Lesson 2

Name CWID Subject Area

Emily Bertrand Foundational Level Life Science

Henry Chi
Erin Crowley

Class Title Lesson Title Unit Title Grade Total Minutes

Levels

Science Food Webs Natural 6-8 3 Days

Resources

STANDARDS AND LESSON OBJECTIVES

Next Generation Science Standards Common Core State Standard Connections

MS-LS2-2. RST.6–8.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support

Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of
interactions among organisms across multiple
ecosystems.[Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on
predicting consistent patterns of interactions in
different ecosystems in terms of the relationships
among and between organisms and abiotic
components of ecosystems. Examples of types of
interactions could include competitive, predatory, and
mutually beneficial.]
analysis of science and technical texts.
WHST.6–8.2.a–f Write informative/explanatory
texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific
procedures/experiments, or technical processes.
SL.8.1.a–d Engage effectively in a range of collaborative
discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with
diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues,
building on others’ ideas and expressing their own
clearly.

Lesson Objective(s) Evidence

Anchoring Phenomena: Initial Food Chain: Students will be working on creating

Interdependent relationships in ecosystems.
Lesson Level:
Students will be able to construct an explanation
through modeling that predicts patterns of
interactions among organisms of multiple ecosystems
at Yosemite.
an initial food chain model with their prior knowledge.
(engage)
BrainPop Food Chains: Students will use information
from food chain to understand the different levels
branching out to elaborate the food web and interactions
between species. (explore, explain, elaborate)

Final Food Web w/ Yosemite organisms: Students will

Driving Question: use their knowledge from the entire lessons before to
What ecosystem interactions did the Grizzly have with create a finalized food web model to understand patterns
its surroundings when it was alive in California? across multiple ecosystems and the interactions between
them. (evaluate)

STUDENT ASSESSMENT
 Type Purpose/Focus of Implementation Feedback Strategy How Informs Teaching
Assessment

EL Check if students Students will write the Immediate via Will inform teacher if class
understand prior answer to a given warm- discussion has appropriate background
content, and what up questions Teacher will give any knowledge or if there are
they know about individually. They will needed clarification any misconceptions.
upcoming topics. then share with both based on inaccurate Teacher can gauge class to
their partners and the answers specific areas of
class. misconceptions this way to
differentiate instructions
between periods.

F Checks students Teacher will conduct Progress monitoring This informs the teacher of
understanding of progress monitoring feedback will be how well the students are
the concepts during throughout lessons. immediate. The understanding the
the lesson Students will be teacher will be able information being taught.
completing an exit slip to correct either a This will allow for re-
on day two to see if they small groups of teaching prior to summative
are on track. Questions students or the assessment if it is
to be asked should be entire class if the necessary. Teacher should
connecting grizzly bears problem persists. be looking for the
to where they lie in the Exit slip feedback understanding of
food web and how the will be next day, as decomposers, producers,
interactions between the teacher will and consumers. Teacher
organisms may have receive them at the should be sparking interest
changed since they have end of the class with Grizzly bear and if food
been gone. period. webs have changed since
then.

SSN Check success of Teacher evaluates Next day feedback Will inform teacher if
lesson and content students final models content was learned or if
knowledge any reteaching needs to be
done. Teacher should be
looking at student models,
NET skills, and
argumentation skills as
they will adapt their food
webs as a resource to add
to their CER of grizzly
bears.

FOCUS OF INSTRUCTION

Instructional Strategies

Technology in classroom, use of visuals, group discussions, graphic organizer, group collaboration.

Day 1

Time Teacher Does Student Does

 • Teacher will present students with the warm-
up question: “In what ways do organisms
interact within an environment?”
• Teacher will instruct students to share their
answer with their neighbor
• Teacher will randomly call on three students
to share their answers with the class
• Teacher will give students pieces of paper
with different Yosemite organisms on them.
• Teacher will instruct students to organize
different organisms according to
relationships they may have, teacher
requests students to explain how they
organized the animals
1 Day
• Teacher will ask students to share their
answers with the class and then explain why
they sorted the way they did
• Teacher will ask students to sort them into a
food chain if they have not already done so
• Teacher will explain the basics of food
chains and how they relate to food webs
Day 2
Time Teacher Does
• Teacher will present students with the warm-
up question: “What do you think happens
when an important prey (food) organism is
taken out of an environment”
• Teacher will instruct students to share their
answer with their neighbor
• Teacher will randomly call on three students
to share their answers with the class
• Teacher will give the students the online
activity which reviews food chains and intros
food webs
• Teacher will conduct a brief lecture on
1 Day organism roles within an ecosystem such as
competition, predation, and mutualism, and
food webs
• Teacher will provide students with the link to
the National Park Service website so they
can research the different organisms of
Yosemite National Park
• Teacher will provide students with the list of
Yosemite animals for their food web which
they can choose to research
• Teacher will instruct students to use their
data on the given animals and their
• Students will individually answer the
warm-up question
• Students will share their answer
with their neighbor
• Students will be prepared to
possibly share their answer with the
class
• Students will receive the different
Yosemite organisms and begin to
think about how they relate to each
other
• Students will create a initial model
of what relationships different
organisms have
• Students will be prepared to share
their examples and explanations
with the class
• Students will reorganize their
organisms into a food chain if they
had not already done so
• Students will actively pay attention
to the information on food chains
and how they relate to food webs
Student Does
• Students will individually answer the
warm-up question
• Students will share their answer
with their neighbor
• Students will be prepared to
possibly share their answer with the
class
• Students will briefly take notes on
organism interactions within an
ecosystem and food webs
• Students will use the given National
Parks website to research the list of
given animals
• Students will take notes on animals
eating habits and identify different
relationships those animals have
with other organisms
• Students will work in their lab
groups to create an initial food web
of animals from Yosemite National
Park
 knowledge of food webs to create a food
web within their lab groups

Day 3

Time Teacher Does Student Does

• Teacher will present students with the warm-
up question: “How is a food web more stable
than a food chain when discussing flow of
energy through an ecosystem?”
• Teacher will instruct students to share their
answer with their neighbor
• Teacher will randomly call on three students
to share their answers with the class
• Teacher will instruct students to get their
initial food webs out
• Teacher will give each group a piece of
paper to place by their food web
• Teacher will instruct students to do a gallery
walk and write any feedback or suggestions
1 Day
on the paper next to the model
• After the gallery walk, the teacher will
instruct students to edit and finalize their
model
• Teacher will collect the final food webs
• Students will individually answer the
warm-up question
• Students will share their answer
with their neighbor
• Students will be prepared to
possibly share their answer with the
class
• Students will take out their initial
food web
• Students will place the extra piece
of paper next to their initial food
webs
• Students will conduct gallery walk
and give feedback and suggestions
to the other food webs
• After the gallery walk, students will
finalize their food webs
• Students will turn in their final food
webs

Instructional Materials, Equipment, and Multimedia

PowerPoints for all three days

Projector
Chromebooks
Paper
Animal Lists
Animal Pictures for food chain
National Park Service site: https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/nature/animals.htm
Food web worksheet

Intro to Monday: http://projects.plattebasintimelapse.com/prp_a/food_chain.html

Food Chain/Web Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33pC31rw9bM
Food Chain Graphic Organizer: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1b4Wh0we0na8V-VxghT2uOctHTNo_nzYp

English Striving Readers Students with Special Advanced Students

Learners Needs

Directions given Powerpoint slides with Understanding checks, Higher reading level text
multiple times, broken up texts, graphic visuals, graphic organizers
use of visuals, organizer, scaffolding
scaffolding instructions
instructions

Safety
There are no safety concerns for this lesson.

Technology

The technology that will be used during this lesson is Chromebooks, PowerPoint, the National Park Service
website, online food chain/web activity

REFLECTION: SUMMARY, RATIONALE, AND IMPLEMENTATION

The reason we went with these type of instructional strategies was to practice the key components of epistemic
practices we wanted the students to focus on. We honed in on modeling, NET, and argumentation because of
our anchoring question of “Why are there no Grizzlies in California?” We wanted the lesson to be driven through
argumentation mostly with modeling and NET to be the evidence and skills they gain to conduct the investigation.
This allows the students to progressively build on top of previous work and knowledge to solidify a strong claim
with evidence they gained throughout the lesson for a strong, coherent reasoning.

Overall, we believe the students will have a better understanding of how an organism can provide huge impact to
an ecosystem simply by existing. This lesson was designed with the 5E model and allows students to practice
epistemic skills and apply them to the overarching question of “Why are there no Grizzlies in California?”

Implementation:
Day 1 - Access prior knowledge and understand where the class is with the topic/misconceptions at hand. The
engage piece will be the students playing with cut outs of animals at yosemite to create one food chain.

Day 2 - Explore will be the students taking the knowledge they gained yesterday to interact with a webercise
activity that then turns into an explain/elaborate activity of introducing a food web and how food chains add up to a
food web. We would then show a BrainPOP video that explains the food chain of a bear that leads to the greater
food web to tie the greater unit question to this lesson. They would understand that food chain/webs always have a
producer and consumer.

Day 3 - This day will be focused on allowing the teacher to evaluate the students learning of what a food chain is
and allow the teacher to ask probing and higher order thinking questions of where the grizzly may fit or what may
have happened during the time when the grizzly was wiped out. The students will be able to take all their
information from previous days and apply it to create an evidence piece for the greater unit.