Daniel Graham
Human Impact on Water Quality
Backwards Design
Desired Learning Outcomes –
Next
Generation Science Standards
MS-LS2-1.
Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource
availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
MS-LS2-2.Construct an explanation that
predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
MS-LS2-4. Construct an argument supported
by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an
ecosystem affect populations
Essential Questions -
How do aquatic organisms survive in
harsh or changing aquatic environments?
How does an ecosystem respond to changes
in aquatic environments? Is this a healthy place for aquatic organisms? What’s
the evidence?
How do water quality (pH, temperature,
dissolved oxygen, and hypoxia) affect the living environment?
Students will be able to…
Identify the key factors that influence
water quality.
Explain how human activities can alter
the balance of a water ecosystem and affect the survival of organisms.
Identify the relationships among factors
affecting water quality.
Explain how a factor affects the living
organisms in a water ecosystem.
Use credible cyber resources for data
collection.
Use ICTs to facilitate the process of
identifying scientifically testable questions and locating valuable and
accurate information.
Use ICTs to support data organization,
data analysis, and data presentation, and draw conclusions.
Use ICTs to communicate findings to the
learning community using various media formats.
Evidence for learning-
The teacher will assess student learning
by monitoring progress on the research project and through use of the attached
rubric.
Plan for learning-
Plan for 10-15 minutes to activate
student’s prior knowledge by brainstorming.
Provide guided questions in order to
steer the students thinking in the right direction.
Use Google New search engine to find an
article for research.
Provide students with strategies for
effective inputs into the search engine. (Keywords, Boolean Operators, Quotes,
-, etc.)
Guide research further by focusing on
direct or indirect impact of human behaviors on the water ecosystems. (while
citing sources)
Report findings to the class to check
for clarification on effectiveness and legitimacy of research thus far.
Provide the research question (“How do
changes in water temperature affect dissolved oxygen levels?) along with the
hypothesis (“If there is a change in water temperature within the body of
water, we will observe a change in the dissolved oxygen concentration level,
because the water temperature has an effect on dissolved oxygen.”).
Inquire from the students about what
type of data is needed to answer the research question.
Introduce public cyber databases that
can provide data to answer the research question.
Show students how to collect data from
WaterQualityWatch and have them collect their own.
Have the students interpret data that
was collected.
Inform the students to use a chart to
demonstrate understanding and interpretation of their findings.
Ask the students what other factors
could affect this relationship.
Make transfer connections.
Shift more responsibility to the
students by guiding them towards appropriate research questions which will be
answer through Google Public Data Explorer or Google Earth.
Have the students use appropriate cyber
databases to collect data.
Students will complete a lab report that
documents their research.
Have the students incorporate graphs,
charts, images, etc.
For students who are not ready for independent
inquiry, you can direct these students by collecting different data sets by
repeating the guided inquiry.
Have students identify scientifically
testable questions, formulate a hypothesis, develop a research plan, collect
and analyze data, evaluate the data, and draw conclusions.
Students may work in pairs or groups.
Have students discuss their research,
offer feedback, debate, and initiate further discussion.
Rubric for the activity
|
4-points
|
A
four- point response is complete and correct
Student shows a deep understanding of
their topic researched
*Demonstrate student’s ability to
correctly research material.
*Demonstrates student’s ability to
correctly cite sources
*Demonstrates the student’s ability to
correctly present their material using ICT’s.
*Contains complete, clear, consensus material.
*All sentences are well constructed and
have varied structure and length.
*The students make no errors in
grammar, mechanics, and/or spelling.
*There is a clear effective explanation
detailing their hypothesis.
|
|
3-points
|
A
three- point response is complete and correct but may contain minor flaws
Student shows a good understanding of their
topic researched
*Demonstrate student’s ability to research
material.
*Demonstrates student’s ability to cite
sources
*Demonstrates the student’s ability to present
their material using ICT’s.
*Contains mostly complete, clear,
consensus material.
*Most sentences are well constructed
and have varied structure and length.
*The students make minor errors in
grammar, mechanics, and/or spelling.
*There is a an explanation detailing
their hypothesis.
|
|
2-points
|
A
two- point response is incomplete and contains flaws
Solution shows a partial understanding
of algebraic expressions
*Demonstrate student’s ability to attempt
to research material.
*Demonstrates student’s ability to reference
sources
*Demonstrates the student’s ability to
correctly present their material.
*Contains some complete, clear,
consensus material.
*Some sentences are well constructed
and have varied structure and length.
*The students make some errors in
grammar, mechanics, and/or spelling.
*There is an unclear explanation
detailing their hypothesis.
|
|
1-point
|
A
one- point response is incomplete, irrelevant, or incoherent and contains
many flaws
Solution shows a limited understanding
of algebraic expressions
*Demonstrate student’s ability to find
material.
*Demonstrates student’s ability to list
websites used.
*Demonstrates the student’s ability to present
their material in some form.
*Contains incomplete and unclear material.
*Few sentences are well constructed and
have varied structure and length.
*The students make manyerrors in
grammar, mechanics, and/or spelling.
*There is an unclear explanation
detailing their hypothesis.
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