Technology Standards

1T-E2: Demonstrate increasingly sophisticated operation of technology components.
3T-E3: Publish and present information using technology tools.

4SC-E1: Construct classification systems based on the structure of organisms.

Academic

• Students will create a classification system based on physical characteristics of plants and animals.
• Students will demonstrate the difference between living, non-living, and dead things by taking digital pictures of examples in each category.
• Students will create a digital slide show to demonstrate their understanding of living, non-living, and dead things.

• Students will be able to use the digital camera to take pictures of examples of living, non-living, and dead things.
• Students will create a slide show incorporating their digital pictures.

Materials
Digital camera
Classroom computer
Microsoft PowerPoint or similar presentation program, such as HyperStudio
Tom Snyder’s Science Court: Living Things CD-ROM (optional)
Pictures of various animals for classification activity
Information on the major animal phyla

Accommodations for Special Needs
Special education students will be placed in groups where they will receive support from other students.  Their requirements might also be
changed based on Individual Education Plans.  English Language Learners will also be placed in groups that are supportive.  Requirements
for these students may be changed, again based on individual need.

Procedures
As an introduction to this topic, I used Tom Snyder's Science Court: Living Things CD-ROM.  I obtained this CD-ROM from our district media center.  This CD-ROM is to be used as a whole class and introduces students to the concepts of living versus dead and non-living things.  As an alternative, a more traditional lesson on the differences between living, non-living, and dead things could be conducted.

This lesson will be set up as different centers through which the students will rotate.  I set up two of each station so I could have smaller groups (about 4 students per group).  I plan on about 30 minutes per center, knowing that students will need more time to finish their presentations.

Centers will consist of::
Digital camera station:  Students will use the two school-owned digital cameras to go around the school and take pictures of examples of living, non-living, and dead things.  Students will be given precise time and boundary guidelines for this activity.  Students will also use this group time to begin creating their PowerPoint presentations.  These PowerPoint presentations will consist of a title slide and slides for each category: living, non-living, and dead.  Each slide should tell which category the picture belongs to, include the picture, and explain why the item in the picture fits the category.

If extra time is needed, groups will be given extra time during class to finish their presentations. To speed up this process, a basic PowerPoint template could be created, and the students would just need to type in their information and add their pictures.

Create a classification system station:  Students will create their own classification system using pictures supplied by the teacher.  Pictures to use include: elephant, dolphin, coral, sea urchin, tree, flower, vegetable, bird, bacteria, person, horse, cat, fish.  Students will work together to create several categories and place the pictures in those categories.  Students will need to explain their rationale for the groupings.

Animal phyla station:  Students will be provided with basic descriptions of the major animal phyla.  They will use this information to place different animals into the proper scientific classification.

To wrap up this lesson, the students will present their PowerPoint presentations to the class.  They will also share their classification systems.  Students could give their classification and have the class try to place the organisms in the correct groups. We will also discuss the different animal phyla in detail

Assessment
Assessment will be based on:

PowerPoint presentations: students will be assessed on the identification of items as living, non-living, and dead and the content of the slides (why is this item in this group).  The design of the PowerPoint presentation is not as important.  It needs to be easy to view and uncluttered.

Classification system:  the created classification system will be assessed based on the rationale given for the groupings.  I am not necessarily looking for the correct scientific classifications, but rather groupings based on a logic that is explain.

Animal phyla activity: this activity will be assessed on whether or not students placed the given animals in the correct groups.

Teacher Name: Liesl Mitchell
Site: Coronado K-8
Date Submitted: October 26, 2001