Science Lesson

1. Standard 2: Students will understand that organisms depend on living and nonliving things within their environment.
• Objective 2
Describe the interactions between living and nonliving things in a small environment.
• Identify living and nonliving things in a small environment (e.g., terrarium, aquarium, flowerbed) composed of living and nonliving things.
For this activity, the students will look at pond water through the electron scanning microscope to identify living and nonliving organisms. They will be working in groups. To help them identity the living organisms, they can use the virtual pond dip website to gain more knowledge about the organisms. They will fill out a chart of their observations, which will include at least 5 living and 2 nonliving organisms.

2. We will be using a guided lesson plan to allow the students to discover living and nonliving things in pond water on their own. We will also be using inquiry-based learning so that students can discover the difference through observation instead of direct instruction. This fits well because it is easier to understand the difference between living and nonliving things through actual observation than an explanation from a teacher.

3. We will be using the virtual electron scanning microscope to observe pond water. The students will use the virtual pond dip (found at: http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/index.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/ponddip/index.html) to help discover living and nonliving organisms. This is a good fit because it allows them to see the actual living and non-living organisms as well as learn about them through virtual interaction.

Link to Chart

http://casnov1.cas.muohio.edu/scienceforohio/living_nonliving/images/classifylivingnon.pdf