Title of Lesson: Science Unit A, Ch. 2, Lesson 2: Animals Classification
Subject: Science
Grade Level(s): 4
Purpose
Students Will:
- Classify animals with backbones into groups of mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, and fish based on their features and description.
Description
- Students will be given a list of animals in which their will classify into groups of mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, and fish.
- In this lesson, students will learn and master the classification skill; a very important science skill that they will use in other subjects and in real life.
- Students will work in groups to help one another classify the given animals.
- Students will use two websites listed under “other resources” below to quiz themselves on animal classification for practice.
- Students will turn in the final product of their classification of animals in word document form by either emailing it to the teacher or print out a hard copy and submit it in person.
Activities
Preparation
- A projector to display the teacher’s screen for instruction
- A computer with Internet access for the teacher to visit the sites listed below.
- A computer with Internet access and word processing software for every two students if available. If not, students will follow along as the teacher explores the pages.
Step by step description of what students and teacher will do throughout lesson
1. Have students read pages A46-A47 silently to themselves.
- discuss the features of fish and amphibians.
2. Visit http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html
- Click on Amphibians to show pictures of amphibians
- Click on Bony Fishes to show pictures of fish Use a variety of media and technology resources for directed and independent learning activities. (1, 3)
3. Have students read pages A48-A49 silently to themselves.
- discuss the features of reptiles and examples of reptiles.
4. Visit http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html
- Click on Reptiles to show pictures of reptiles, notice that birds are listed on the list as well. Make sure students understand that birds have their own group.
5. Have students read pages A50-A51 silently to themselves.
- discuss the features of birds.
6. Visit http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html
- Click on Birds to show pictures of birds
7. Have students read pages A52-A53 silently to themselves.
- discuss the features of birds.
8. Visit http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html
- Click on Mammals to show pictures of mammals
9. Have students visit the following two websites to self
assess.
http://www.quia.com/cm/1130.html
http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/critters/critters.html
Workcooperatively and collaboratively with peers, family members, and others when using technology in the classroom. (2)
10. Give students a list of 20 animals that they might see at the zoo.
11. Have students open a word processing program. Use keyboards and other common input and output devices (including adaptive devices when necessary) efficiently and effectively. (1)
12. Have students open the file named: ClassifyAnimals.doc
- File > Open > ClassifyAnimals.doc
13. Have students open Internet Explorer and type kids.yahoo.com into the address bar – here, they can search for each animal by typing the name of the animal into the “search” box. Use developmentally appropriate multimedia resources (e.g., interactive books, educational software, elementary multimedia encyclopedias) to support learning. (1)
14. Have students read the description for each animal. On the word document, they will classify the animals into their correct groups based on the picture provided and their descriptions and features. Evaluate the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness, and bias of electronic information sources. (6)
15. Once completed, the students need to save the document.
- File > Save As… > Students’ Names_ClassifyAnimals.doc
Tools and Resources
Software
Microsoft Word or other word processing document
Hardware
Computer
Web Sites
Teacher
Resources
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/vertebrates.htm
> StudentResources
http://www.zooschool.ecsd.net/classification.htm
http://www.kidport.com/RefLib/Science/Animals/Animals.htm
http://www.kidport.com/RefLib/Science/Animals/AnimalIndexV.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/11234/
OtherResources
http://www.quia.com/cm/1130.html
http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/critters/critters.html
Assessment
Studentscorrectly classify at least 20 of 25 animals on the list given them.
NETS Performance Indicators addressed in each student activity
-Use a variety of media and technology resources for directed and independent learning activities. (1, 3)
-Work cooperatively and collaboratively with peers, family members, and others when using technology in the classroom. (2)
-Use keyboards and other common input and output devices (including adaptive devices when necessary) efficiently and effectively. (1)
-Use developmentally appropriate multimedia resources (e.g., interactive books, educational software, elementary multimedia encyclopedias) to support learning. (1)
Evaluate the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness, and bias of electronic information sources. (6)
Comments
(Your thoughts on this lesson as a whole. Why do you use it? Why do you believe it works well with students? What lasting skills do you believe students glean as a process of completing this lesson?)
Teaching science is one of my favorite subject. Integrating science technology into science is something I like to do often because it gets my students excited to see things with their own eyes and judge for themselves. Students might say that a whale is a fish, but it is in fact a mammal and they agreed that it is a mammal only after I show them clearly the features of a whale that makes it a mammal, not a fish. I put the category “fish” on the sheet to see how my students classify the dolphin and the whale when in fact, there is not fish on the list of animals.
The skills I wish to teach student is that they know how to find information they need on the web. This is a skill that they must possess when they do bigger research projects later on in their educational career. Kids.yahoo.com is a good resource for kids because it is filtered. However, students still need to decide which link to click on for the information that they need. The sample student did exactly as I wanted her to do-use the encyclopedia to get her information.
