Itzel Carrillo

SED 482

Lesson Plan
Ecosystems
Grade: 9-10

Time Length: 50 minutes

Big Idea
How do human activities impact the environment and biodiversity?

Lesson Overview
Teacher will discuss with students what evidence is. Teacher will then make
connection with students lives by asking if they have observed any type, of what
they may believe is negative human impact. Students will discuss amongst
themselves and share with the classroom what they have observed and why they
think it is a negative human impact on the environment based on evidence. Teacher
will present a PowerPoint detailing key points of different human impacts, which
will help students be able to identify them while doing their assignment. Teacher
will ask students to share if they have seen or heard about any environmental risks
being discussed. Students will then be given an article on an environmental risk
and students will do a written assignment, using the questions who, what, why,
when, where and how. Teacher will close, with asking students to fill out an exit
ticket discussing how the environmental risk they read about impacts them and
what might be one solution and evidence. STELLA practice is contextualization.

Standards
Next Generation Standards:
HS-LS2-7: Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities
on the environment and biodiversity.* [Clarification Statement: Examples of human activities
can include urbanization, building dams, and dissemination of invasive species.]
Arizona College and Career Readiness Standards:
Strand 3: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
Concept 1: Changes in Environments: Describe the interactions between human populations,
natural hazards, and the environment.
PO.1

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SED 482
PO.3
PO.5
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.1
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts, attending to the
precise details of explanations or descriptions.

Lesson Learning Objective and Assessment

SWBT identify and describe environmental risks by using specific evidence from data and text to
support their analysis.
Students will demonstrate that they met the objective by.
Students will be given an article on an environmental risk and will be tested through a two
paragraph written assignment on how well they can identify a human caused environmental issue
through the use of proper vocabulary. Students will focus their written assignment on: what
happened, how it happened, who may have caused it, where it happened, when it happened, and
reasons why, using specific clues/examples from the article.

Scientific Practices and Associated Language Functions

Scientific Practices:
Analyzing and interpreting data and text
Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information.
Receptive Language Functions:
Read article to identify environmental impact
Interpret and develop understanding of a topic using a graphic organizer
Productive Language Functions:
Communicate ideas in writing
Communicate solution and identified environmental risk orally and written
Key Vocabulary:
Pollution
Pollutant
Hazardous waste
Air pollution
Acid rain
Water Pollution
Global Warming
Deforestation
Oil spills
Overpopulation
Habitat destruction

Itzel Carrillo
SED 482

Materials

PowerPoint with plenty of visuals

Sticky notes
Journal/current event of an environmental risk
A 5 Ws & H questions organizer/guide to help students write their assignment
Exit slip

Resources

5 Ws & How organizer- http://www.studenthandouts.com/Assortment-01/GraphicOrganizers/five-w-s-and-how-worksheet.gif

Air Pollution Article- http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/17/science/la-sci-sn-airpollution-causes-lung-cancer-20131017
Acid Rain Article- http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/globalwarming/acid-rain-overview/
Water Pollution Articlehttp://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/land-edge-coasts/
Global warming Article- http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/globalwarming/gw-causes
Deforestation Article- http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/globalwarming/deforestation-overview/
Oil Spills- http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/100504-scienceenvironment-gulf-oil-spill-dead-zone/
Overpopulation Articlehttp://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/california-wild-crusade/
Habitat Destruction- http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-marinehabitat-destruction/?source=A-to

Prerequisite Knowledge

Student must have a well understanding of what an ecosystem is.

Teaching Procedures and Annotated SSTELLA Practices

Itzel Carrillo
SED 482
1. Teacher will begin by writing on the board the main question students will focus on and
keep in mind throughout the lesson. How human activity negatively affects the
environment?
2. Start PowerPoint with the discussion question. How will you define your personality?
What proof do you have that defines your personality? Students will share this with the
whole class. Teacher will allow a discussion to last for about 10 minutes.
[SSTELLA ANNOTATION: The teacher strives to help students understand the relevance
of the lesson via personal experiences (contextualization). Student contributions may
guide instruction during the lesson.]
3. Teacher will then place an image of a pond with a lot of trash and ask students to share
what they think is happening. Then students will be asked to support their claim with
actual proof from the picture.
4. Teacher will then discuss and define evidence and let students know that in the past short
activities they have been identifying a claim and then supporting it with evidence.
5. Teacher will begin the PowerPoint on the main human impacts. The PowerPoint will
include a picture and few main points that identify each as a human impact.
6. Teacher will discuss and introduce various environmental risks using a PowerPoint and as
teacher discusses environmental risk, teacher will make connections to students
responses from previous question and will tell students to make connections with their
observations. [TECHNOLOGY ANNOTATION: Use of powerpoint and visuals to assist
comprehension of the instructions]
7. Teacher will provide fill in the blank notes for students to follow along with powerpoint,
so students have a clear background of each human impact on the environment.
8. After finishing notes teacher will ask students to discuss with a partner one
environmental risk discussed in powerpoint that might have a huge impact on their lives
and how? Students will discuss this for about 5 minutes
9. Have at least two students share with the whole class.
10. Teacher will discuss written assignment to students.
11. Teacher will pass out a 5Ws & How organizer which students will be required to fill out
before writing their short written summary.
12. Teacher will pass out to each student an article on one of the environmental risks
presented in the PowerPoint.
13. Students will then be required to quietly read their article. As they read students must
underline any interesting facts and circle any unknown words. (10 minutes)
14. After reading the article students will fill out their 5Ws & How worksheet using specific
quotes or references from the article.
15. Students will take 10 minutes to share with a partner what they read and referencing to
their 5Ws & How organizer.
16. Students will be given time in class to start their summary using the 5Ws & How on
their article. The summary should have key vocabulary and specific references and
supportive evidence from their article. Students will also be required to have at least a
one sentence suggestion of a solution that can help improve or eliminate the
environmental risk they read about.
17. Students will turn in and present to the class their article and summary the following day
in class to allow them more time to finish writing their summery.

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SED 482
18. Students will fill out an exit slip discussing in 2-3 sentences using key vocabulary and
answering the following question: Think about certain activities you have observed
around your community that may negatively affect the environment. How has it impacted
your community? Write 2-3 supportive evidence from your observations.

Presentation/Summary:

5Ws & How Organizer completed

o Must have specific quotes or references to article
Summary
o Environmental risk being discussed in article is identified
o Addresses the who, what, where, when, why and how.
o Specific quotes and references from article
o One solution

Rubric for reading:

Text:___________________________
Summary of what you read in your own words:
Use 5ws and How organizer to help guide through reading and summary:
Rating:
10= clear, concise, uses 3 to 5 evidence from article/data that helped identify the environmental
risk being discussed and 2-3 solutions to help eliminate risk.
8= somewhat clear, uses 2 to 3 evidence from article/data that helped identify the environmental
risk and 1 to 2 solutions.
6= several sentences are not clear but makes 2 evidence from article/data that helped identify the
environmental risk and only one solution
4= not relevant and quotes directly from text without explanation and no solutions.
0=not completed

Presentation:
o 5 minute presentation discussing the 5Ws & How on the article
o Solution
o How it affects their lives