SINGLE SUBJECT CREDENTIAL

PROGRAM
SCIENCE LESSON PLAN
TEMPLATE Revised 4.15
For directions on how to complete this form, see EDSC Lesson Plan Directions and Scoring Guide in the SSCP Handbook
at www.sscphandbook.org.

Name

CWID

Subject Area

Nothing cooler than absolute zero

Class Title
Biology

Biology

Lesson Title

Unit Title

Grade Levels

Ecosystems

Energy and Matter in

Ecosystems

9th

Total
Minutes
90 min
(block)

STANDARDS AND LESSON OBJECTIVES

Next Generation Science Standards
Common Core State Standard Connections
HS-LS2-3. Construct and revise an
explanation based on evidence for the
WHST.9-12.5 Develop and strengthen writing
cycling of matter and flow of energy in
as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting,
aerobic and anaerobic conditions.
or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing
HS-ETS1-4. Use a computer simulation
what is most significant for a specific purpose and
to model the impact of proposed solutions audience.
to a complex real-world problem with
numerous criteria and constraints on
interactions within and between systems
MP.2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
relevant to the problem.
Lesson Objective(s)
Evidence
Describe the effects on an ecosystem
when a disruption occurs including
Students will be able to explain the impact of
natural disaster or elimination of a
disruptions to ecosystems.
species.
STUDENT ASSESSMENT
Purpose/Focus
Feedback
How Informs
Type
Implementation
of Assessment
Strategy
Teaching
Warm-Up question:
Checks for prior
To diagnose what
Why is it
Immediate
knowledge of the
student prior
EL
important for an
feedback through
importance of various
knowledge is
ecosystem to have class discussion.
roles within an
present
predators?
ecosystem.
To provide
Virtual lab:
Immediate
students with a
http://www.mhhe. feedback given to To assess what
virtual
com/biosci/genbio students as
students know and
PM
representation of /virtual_labs_2K8/l teachers walk the what students are
how ecosystems abs/BL_21/index.h room to monitor
struggling with
are affected
tml
students progress

Informal
summative

Post-lab pop quiz

Immediate,
students will
switch quizzes
with someone in
class and we will
quickly grade as a
class.

Lets teacher know

how well students
understand the
relationships in
ecosystems and their
functions

FOCUS OF INSTRUCTION
Instructional Strategies
Link new information and/or skills to prior knowledge, review/check for prior knowledge, small
group instruction, individual instruction, reflective activities, student self-assess
Lesson Introduction/Anticipatory Set
Time
Teacher Does
Student Does
1.
Provide students with warmup question on the board: Why
1.
Students should be in assigned
is it important for an ecosystem
seats, working on their warm-up
to have predators? allow
question when class starts. They have
students about 5 minutes to
about 5 minutes to think to themselves,
answer the question.
look at their notes, and write down their
2.
Hold class discussion,
answer.
15
allowing students to share their
2.
When the teacher is ready for the
min
thoughts. Recap that
class discussion, students should be
ecosystems must have certain
willing to share their thoughts and
niches filled, such as secondary
participate in the discussion. During
or tertiary consumers, in order to
the previous days recap, students
be successful. Provide example
should be listening attentively,
that if there werent any
reminding themselves of the
predators, the primary
importance of the various roles in an
consumers (such as zebra) would
ecosystem. They may add to their
eat all of the producers, and then
notes if necessary.
the entire zebra population would
die, dismantling the ecosystem.
Lesson Body
Time
Teacher Does
Student Does
15
1. Teacher will give a brief lecture on 1. Students will take notes as the teacher
min
the different ecosystem types and
briefly lectures on the various types of
key vocabulary will be clearly
ecosystems. They will participate in Thinkidentified. Key vocabulary will be
Pair-Share as instructed throughout the
used in the virtual lab for students to lecture.
5
practice using it in their
min
writing/sentences.
2. Students will go follow along on their
handout as the teacher explains
2. Instructions for lab handout will instructions. Should ask any clarifying
be passed out to students and then
questions.
30
we
will
go
over
it
as
a
class.
(see
min
attached) Teacher will read as
3. Students will follow instructions and
students follow along. Instruct
complete the Virtual Lab with a partner of
students to only grab 1 Chromebook their choosing. They will grab one
per pair of students for the lab.
Chromebook per pair to complete the lab.
15

min

3. The Virtual Lab will be completed

in pairs. Since students will be
learning and reviewing content, they
are free to choose their partner.
Teacher will walk the room
consistently to make sure students
are staying on task and to answer
any questions.

4. After students put away

Chromebooks and return to their
seats, they will take the Post Lab Pop
Quiz individually. After they
complete their quiz, and when
instructed, students will switch
quizzes with another student for
immediate feedback on how they
did. Teacher will read off the correct
answers and clarify any questions
that the students had difficulty with.
Lesson Closure
Time
Teacher Does
1. The teacher will gain students
attention again and ask them to find
their closure section of their science
notebooks. Teacher will then begin
discussing how the lesson from is
connected to the unit as well as
connecting it to the cycling of
10
energy through a system. The
min
teacher will tell students to answer
the following in their notebook
(which will be written on the board):
Students discuss or write
What did we learn today?
So What ?(relevance,
importance, usefulness)
Now What? (how does this fit
into what we are
learning, does it affect our
thinking, can we predict
where we are going)
With about five minutes left, the
teacher will then ask the students to
turn and share what they wrote with
a partner. The teacher will walk
around the classroom during the
writing and sharing portion to keep
students on task and read and listen

4. Students will return the Chromebook to

the cart and plug in the power cord before
returning to their seats. Then they will
silently and individually take the pop quiz.
After they switch with a peer, they will
grade the quiz and then give it back so
that they know their grade. Students will
pass all quizzes to the front row to be
collected by the teacher.

Student Does
Students will quiet down and listen to
teacher when they are asked to do so.
When the teacher asks them to do so they
will turn to the closure section of their
science notebooks. Students will actively
listen to and participate in the teacher led
discussion of how todays lesson
connected to the previous days lesson as
well as the beginning of the unit by raising
their hands and answering questions when
asked. The students will then listen to the
teacher for directions and read them off of
the board. In their notebooks they will
write: What they learned, the
importance/relevance of ecosystems
knowledge, and how it fits into the
unit/where we are going next. When the
students finish writing and are instructed
to do so, they will turn to a partner and
share what they wrote to each other.

to what they are saying to identify

any misconceptions or gaps in
thinking that may be present and
can be addressed in later lessons.
Instructional Materials, Equipment, and Multimedia
Overhead projector, science notebooks, handouts, virtual lab
Co-Teaching Strategies
Parallel Teaching
DIFFERENTIATION
English Learners

Striving Readers

Students with Special

Needs

Advanced
Students

In the lecture
PowerPoint,
important
vocabulary will be
Students with special needs The virtual lab
bolded to indicate
can be given printed
allows them to
Striving readers will be
importance. Virtual
versions of the PowerPoint
pair up with
given vocabulary lists
Lab uses a lot of
slides to follow along.
other gifted
with pictures and
visuals which
Students with special needs students in the
phonetic descriptions of
makes the learning
will be grouped based on
classroom and to
the different vocabulary
experience more
their specific needs with
work at their
words. To prevent
enriching for EL
other students. In a case
own pace. We
students being forced
students rather
where a student is
will supply
to read out loud in front
than a text heavy
especially antisocial,
reading
of the classroom, we
lab/activity.
moderate personalities of
materials on a
chose to read the
Students may
other students will be
wide variety of
instructions for the lab
choose to pair with
grouped together as to not
subjects and
out loud as the students
a friend for this
cause the student any
levels for these
follow along. It is
activity and thus
additional anxiety and stress students, and all
important to keep a
feel more
on learning. Students with
others
steady pace that would
comfortable
special needs may also be
interested, in the
be easy for students to
discussing the
given additional time for the Class Library if
follow.
content. Ideally,
virtual lab if necessary
students are
this would also
during a tutorial period.
finished early.
encourage practice
of academic
vocabulary.
REFLECTION: SUMMARY, RATIONALE, AND IMPLEMENTATION
Students learn best when they see content in various methods. By providing the content
in a lecture and in a hands-on activity, we are enabling students to have a better
understanding of the content. The lesson introduction will allow students to build on prior
knowledge and connect what they already know to what the focus of the day will be. It
provides the teacher an opportunity to provide feedback and diagnose where the class is as a
whole for understanding the unit. In the Virtual Lab, students will be able to manipulate data
and see the real effects that may occur in various ecosystems. Part of the standards addressed
specifies that students will use a computer simulation since the data would be essentially
impossible for students to collect themselves since information on a large scale provides more

evidence. By taking the time to identify specific vocabulary that will be needed in the lesson,
students can begin to identify important aspects and what to focus on to not become
overwhelmed by the lesson as many students with special needs may tend to do. The lesson
closure provides students with the opportunity to identify their understanding of the lesson,
and what questions they may still have. Additionally, it provides an opportunity for the teacher
to verify that students understand how this lesson fits into the big picture of the unit.

Instructions for Virtual Lab: Model Ecosystems

1.
2.

Open the Virtual Lab entitled Model Ecosystems.

The left side of the page contains background information and

instructions in the Question area. On the bottom of the page are

the following icons for your use: Journal (these are questions that
may be answered/submitted to your instructor), Calculator
(working calculator function), Data Table (where you may be
submitting your collected data from the exercise), Audio (turns
sound on/off) and Print (prints the screen).
3.

Read the background information found under the Question

area first, and then continue on to reading the procedure

information posted there as well.
4.

At this point, you are ready to begin the lab exercise. You will

need to first open and/or print the Post-Lab Quiz and Lab Report,
which can be found on the previous page. Click on the Field Guide
on the lower portion of the activity area and read through the
information presented. When you are ready, please begin by
selecting the ecosystem type that you would like to model from the
pull down menu in the laboratory area. Then click and drag the

various organisms to their correct locations on the pyramid (note:

you must place them in just the right area of the pyramid or else
they will bounce back or replace another organismthis does not
mean that they do not belong there, just try again in a different area
of the pyramid).
5.

Complete the exercise as directed.

6.

When you are finished, please clean up your area and go back

to your seat.

Name_______________________________________ Period______

Post-laboratory Quiz
1. The ultimate source of energy for most ecosystems is:
a. Carbon
b. Oxygen
c. Sunlight
d. Water
2. Organisms that directly use energy from the sun to make their own food are
called:
a. Autotrophs
b. Heterotrophs
c. Carnivores
d. Decomposers

3. Which of the following illustrates the correct ordering of trophic levels?

a. Decomposers carnivores autotrophs herbivores
b. Herbivores autotrophs carnivores decomposers
c. Autotrophs herbivores carnivores decomposers
d. None of the above
4. Within an ecosystem:
a. Energy flows in one direction only and nutrients are recycled
b. Energy is recycled and nutrients flow in one direction only
c. Energy and nutrients flow in one direction only
d. Energy and nutrients are both recycled
5. The efficiency of energy transfer from a lower trophic level to the next
highest level is roughly:
a. 1%
b. 5%
c. 10%
d. 50%
6. In aquatic ecosystems, biomass is lowest at which trophic level?
a. Autotrophs
b. Herbivores
c. Carnivores
7. You are in an area where there are squid, seals and penguins. You are most
likely in which ecosystem?
a. Deciduous forest
b. Hot Desert
c. Antarctic Ocean Shore
d. Grassland
8. You find yourself in an area where there are snakes, hawks and coyotes.
Based upon these animal populations, you are most likely in which ecosystem?
a. Deciduous forest
b. Hot Desert
c. Grassland
d. You cannot tell from this information
9. You are in an area where the ground is littered with what appear to be dry,
dead leaves. You are most likely in which ecosystem?
a. Deciduous forest
b. Hot Desert
c. Grassland
d. You cannot tell from this information
10. This zone has the greatest concentration of plankton in a freshwater lake
ecosystem:
a. Profundal
b. Littoral
c. Limnetic