Lesson Title: Parts of an Ecosystem/Earth’s Spheres Subject: Science

Unit Title: Sustainable Ecosystems Time Required: 75 minutes

Teacher Candidate: Amy Urquhart Date: Monday Dec. 4th, 2017
Mentor Teacher: Rishad Pravez Grade: 9

Learning Goals (What do you want the students to know or be able to do at the end of the lesson?)
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Understand the different parts of an ecosystem
- Understand how changes in one part of an ecosystem impact/influence other parts
- Identify Earth’s four spheres (B3.4)
- Describe the relationship that must exist between earth’s spheres to maintain diversity and sustainability
(B3.4)

Success Criteria (What will you observe that tells you that students are successful?)
Students can:
- Discuss how the parts of an ecosystem interconnect with each other
- List and define Earth’s spheres

Accommodations (How will you meet the needs of your students? What management strategies will you use?)
- Post note to D2L
- Circulate throughout the room during the hook activity to engage with students and answer any
questions/confusions
- Extra time to finish the note

Background Knowledge Required (What prior knowledge and or experiences need to be in place?)
- Knowledge of the various plant/animal species in the surrounding community
- Basic understanding of how human activities influence ecosystems

Assessment (How will you know that the students have achieved the learning expectation? What assessment tool will you use?)
- Assessment as learning: brainstorming during the hook activity (diagnostic)

Instructional Strategies (Which teaching strategies will you use? how will you group the students?
 Independent Work  Cooperative Learning  Summarizing & Note taking  Identifying similarities/differences
 Homework & Practice  Visual & Graphic Organizers  Questions  Generating & Testing Hypotheses
 Goal setting & Feedback  Problem Solving

Materials
Hook activity:
- Labels/cards
- Yarn
- Whiteboard
Note:
- Computer
- Projector
Instruction (How will the students develop the knowledge and /practice the skills?.)
Duration Activity/Task
Introduction (How will you engage and motivate the students?)
Ecosystems activity (hook/diagnostic)
25 minutes - Step 1: Brainstorm parts of the ecosystem surrounding Sandalwood
- Step 2: Brainstorm what factors (natural and human) influence this ecosystem
- Step 3: Students will complete the ecosystem activity
o Divide class into 3 groups & hand out the food chains/yarn
o Each group will use yarn to create their specific food chain
o How do these food chains interconnect with each other? Create a food web
by using a different colour of yarn to show these connections
o Recall brainstorm of factors that influence ecosystems from earlier; which
ones may impact this ecosystem? Show these impacts by dropping the yarn
- Step 4: Have a brief class discussion on a) what students learned, b) what may have
surprised them, c) how or what this activity made them think/feel

Lesson Steps (Describe the sequence of the lesson.)

- Introduce and hand out the mind map for the unit
o Information should be added throughout the unit
o Periodic completion checks (learning skills)
10 minutes o Periodic feedback (for learning)
o Hand in for assessment of learning after the Unit Test

25 minutes - Students will copy the note ‘Ecology Introduction’

Conclusion (How will you wrap-up the lesson?)

- Hand out the unit vocabulary sheet (Quiz: Monday Dec. 11th)
15 minutes - Students will start to fill it out

Next Steps (What would you plan as a follow-up to this lesson? What homework would you assign?)
Students will finish filling out the vocabulary list on their own time
Vocabulary Quiz: Monday December 11th, 2017