Lesson Outline for General Education

Candidate: Emily Peterson Field Supervisor: Lara Gandara-Flynn

Date: 2/3/21 Grade: 8th Mentor Teacher: Shaunna Holcomb

Lesson Part Activity description/Teacher does Students do

Formal/Informal Teacher prepares bell work handout on how traits are Students enter the classroom and take their
Assessment of passed on to the next generation of offspring. seats, quietly talking before class begins.
Prior Learning or
Preassessment Once the bell rings, the teacher passes out the Students quietly write down their prior
handout and asks students to silently respond to the knowledge on how traits are passed to the
question by writing down their thoughts for 2 next generation of offspring.
minutes.
Students respectfully discuss their ideas for 2
Once students are finished writing, the teacher minutes.
instructs them to turn to their neighbor and discuss
what they wrote, comparing their answers and
adding to their sheet if necessary. Teacher monitors
for off track conversations and guides students back
to the question at hand if necessary.
Students share out what their partner said in
Teacher then uses popsicle sticks with students response to the question when called on.
names on them to call on 3 students to share what
their partner said. They correct any misconceptions
and take notes of any gaps in prior knowledge to
review during today’s lesson.

Title Peppered Moths and Natural Selection

Standard MS-LS4-4: Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits
in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific
environment.

Central Focus (CF) Students understand and apply the theory of natural selection.
Academic Language Language Function: investigate, conduct an experiment, apply, construct an explanation

Vocabulary: natural selection, Industrial Revolution, pollution, population, chance of survival,

evolution

Syntax: Graph of survival rates of black and white moths,

Discourse: Paired discussion of the bell work question, Quizz on natural selection and evolution,
Jamboard prediction

I will conduct an experiment to investigate why peppered moths changed color after the Industrial
Revolution.
Learning Target
(LT)
I will apply the theory of natural selection to peppered moths by constructing an explanation for the
change in moth color.
Teacher opens the Google slide deck to the
Instruction (e.g. introduction slide and waits for students attention
inquiry, preview, before introducing the video.
review, etc.) https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1S-
fFkJSOx0hWQXXzqF6OancUYQL3Au1ntFSLgLhBdX4/e
 dit?usp=sharing
Teacher shows a YouTube video about the pollution
caused by the Industrial Revolution as a hook.
(https://youtu.be/otqzQqzUcy4).
Teacher asks for any prior knowledge about or
examples of how pollution can affect life on Earth.
Teacher waits up to 7 seconds before asking a follow-
up or probing question to continue discussion.
Students watch the video and make
connections to their prior knowledge of
pollution.
Students respond with examples from their
own experience or from what they have
learned in the past.

Teacher uses student example to relate to the case of

the peppered moths, introducing the time period
(dates) and the species itself (Biston betularia).

Teacher then presents the case of the peppered

moths as a detective case. She informs the students
that the moths miraculously changed colors over a
period of about 50 years. She then asks students to
use their deductive reasoning skills to come up with a
hypothesis as to why the peppered moths may have
changed color using the clues we have (Industrial
Revolution was happening, trees were changing color,
traits are passed from one generation to the next).

Teachers instructs students to take out their chrome Students get out their Chromebook, login, and
books for a Jamboard activity. open a web browser.
https://jamboard.google.com/d/1Dn155rKW40o_9Txl
UUBf6M5IDCwkPw58KKPFPIKJOUc/edit?usp=sharing

Teacher gives students a Jamboard link and models Students click on Jamboard link and use the
how to use the sticky note tool to post a response. sticky note tool to write their hypothesis.
Informal She then asks them to make a hypothesis about why
Assessment the peppered moths changed color during the
Industrial Revolution.

Teacher projects the Jamboard onto the front board

so students can see each other’s responses.

Teacher highlights a few exceptional responses as a

segway to the simulation.
Practice Activity Teacher directs students to the link for the Peppered Students follow along and navigate to the link,
or moth simulation in their Google Classroom. She waiting for further instruction to begin.
Support instructs them to wait for instruction before
beginning. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/peppered-
moths-game/play.html

Teacher instructs students to first select the light
colored forest and eat all of the moths that they can
see. They will then switch to the dark forest and
repeat the process. The teacher will take special care
to remind students to print out their graphs for both
the light and dark forests to be used later. (Make sure
Students perform both simulations, asking for
help if needed. They will print to the classroom
printer and walk across the room to pick it up
when ready.
 to alert the students to the loud sound the game
makes before they begin and instruct them to mute
the game.)

Teacher walks around the room, monitoring student

progress and reminding students to print out their
graphs when they are finished.

Teacher notices when about 75% of the class is done

and gives students a 2 minute warning, reminding Remaining students use the final 2 minutes to
students that they will be working in pairs for the wrap up their simulations and print their
next activity so not to worry too much about not graphs.
finishing.

Teacher hands out the “Peppered moths graph Students listen to instructions and generate
analysis” worksheet and carefully reads through the any questions they may have about the
instructions. procedure.

Teacher asks for any questions about the procedure Students ask any clarifying questions and then
before allowing students to work on their sheet with begin working in groups of two making
their table partner for 10 minutes. observations about the trends in the graph and
predictions about why these changes are
happening.
Informal
Teacher walks around room monitoring group
Assessment
interactions and pointing struggling students towards
the provided sentence frames to improve their
observations.

After students are finished, teacher asks for
volunteers to share their observations and reasoning
with the class. If no students volunteer, the teacher
will use the popsicle sticks to randomly call on groups
that have not yet shared.
Instruction Teacher reopens slides and presents on the board.
She uses observations the students made and
possible reasoning to relate to and introduce the
theory of natural selection, prompting students to
take notes on the next few slides in their science
notebooks.
Students volunteer or are called on and present
their work to the class. All other students are
respectfully listening from their seats.
Students get out their science notebooks and
are take notes on the definition of natural
selection in their own words and providing at
least one example.

Teacher then uses the giraffe example as a secondary

hook to “shock” students with the fact that giraffes
did not always have long necks.

Teacher explains that evolution is the result of years Students take notes on the difference between
and years of natural selection. Make sure to inform evolution and natural selection. They also raise
students that all of the species on Earth were created their hands to ask any clarifying questions or
due to natural selection that resulted in evolution and provide any additional knowledge to the
eventually speciation as different groups changed too conversation.
much to mate with each other. Emphasize that these
changes were due to certain traits being favored in
certain environments (reference the environment
change due to pollution).
 Teacher instructs students to open their Chromebook Students login to their chromebooks and
and login. Then, the teacher posts the code to a Quizz successfully navigate to join my quiz.com and
session and instructs students to log in with their first login with their first name and last initial.
name and last initial.
https://quizizz.com/admin/quiz/6019f635709333001
ca5096d

Informal
Assessment Teacher projects questions on the front board and
leads students through a series of 11 questions on Students answer every question to the best of
natural selection to gauge student understanding of their ability on their chromebooks within the
the concepts so far. allotted time.
Teacher congratulates the top students and thanks all
students who participated in answering each
question. She then saves the diagnostic results for
reflection to help adjust tomorrow’s instruction.
Teacher asks for any final questions about the Students respond with any questions about the
content of today’s lesson. content or expectations for future
assessments.

Teacher hands out the exit ticket with 5 minutes Students take 5 minutes to silently work on
remaining in class and instructs students to answer to their exit ticket, making sure to honestly rate
the best of their ability using what they have learned their level of mastery of the learning target.
Closure today in class, making sure that they know it will not
Assessment of be graded to reduce pressure.
Student Voice
When the bell rings, the teacher stands by the exit Students hand in their completed exit ticket
door to collect exit tickets from students, making sure one at a time and say goodbye for the day.
to say goodbye to them individually and with a smile.

Teacher reflects on student responses and ratings to

determine what concepts will need to be reviewed or
which misconceptions should be targeted.

Formal Students write a Claim-Evidence-Reasoning statement answering the question “How do changes in an
Assessment or organisms environment drive natural selection and evolution?”
Postassessment
(Sequence end) They will use evidence from their peppered moths simulation and reasoning from our discussion on
the processes of natural selection and evolution to formulate their responses.

Lesson Materials:

Quizz link: https://quizizz.com/admin/quiz/6019f635709333001ca5096d

Peppered Moth hypothesis Jamboard:
https://jamboard.google.com/d/1Dn155rKW40o_9TxlUUBf6M5IDCwkPw58KKPFPIKJOUc/edit?usp=sharing
Peppered Moth Simulation: https://askabiologist.asu.edu/peppered-moths-game/play.html
Slide Deck for Instruction: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1S-
fFkJSOx0hWQXXzqF6OancUYQL3Au1ntFSLgLhBdX4/edit?usp=sharing