I
was amazed at the variety of life my students were able to find in virtually
every drop of pond water.
Daphnia Lover--Teacher
Micro Elementary
Cosm, OH
Why did I choose this inquiry?
I choose this inquiry because I had previously done microcosms with
my students to teach about producers, consumers, and food chains. They
didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted them too. So, I thought I would
follow this lesson and see if it was more effective than the way I had
taught the students previously. It also had several objectives that
are in my course of study (Classify animals as producers or consumers.
Trace the flow of energy through a food chain.)
What did I like about this
inquiry?
I really liked how observation skills were integrated throughout the
lesson. It was extremely helpful for the students to have pictures of
the organisms they were looking for. I felt it was very effective to
have the students explain what they learned after each major part of
the lesson. It gave me insight into what they truly understood and what
they didn't. The students enjoyed using the microscopes.
What would you change about
this inquiry?
This inquiry was a bit too abstract in places for my third graders.
The organisms were so small that I am not sure that the living organisms
seemed truly real to the students. Third graders need things that they
can touch and manipulate over and over.
Constructing Microcosms
& Identifying Living Organisms
I went to East Fork Lake to a small naturally occurring pond and got
3 five gallon buckets per the instructions. I think it would be much
more effective for the students to construct the microcosms at the lake.
We used baby food jars to create our microcosms. They were really much
too small for my third graders to manipulate well and study effectively.
I wished we had used bigger jars. When we identified creatures in our
microcosms, we decided to circle them first on the worksheet that had
all the creatures on it, and identify them later. I then made a blank
jar and had students draw in only the organisms they found in their
individual microcosms. They also had to show the food chain on one side
of their jars and how energy flows and matter recycles on the other
side of their jars. Next, we did a class tally of all the organisms
that we found, and we labeled them producer or consumer. Then, we made
a list of all the consumers and producers. Finally, I assigned each
student a living organism on the list of living organisms' page. We
did mini-reports on all the organisms so the students could get an idea
of what each organism was.
Polluting Microcosms With
Rice
I felt this part of the inquiry was more difficult for my students.
I think the students need to have more experience with variables and
observation skills for this part of the lesson to be more effective
for their age level. My students had a great deal of trouble understanding
what a variable was. The concept was too abstract for them. While doing
the Venn diagram observations, I think asking them questions and having
them make that observation and then filling in the Venn diagrams would
be much more effective than just letting them write random observations.
Proficiency Assessment
The vocabulary was much too difficult for my students to be able to
answer the questions well. My students were not familiar with the format
that the questions were in. For example, inserting "did not" and "significant
negative result." The students were trying to understand new concepts
as it was, and to try and make them think in the opposite direction
was just too difficult for them. As the teacher, I would like to have
had the correct answers to the proficiency assessment as well whether
the students were supposed to explain their answers or not. There were
no exact directions on what to do in that part of the assessment.
Resources to Connect This
Activity To A Unit of Instruction
I teach a unit on animals that includes producers, consumers, and food
chains. I used the following books to connect the food chains found
in microcosms to the food chains found throughout nature. They were
Who Eats What? By Patricia Lauber, and The Barn Owl. I also used Guide
To Microlife by Kenneth G. Rainus to help with identification of living
organisms. I also had the students use the website http:www.enchanted
learning.com for research.
Comments
We enjoyed the lesson. I would do this lesson again with bigger jars
and construct the microcosms at the lake. However, I would practice
observation skills and introduce working with variables before I did
it again. I would also construct a more guided observation for the Venn
diagrams. I would construct new proficiency questions as well. I would
love to do this lesson during the summer Science for Ohio workshop and
have someone show me these creatures in real life so I could be sure
on how to identify them.
Karen Vome
Third Grade Teacher
Western Row Elementary
Mason, OH 45040
It occurred to me when we
were in the middle of our unit on cells that I had what was needed to
do part of this unit already in my classroom. When I took the GREEN
Institute class last July, I got to make 2 microcosms at Gillmore Pond,
and when our sixth graders spent time at Camp Kern in September, I made
a microcosm there just for the fun of it. All were green and had some
signs of life in them, so I took advantage of the opportunity. The kids
were surprised by how little biodiversity was actually in the jars.
One jar from Gillmore Pond was very dark green with algae, and they
all predicted it was rich in life. The second jar was a lighter color,
and the Camp Kern jar was pitiful---there was a snail and a trace of
algae, but nothing else visible to the eye. We found very little on
our slides, probably because our microscopes are not real effective.
It really got fun, though, when I got out a bio-projector (a microscope
that projects the image up onto a screen) and one of my students found
a worm-like critter that slid in and out of a long tube. The kids debated
as to whether the critter was actually the tongue of the mass visible
on the slide, or the body of the animal. Next year, I know I will need
a microcosm per table group or per every three or four students. I intend
to spend some time collecting and creating new microcosms from around
the area. Since we had so little life visible under our microscopes,
I didn't think it productive to complete the separate sheets for producers
and consumers. The creek running through our village is actually more
of a rainfall overflow drainage system rather than a potentail source
of microcosms, but it probably wouldn't hurt to take a sample from there
and have the kids tryÊmaking their own next fall.
Sheryl Melvin
Fifth/Sixth Grade Teacher
Mariemont Elementary School
Cincinnati, Ohio 45227
Thanks for your feedback, Sheryl. As with your experience, I've had
mixed success with microcosm diversity in early spring. September and
May seem to be the peak school months for finding diversity in microcosms.
John Farmer
Science for Ohio Project
