showing a lack of knowledge in the standards then a review of the lessons will be completed and changed to assist the learners more in the content. Pilot Test: This portion will be completed more as observation by me. I will write anecdotal notes as the students complete and work experiments, centers, and webquests based on the standard and content being taught at that time. Field Trial: This will also be observed during the pilot test portion. If experiments are not going as they should, a look at different materials will be necessary. Also, watching the students work the webquest will determine that the activity itself is appropriate for the audience. The pre-test is the activity itself using the knowledge of whole group lessons. A post test will be given to see if the learner understands the standard(s) and content that they have been working on. Program Maintenance Plan All the online materials are stored on a thumb drive in the classroom and on the school webserver. A hardcopy of this unit is also available in the materials container at school. All vocabulary cards, materials for the art projects, and hard copies of the worksheets are stored in the materials container as well.

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References
Evalyn. (2010, November 30). Animal classification. Retrieved from http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=79241

Blooming Garden Game http://www.learn4good.com/games/online/blooming_garden_flower_power.htm

Growing Plants Game http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/5_6/growing_plants.shtml

Plants and Animals Game http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/6_7/plants_animals_env.shtml

Gange, R., Wager, W., Golas, K., & Keller, J. (2005). Principles of instructional design. (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

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Appendices
Use this space to provide links to or information about any content not addressed in the instructional plan template.

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