Classroom Blog and Website Creation Tools

Lesson Idea Name: Animal Symbiosis

Content Area: Science
Grade Level(s): 4th
Content Standard Addressed:
S4L1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the roles of organisms and the
flow of energy within an ecosystem.
Technology Standard Addressed:
4. Innovative Designer- Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve
problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions
Selected Technology Tool:
☒ Blog ☐ Wiki ☐ Other: Website Creation Tool (list):

URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable):

Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):

☒ Remembering ☒ Understanding ☒ Applying ☐ Analyzing ☒ Evaluating ☒ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):

☐ Level 1: Awareness ☐ Level 2: Exploration ☐ Level 3: Infusion ☐ Level 4: Integration
☒ Level 5: Expansion ☐ Level 6: Refinement

Universal Design for Learning (UDL):

Before the assignment I can provide a tutorial for all students on how to build a blog. The student’s
homework will be to go home and explore the website building tool. If they have any questions they may ask
the next day in class while we all go over the blog tutorial again to make sure all students are comfortable.
Lesson idea implementation:
 Introduction (5 minutes)
Ask your students if they know what the word "symbiosis" means.
Tell your students that symbiosis is a relationship between two different species.
Tell your students there are different types of symbiotic relationships.
Ask your students if they know any. Record them on the board if they are correct.
 Explicit Instruction/Teacher Modeling (20 minutes)
Tell your students that there are three different types of symbiotic relations.
The first one is called mutualism. Explain to your students that mutualism is when two species benefit each
other.
Ask your students if there is anyone who has a friend that helps her with math while she helps the friend with
English. Explain to your students that the relation is mutualism, since both friends are benefiting from each
other. Tell your students that an example of mutualism among species could be that of bees and flowers.
The second type is called commensalism. Explain to your students that commensalism is when one species
benefits while the other one is not affected. Ask your students if there is anyone who has a younger sibling
listen when she reads a book she likes. Tell your students this is commensalism, since the younger sibling is
benefiting from listening to the story but she is not affected, since they would read the book anyway. Tell
your students that an example of commensalism among species is when a vulture eats a lion's leftovers.
The third type is called parasitism. Explain to your students that parasitism is when one species benefits by
harming another one. Tell your students that an example of parasitism is fleas. They benefit from living in
pets' fur, while the pets end up getting itchy skin.
 Guided Practice/Interactive Modeling (20 minutes)

Summer 2017_SJB
 Classroom Blog and Website Creation Tools
Ask your students to pair up and each research the different types of symbiotic relations. Ask them to write
three types of relations for mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism. After that, they should pick one
relation from each category.
From each relation, have them choose an example and write a paragraph long monologue for one of the
animals in that example.
For instance, the student could write a monologue from a bee's perspective or flower's perspective for
mutualism.
Have them compose all their research and monologues into a blog complete with pictures, charts, and
observational data.
Independent Working Time (10 minutes)
Distribute sheets of white paper. Have students divide their sheets into two columns.
Tell them to write a commensalism, mutualism, or parasitism relation that has occurred in their lives in the
first column.
Tell them to write a commensalism, mutualism, or parasitism relation that occurs between two species in an
ecosystem in the second column.
 Differentiation
Support: Pull up 3-5 examples of mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism. Have struggling students draw
the relations and write the species that are benefiting or being harmed for each picture. The students should
also write the name of the relation next to each picture.
 Assessment (5 minutes)
Ask your students to write an example of each type of symbiotic relationship.
 Review and Closing (15 minutes)
Ask your students to read their poem from Guided Practice out loud.
Importance of technology:
The website-creation tool is critical because it forces students to think about an audience that they are not
accustom to writing for. Students also get to learn about technology and its proper uses. This project could be
completed without this technology, and an option is provided for parents who do not wish for their students
to participate. However, much of the process will be lost. Peer collaboration will become time consuming, the
style and rigor of writing students are asked to produce will have to be simplified, and the student will not get
to learn about the technology tool itself.
Inspiration (optional): N/A
Internet Safety and Student Privacy:
I would keep the families as well as administration informed on what the students are doing on the internet
and what precautions were taken to keep them safe. I will then educate my students prior to using the
internet on how to best protect their digital citizenship. A few strategies that I will implement are: only being
allowed on the classroom website with a password, only using first or nicknames for my students, not
including the name of the school or grade level of my students, and blocking any non-educational or
inappropriate websites while they use the internet.
Reflective Practice:
Another technology tools that could further enhance this project could be Excel. Students could build a chart
an insert in all the data they researched. Instead of the blog students could do a PowerPoint but they would
not gain the knowledge of how to build a blog. I think the activity impacts my students learning because it
requests a high level of thinking and skill.

Summer 2017_SJB