Group+06+Katie's+Activity


 * What I Had for Dinner! **
 * Connecting Our Lives to Food Chains Through Concept Mapping **

**__Grade__:** **4**

**__Subject__:** **Science**- Habitats, **Technology-** Creating concept maps, opportunity to integrate Health if food choices are looked into further.

**__Technology Focus__:** Cmap Tools

- Classify organisms according to their role in the food chain. - Demonstrate scientific terminology. -Classify according to attributes. - Create a concept map demonstrating their dinner via food chain.
 * __Outcomes__: **

-Computer, internet access.
 * __Materials: __**

**Rationale:** Over the course of the next 4 classes, students will obtain an in depth understanding of food chains within a habitat by applying it to the food they eat in their daily lives. Students will create their food chains using Cmap tools which is a software toolkit which enables the creation of concept maps that can include images, videos and web links. Through the use of their own dinner items, students will place their food items in a food chain via concept web to visually represent the process in which their dinner goes through before it gets to them in regards to the scientific food chain. Knowing where your food comes from is an interesting act on its own, and it is a meaningful way to connect a scientific concept to their plates on the table at home. Students will be encouraged to think of food items which they know may cover multiple steps of the food chain to make their assignments as interesting as possible. Through this activity students will learn new vocabulary and understand the roles of producers, consumers and their various stages, and decomposers.

**Class 1: Introduction to Producers, Consumers, Decomposers and Food Chains** We will begin our lesson with a class brainstorm on the board of plants and animals we can see outside or come in contact with throughout our daily lives. After creating a lengthy list, the words producers, consumers, and decomposers will be introduced and explained. As a class we will then work together to sort the list of words into three sections on the board. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Example: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">After our words have been separated, the concept of a food chain will be introduced and demonstrated through an example by taking one of each of the items under each category and placing them in a chain. Example: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Cow (Consumer) > Grass (Producer)> Flies (Decomposer) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">It will be noted that decomposers come in to play after an organism has died. Producers create their own food from sunlight which is why they are at the bottom of the food chain, and consumers are any animals in between that eat plants, herbivores, or other animals or organisms, carnivores, to survive. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">For homework, students will be asked to write down what they had for dinner that night, with a list of animals, plants, or other organisms involved for the activity that will continue the next day. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Class 2: Putting My Dinner into a Food Chain and Research** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students will take their list of what they ate for dinner the night before and break it into parts if multiple items were eaten. I will show them my example of having fish and chips for supper, broken into haddock, and potatoes. Students will be given time in the computer lab to research organisms from their dinner to see what they eat. Example: Fish eat clams, clams eat plankton. Students will be encouraged to come up with multiple possibilities that could create a working food chain.
 * = **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Producer ** ||= **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Consumer ** ||= **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Decomposer ** ||
 * = <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">grass ||= <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">birds ||= <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">worms ||
 * = <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">flower ||= <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">mice ||= <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">beetles ||
 * = <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">mushroom ||= <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">cow ||= <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">flies ||
 * = <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">tree ||= <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">chicken ||=  ||
 * = <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">wheat ||= <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">moose ||=  ||

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Class 3: Mini lesson on Cmap Tools and Creating a Concept Map** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The lesson will begin by introducing Cmap Tools and walking students through how to create a concept map. I will use the example of fish and chips as my dinner and show how to separate the items and classify in terms of their role in the food chain like the students would have researched. Students will learn how to create a concept map and insert photos to go with each item in their food chain. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">A PowerPoint presentation will be used to demonstrate to students how to create a concept map, add a background, and insert photos.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students will finish their concept map food chains, add pictures, and label the items as producer, consumer (primary, secondary, tertiary), and top predator as them self.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Class 4: Finishing Touches **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Assessment:** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students will be assessed through submission of their final product. I will use a marking rubric including criteria for how much detail they used for their food chain, the extensiveness of their research, observe during class time to assure students are making good use of their time, organization of the concept map, proper use of the given terminology and general appearance of the concept map.


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Finished Product! **