Activity Description/Rationale
Students will examine the species’ profiles that the class has been completing for the past several weeks. By working through the activity sheet, students will learn more about local coastal species they may encounter, and simultaneously review for their first quiz, which covers the sandy beach, rocky shore, and salt marsh ecosystems.
Estimated Time of Activity:
One 90 minute period
Goals: Process Skills, Content Knowledge, Attitudes: Students will…
compare and contrast the appearances and adaptations of organisms to the three different ecosystems
Materials
• Activity sheets
• Quizzes
• Literature Review Guidelines
Pre-Activity
Students exchange and grade salt marsh species’ profiles. The instructor has already displayed the beach and rocky shore organisms on different walls, possibly separating the organisms into phyla or at least kingdom.
After grading marsh species’ profiles, students display these in the place designated by the instructor.
Activity Instructions:
- After grading marsh species’ profiles, students display these in the place designated by the instructor.
- Students compare and contrast the appearances and adaptations of organisms to the three different ecosystems, using the activity sheet provided.
- Students take quiz. Quiz is generated from previous three lessons.
- Students select the ecosystem of greatest interest to them.
- Using the guidelines, students create an outline for a literature review on the human impacts and historical uses of the ecosystem of your choice (salt marsh, rocky shore, sandy beach)
Assignments:
Students find a bring one piece of reference material for each section of literature review.
Assessment:
Students pass quiz
Instructor’s Notes:
Teaching students to grade each other’s work is time consuming at first but it is worth it. First, it alleviates some of the burden from teachers. More importantly, by understanding how and practicing critiquing others’ work, a student is better able to understand how he/ she is graded.