Teacher's Page
Biology Webquest- Life After Extinction
Alisa Hughes
Overview of Lesson Context
Grade Level- 4th
Overview: It is important for students to know that all organisms play vital roles in our ecosystem. By using inquiry, students can play out in their minds what would happen without certain organisms. They can consider the niche of a selected organism and how its disappearance would affect the food web, other organisms, and the ecosystem as a whole. They can also assess how it would affect them personally if that organism disappeared. Understanding how every organism plays a role in human life will make this topic seem more personal to the students and allow them to consider it more deeply.
Standards:
4.5 The student will investigate and understand how plants and animals, including humans, in an
ecosystem interact with one another and with the nonliving components in the ecosystem.
Key concepts include
a) plant and animal adaptations;
b) organization of populations, communities, and ecosystems and how they interrelate;
c) flow of energy through food webs;
d) habitats and niches;
e) changes in an organism’s niche at various stages in its life cycle; and
f) influences of human activity on ecosystems.
C/T 3-5.7 Draw conclusions from research and relate these findings to real-world situations.
A. Use research to support written and oral presentations.
• Apply research derived from digital resources to original work.
• Demonstrate how to cite digital resources when developing nonfiction
reports and presentations.
B. Apply knowledge when conducting research to develop accurate and balanced
reports.
• Use best practice guidelines for evaluating research results.
Objectives:
By completing this WebQuest:
Introduction
This lesson will teach the students the importance of every organism in the ecosystem through the means of technology, inquiry, and collaboration. Students will research for a purpose and feel as though the work they are doing and information they are learning is authentic. Students will be engaged by using the Internet for this project, completing a “quest”, choosing an organism that interests them, and collaborating with their team to create a diorama. Hopefully, by sparking the students’ interests and making this assignment an adventure, they will learn more about the ecosystem than they ever imagined.
Task/Challenge
Process
How will students complete this challenge?
Materials
Formative Assessments and Final Evaluation
Reflection
I love the idea of a WebQuest because I think it is extremely engaging for the students. If they are interested in learning something, the information tends to stick with them. I will absolutely use this tool in my classroom in the future by creating relevant “quests” to whatever we are learning. I may even make it a normal “end of the section” review for my students. This way, they can see firsthand how the information they just learned is relevant to them.
I used this tool as a way to back up the information that the class had already learned. By the students already being familiar with the material, they could have fun with the lesson and learn that the information is relevant to them. By using this technology tool, I feel that I gain class cooperation and student collaboration. They can use the information in new and exciting ways and actually want to research and learn more about the topic. By putting the students into teams, they get to work together and see the information from new perspectives. The final project should reflect the thoughts and ideas of every member of the team. I don’t really see a downside to using this tool because I am using it as an end of the section assignment. It may be overwhelming to being a new topic this way.
Alisa Hughes
Overview of Lesson Context
Grade Level- 4th
Overview: It is important for students to know that all organisms play vital roles in our ecosystem. By using inquiry, students can play out in their minds what would happen without certain organisms. They can consider the niche of a selected organism and how its disappearance would affect the food web, other organisms, and the ecosystem as a whole. They can also assess how it would affect them personally if that organism disappeared. Understanding how every organism plays a role in human life will make this topic seem more personal to the students and allow them to consider it more deeply.
Standards:
4.5 The student will investigate and understand how plants and animals, including humans, in an
ecosystem interact with one another and with the nonliving components in the ecosystem.
Key concepts include
a) plant and animal adaptations;
b) organization of populations, communities, and ecosystems and how they interrelate;
c) flow of energy through food webs;
d) habitats and niches;
e) changes in an organism’s niche at various stages in its life cycle; and
f) influences of human activity on ecosystems.
C/T 3-5.7 Draw conclusions from research and relate these findings to real-world situations.
A. Use research to support written and oral presentations.
• Apply research derived from digital resources to original work.
• Demonstrate how to cite digital resources when developing nonfiction
reports and presentations.
B. Apply knowledge when conducting research to develop accurate and balanced
reports.
• Use best practice guidelines for evaluating research results.
Objectives:
By completing this WebQuest:
- The students will learn how all parts of an ecosystem are interconnected and why each organism plays an important role.
- The students will explore their own ideas and research their interests about the ecosystem.
- The students will use internet research to support an ecosystem diorama depicting life after extinction of their organism chosen.
Introduction
This lesson will teach the students the importance of every organism in the ecosystem through the means of technology, inquiry, and collaboration. Students will research for a purpose and feel as though the work they are doing and information they are learning is authentic. Students will be engaged by using the Internet for this project, completing a “quest”, choosing an organism that interests them, and collaborating with their team to create a diorama. Hopefully, by sparking the students’ interests and making this assignment an adventure, they will learn more about the ecosystem than they ever imagined.
Task/Challenge
- For this Webquest, students will be asked to help fellow biologists find the importance of organisms that are at risk of extinction (for the assignment only, these organisms are not really endangered). They will choose an organism from a list, research their organism’s role and purpose, and record their findings in a journal. At the end of the assignment, students will work with their teams to create shoebox dioramas of an ecosystem lacking their chosen organism. This should represent the effects that its disappearance would have.
- Link to the Students' Process Page: /process-page.html
Process
How will students complete this challenge?
- Students will be divided into groups and given individual brainstorming journals to record their quests.
- Students will get on the webquest site with their teams and begin by reading the introduction.
- They will then move on to the Process Page and read their first instructions.
- Students will choose which organism that their team will examine from the list of subjects provided.
- Students will use the links provided to research the role or niche of their organism in the ecosystem.
- Students will reflect of the information that they found in their journals.
- Next, Students will use the links provided to research more about food webs. (This should be a review from what they have already learned in class).
- Students will then use the links provided to research their own organism’s place in a food web, recording any information or thoughts in their journal.
- Students will work with their teammates to draw food webs of their organism in their journals.
- Next, students will reflect on what life would be like without their organism, thinking back on the information that they have found thus far. They will write their thoughts in their journals.
- Students will use the links provided to learn more about shoebox dioramas and how to make them.
- Once they have a full understanding, teams will create a shoebox diorama that represents an ecosystem lacking their chosen organism.
- Teams will present their dioramas to the class with a brief explanation on why their organism is important for its ecosystem and what it would look like without them.
Materials
- Computers, Journals, Pencils, Shoeboxes, Construction paper, Scissors, Coloring Utensils, Glue, Play-Doe.
Formative Assessments and Final Evaluation
- Throughout this lesson, the teacher should be checking the student’s journal reflections at each step. If the student is off-track, the teacher should give guidance. The final evaluation will be of the shoebox diorama and verbal explanation in the class presentations. A Rubric for this assignment can be found in the link below.
Reflection
I love the idea of a WebQuest because I think it is extremely engaging for the students. If they are interested in learning something, the information tends to stick with them. I will absolutely use this tool in my classroom in the future by creating relevant “quests” to whatever we are learning. I may even make it a normal “end of the section” review for my students. This way, they can see firsthand how the information they just learned is relevant to them.
I used this tool as a way to back up the information that the class had already learned. By the students already being familiar with the material, they could have fun with the lesson and learn that the information is relevant to them. By using this technology tool, I feel that I gain class cooperation and student collaboration. They can use the information in new and exciting ways and actually want to research and learn more about the topic. By putting the students into teams, they get to work together and see the information from new perspectives. The final project should reflect the thoughts and ideas of every member of the team. I don’t really see a downside to using this tool because I am using it as an end of the section assignment. It may be overwhelming to being a new topic this way.