Pond Succession

1. Pond Succession By: Shannon Jackson Renee Luczkowski Endia McWhorter Rebecca Simo John Westfall

2. Targets Target audience • 4th grade Content Standard C: Organisms and the Environment: • An organism's patterns of behavior are related to the nature of that organism's environment, including the kinds and numbers of other organisms present, the availability of food and resources, and the physical characteristics of the environment. When the environment changes, some plants and animals survive and reproduce and others die or move to new locations.

3. Objectives & Goals • Recognize that natural environments are involved in a process of continual change. • Discuss the concept of succession. • Describe succession as an example of the process of change in natural environments. • Apply understanding of the concept of succession by drawing a series of pictures showing stages in pond succession.

4. Prior Lessons • A lesson on the parts of a pond, specifically structure and organisms. • Pond Review • A lesson on the prehistoric era (i.e. some plants and animals of the time)

5. Materials Needed • Butcher block paper • Non-toxic Markers • 1 Worksheet for each student • Tape

6. Key Terms Used In Lesson • Change • Ecosystems • Evolution • Pond • Sediment • Succession

7. Definition of Key Terms • Change • Refers to when things do not remain the same over time. • Ecosystems • The organisms and plants, etc. that exist in a pond and work together to exist in a balanced manner. • Evolution • Refers to the changes that take place over time as some species find that they can survive in a pond habitat, and others cease to exist, as they cannot.

8. Definition of Key Terms • Pond • A small fresh water ecosystem • Sediment • The “sand” in a pond. • Succession • Refers to the stages a pond goes through in its existence: The pond moves through an “orderly, gradual, and continual replacement of one community of organisms in an environment with another” (p. 66 Project WILD Aquatic).

9. Procedure • Start off the lesson by reviewing with students the idea of succession, a process that is generally an orderly, gradual, and continual replacement of one community of organisms in an environment with another. Introduce key terms: succession, sediment, change, pond, ecosystems, and evolution • Lead a class discussion about ponds. How many people have seen a pond? What do they look like? What lives in ponds? After a description of ponds, ask the students to imagine what a pond would like from a side view if you could see under the water and show the nearby environment. For example, a pond and the surrounding forest.

10. Procedures Cont. • Explain the class activity that they will be doing in groups . Clarify that the students understand that they will be drawing a series of three views of ponds over a period of years. The first (left-hand) section will show the pond as it was when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, the next would be what the pond looks like today, and the (right-hand) will be a depiction of what the students think ponds will look like in 500 years. • Discuss with students the possibilities of plant and animal life in the first section. What kinds plants and animals lived back then? • In the water • Along the shoreline • In the surrounding area

11. Procedures Cont. • Hand out to each group a piece of paper that members will divide into three equal sections (by folding and drawing). Instruct students to fill in the first section with their drawing of the pond and the surrounding area. Set a specific time frame for students to draw (about 10 minutes). • Bring the class together again for a discussion, which will be labeled “Prehistoric.” Consider the following items: • What does the pond look like now? • What organisms live in or around it? • What plant life exists in or around it?

12. Procedures Cont. • Repeat the previous two for the present day ponds and for ponds as they might appear 400 years from now.

13. Small Group Activity • Explain to the students that they will be drawing a series of three views of a pond over a period of years. The first (left-hand) section will show the pond as it was when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, the next would be what the pond looks like today, and the (right-hand) will be a depiction of what the students think the pond will look like in 400 years. • Then give each group a piece of paper that members will divide into three equal sections (by folding and drawing). Instruct students to fill in the first section with their drawing of the pond and the surrounding area. Set a specific time frame for students to draw (about 10 minutes).

14. Small Group Activity Cont. • Bring the class together again for a discussion, which will be labeled “Prehistoric.” Consider the following items: • What does the pond look like now? • What organisms live in or around it? • What plant life exists in or around it?

15. Safety First • Non-toxic markers

16. Teachers Role • The teacher will act as a guide throughout the process of this investigation. He or she will begin by discussing why it is important to understand how ecosystems change over time and what causes these changes. As well, they will introduce the vocabulary relevant to this lesson. The teacher will help the students create a driving question, such as: Do you think a pond will looks the same now as it did in the past and do think it will be the same in the future? to explore as a class. The teacher will help the students answer any questions they may have during the lesson, either through their own investigations (internet, etc.) or discussions with the teacher.

17. Teachers Role Cont. • The teacher will describe to the students the activity they will be doing in small groups, as well as how they will be divided into small groups. They will ask the students to assign a supplies person to collect the materials for the group, when they are ready to begin the activity. • The teacher will walk around and observe students as they draw their pictures at the various stages of succession. In order to check for understanding, they will ask questions like: Why did you draw these organisms/ plants in your picture? What changes are you noticing between this picture and the last one? What do you think caused that change?

18. Teachers Role Cont. • During the class discussion for each picture, the teacher will ask students questions like: What differences do you see between your picture and your classmates? What similarities do you see? What do you think caused those changes? Have you ever seen a pond at this stage? (Again to check for understanding.)

19. Learning Styles • Visual - Visual learning is a proven teaching method in which ideas, concepts, data and other information are associated with images and represented graphically. Graphic organizers, such as webs, concept maps and idea maps, and plots, such as stack plots and Venn plots, are some of the techniques used in visual learning to enhance thinking and learning skills. • Auditory - is a type of learning in which a person will benefit the most from listening to lectures, speeches, and oral sessions. • Kinesthetic learning - is a teaching and learning style in which learning takes place by the student actually carrying out a physical activity, rather than listening to a lecture or watching a demonstration. Some examples are: building dioramas, physical models, participating in role-playing or historical reenactment.

20. Learning Styles Cont. • Kinesthetic- Students who prefer this style will be able to take advantage of it when we draw pictures. Then, they will be able to move around their tables and create their picture. (This lesson may also be done, with small groups meeting around the room, sitting on the floor if they would like, then meeting as a large group, in a horse shoe shape, at the front of the class for whole class discussions.) • Visual- Students with this learning style will be able to use it when we look at the web pages for visual representations of pond populations, reminders of what the structure and habitats of ponds looks like. They will also be able to use their pond drawings and their classmates to aide in their learning. Finally, they will have the trade books to look at, for visual aides and references. • Auditory- These students will be able to take advantage of the small group and class discussions. They will be able to use others thoughts, shared through discussion, to aide their learning.

21. Closing Activity • Virtual Pond • The teacher will ask the students for ideas about how many of each organism they should enter into the pond population. The teacher will lead students through exploration of the results from these numbers, as the online site calculates totals for each organism in the pond over many years. • Lead class discussion on question such as: Why do you think the numbers changed between years? What might have happened to cause these changes? (Tying in our previous activity) What stage of our pond drawings would be reflected by these numbers? • Ask the students to discuss what the computer portrays ponds are going to look like and what students portray from there pictures? How are they similar and how are they different?

22. Assessment • Informal: Asking students questions in their small groups and as a whole class throughout the lesson in order to assess understanding of vocabulary and related concepts. • Formal: The students will be given a worksheet to complete. This will be given to formally check their understanding of concepts in the lesson and key vocabulary associated with this lesson.

23. Trade Books & Other Sources Needed / Used • http://www.uen.org/utahlink/pond/virtpond2.cgi • http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/succession.html • Project Wild Aquatic (pg. 66) • Project Wild