Blended Learning Lesson Plan

Lesson Title:
Earths Exciting Ecosystems!
Objectives:
 Students will be able to list abiotic factors in an ecosystem and give reasons as to why
those factors are abiotic.
 Students will be able to describe what a biotic factor is and what something must consist
of in order to be considered a biotic factor.
State Standards:

5.L.4A.1 Analyze and interpret data to summarize the abiotic factors (including quantity of light
and water, range of temperature, salinity, and soil composition) of different terrestrial
ecosystems and aquatic ecosystems.

5.L.4A.2 Obtain and communicate information to describe and compare the biotic factors
(including individual organisms, populations, and communities) of different terrestrial and
aquatic ecosystems.

Context:
This lesson is a fifth-grade science lesson that will teach students the difference between biotic
and abiotic factors. This lesson is being taught because it is extremely important for students to
learn the difference between living and nonliving things. In the previous lesson we discussed
how humans and natural processes can impact the environment through erosion, weathering, and
other natural disasters. The current lesson will allow students to understand stand that it is not
just abiotic things that are being affected by these disasters, but it is also biotic things as well. In
the next lesson we will discuss living organisms and how they gain their energy. In order for the
students to understand what exactly a living organism is, they must know the difference between
biotic and abiotic factors.
Data:
Students will be split into two groups randomly. I will allow each student to come up and pick an
index card off the desk which will have an organism written on it. The abiotic organisms will go
together, and the biotic organisms will go together. At the end of the lesson, students will be
required to individually write down five biotic factors and five abiotic factors. They will turn in
those papers and I would use the results as feedback to see if the students understood the
difference between the two.
Materials:
Part of Lesson Materials Needed
Introduction  Computer
 Blank SmartBoard File
 Index Card
Teacher Directed  Computer
 Speakers
 Pens and notebooks
 Desk
 PowerPoint
 Link to song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=nQO5x8Q3e8g

Collaborative Station  Labels on each side of room

Independent Digital  Laptops

 Link to matching game:
https://matchthememory.com/Abiotic

 Link to grouping game:

https://wordwall.net/resource/642574/science/abiotic-
vs-biotic-factors
 Desk

Closure  Exit ticket

 Pens/pencils
 Desk

Procedures:
Introduction (15 minutes):
I will first stand by my classroom door and greet students as they come in. I will then take
attendance and begin the lesson. I will begin the lesson by having students brainstorm different
things that make up an ecosystem. As the students are brainstorming and giving me ideas, I will
be typing them into SmartBoard to save for the next class. I will then place index cards face
down on a desk and ask students to each come up and pick one card, but not to look at it yet.
Teacher Directed (15 minutes):
I will pull up a power point that explains what biotic and abiotic factors are. The PowerPoint will
consist of a title slide, a slide explains what an abiotic organism is, and then a slide with
examples of abiotic organisms. The next few slides will consist of what a biotic organism is with
the following slide giving examples of biotic organisms. The PowerPoint will conclude with a
video I found on YouTube that is based off of Chris Browns popular song, “Turn Up the Music”.
This will help students remember the difference between abiotic and biotic. Once the PowerPoint
is over, I will then tell students to flip over their index card but not to look at it yet.
Collaborative (30 minutes):
Once the students read what is on their card, I will have the abiotic organisms on one side of the
room and the biotic organisms on the other side of the room. The students will be allowed to ask
their peers for clues if they are stuck but their peers are not allowed to tell them the answer. The
students will then read their index card aloud and as a class we will determine if they are on the
proper side of the room or not. If a student is on the wrong side of the room, we will have to
verbally list at least three reasons as to why they should be on the other side of the room before
they move.
Independent Digital (15 minutes):
After we are finished with our class activity students will be asked to get their laptops and log on
to matchthememory.com. On that site there will be a matching game that has many cards. Some
cards say things such as ‘abiotic wind’ or ‘biotic dog’. Other cards would have an image of wind
or a dog. The students must match the card to its pair. This activity will help students recall
which factors are biotic and abiotic. If students finish early with this game, they can navigate to
wordwall.net where they can play a game that allows you to place an image of an organism in
the proper category, biotic or abiotic.
Closure (15 minutes):
When everyone has had enough time to complete their games, students will be asked to out away
their laptops and all of their materials besides a pencil. I will ask the students if they are confused
on anything and if they are I will clarify the answers. I will then pass out exit slips that require
the students to list five biotic factors, five abiotic factors, and come up with their own definition
for both of the terms. Once those exit slips are graded, I will use the data I get to determine if we
can move onto the next lesson or if we need some extra work on this one.
Rationale:
“Abiotic Biotic”:
The first piece of multimedia in this lesson is the song “Abiotic Biotic” song sung by Mr. Parr
which is a spinoff of Chris Browns popular song “Turn Up the Music”. I figured because it is to
the tune of a popular song, it would be much easier to stick in the students’ heads. The song is
also long enough that it will allow me to set up the index cards for the class activity. The lyrics
of the song give both definitions and examples of biotic and abiotic factors. The song has the
lyrics written on the screen and also shows images of charts so visual learners are able to actually
see which organisms belong in which category. For students who are more auditory learners this
song also helps them by repeating lyrics and examples of biotic and abiotic organisms. I know
this song is credible because the lyrics accurately match up with what a biotic and abiotic
organism actually are.
“Abiotic vs Biotic Memory”
The second piece of multimedia in this lesson is the game “Abiotic vs Biotic Memory” which
can be found on https://matchthememory.com/Abiotic. Growing up most kids play memory or
match at least once in their life. That being said, I thought this was a good activity for students
because they are playing a game, they are already familiar with which allows that students to
focus more on the content in the game rather than focusing on how to play the game. This game
is especially beneficial to visual learners because it shows the students both an image and the
words written out. The game would be more beneficial to students if every time you passed a
level, new organisms showed up, not just the same ones from the previous level. However, that is
why I will give students access to another game to play when they are finished.
“Abiotic vs Biotic Factors”
The third piece of multimedia in this lesson is the game “Abiotic vs Biotic Factors” which can be
found on https://wordwall.net/resource/642574/science/abiotic-vs-biotic-factors. At this point in
the lesson, majority of students should be catching on to the concept of abiotic and biotic
organisms. For that reason, I assigned my students another game with new instructions that were
easy to understand. In this game the screen shows half the screen with images of different
organisms and the other half of the screen with a t-chart – one side labeled biotic, and one side
labeled abiotic. Students then are able to click and drag the image on the left to the t-chart on the
right. At the end, when you hit submit answers, it will tell you which ones you got correct. This
game would be more beneficial if the organisms changed every time, you started a new game but
as stated before, at this point in the lesson majority of students will confidently know the
difference between biotic and abiotic.
You must have at least two paragraphs (one for each mandatory piece of multimedia)
(Multimedia 1= App or website): Why this piece of multimedia? How does it support
student learning and your standards and objectives? How do you know it is of high-
quality? Evaluate this multimedia against the LORI criteria in the 406: Evaluating
Multimedia module to support your rationale. How does this multimedia choice
differentiate instruction for all learners (consider differentiation and assistive
technologies)?

(Multimedia 2= App, website, video, educational game, song, podcast, etc.): Why this
piece of multimedia? How does it support student learning and your standards and
objectives? How do you know it is of high-quality? Evaluate this multimedia against the
LORI criteria in the 406: Evaluating Multimedia module to support your rationale. How
does this multimedia choice differentiate instruction for all learners (consider
differentiation and assistive technologies)?