Short Form Lesson Plan #2- Biomes of the Earth
Grade Level: High School (9-12)
Class Topic: Biomes of the Earth (The interconnectedness of Life)
Lesson Plan Outline:
Engage:
Initially, I am going to engage the students by showing pictures of various biomes of the Earth. Each of
them is uniquely different and diverse. I will then ask students about their own travels or experiences
that are different from where they currently live. Have they ever traveled somewhere or watched
something on television that was a different environment from Seattle, Washington? By doing so, I am
engaging students in what they observe around them. This allows them to start thinking about what
makes environments different from one another.
(2-3 min)
Explore:
Once I have the students thinking about their local and more global environments, I will begin my
introduction into the concept of biomes. What I find most important about this step, is that I am
allowing students to understand the concept of biomes, before they actually put vocabulary to it. I will
ask and display a guiding question about what factors are manipulated between various environments.
This will help me access preconceptions about nutrient flows and cycles. I will then place a picture of
biomes of the world, on the screen. The students will have a worksheet of various climate diagrams.
They will work together in groups, matching the climate diagram with the particular biome. They will
label and explain their rational for matching the diagram with the map, on their worksheet.
(15 min)
Explain:
Once the students have completed the worksheet, I will call on various groups to explain their reasoning
about why they paired specific climate diagrams with each biome. Following this discussion and some
well-directed probing questions, we will move on to create a climate diagram of Seattle. They will use
their knowledge and reasoning from the previous exercise, to defend the diagram they made. Once they
have completed this, I will ask students to draw their various diagrams on white boards and show the
rest of their class. Lastly, we will construct a class climate diagram for Seattle, Washington. After they
agree on a particular model, I will show them the real climate diagram. By the completion of this unit, I
hope to tie climate diagrams into flows of energy and nutrient cycles.
(15 min)
Reflection:
What worked best about your lesson?
I think that the strongest part of this lesson was my ability to use multiple means of explaining the
concept of a biome. I used pictures, handouts and personal experiences. This was the aspect of my first
lesson that I tried to improve upon the most. By using multiple different means, I think that I was able to
capture any type of learning style that my student’s might have. This helps to ensure that every type of
student can find some way to engage with the material. The other part of the lesson that I thought I did
well, was fully introducing the concept, without every actually putting the name” biome”, on it. This
allowed the students to fully conceptualize what a biome is. It makes it much easier for students to
remember that it was a biome that I was discussing, because they already understood the concept.
What would you change to make your lesson better?
I feel that to make my lesson better, I could elaborate on the growing-season section, of the climate
diagrams. I would set up a problem for the student’s, which allowed them to be farmers of the world. I
would ask them to research different biomes of the world and determine, within the constraints of the
biome, what type of plants they would farm and what resources they would need to be successful
farmers. This activity would allow the students to explore the effects of environmental conditions on
resources.
The other aspect of my lesson that I think could have been improved, was distinguishing more clearly
between a biome and ecosystem. By addressing this, I would be hitting on the preconception that an
ecosystem and biome are fundamentally different. In actuality, they are biologically the same thing, but
are normally used in different contexts. The word biome is usually used when speaking about a large
expanse of a particular ecosystem, whereas ecosystem is more commonly used for small scale expanses
of land. By making this distinction clear, I think it would lead to much less confusion.
How well do you feel you met the RTOP criteria?
I feel as though most of the RTOP criteria were met, well. As stated earlier, I was able to represent the
concept of a biome in many different means, which meets RTOP 11. By introducing the concept of a
biome by asking the students about different environments that they have encountered, I am meeting
the requirements of respecting students’ knowledge. I feel that this is an effective way to gage their
knowledge, because the students are accessing what they already know and have seen within nature,
and thinking about it more critically. By them critically discussing what they have observed, I am able to
see what areas students have well developed ideas, and where they might be lacking in their
observations. In adding the activity relating to the farmers, I am able to bring in more connections to
real-world phenomena. I attempted to accomplish this by having the students design a climate diagram
for Seattle, based on their understanding. However, by adding the addition activity in, I think the lesson
could become even more supportive of this particular RTOP. I felt the amount of student
communication was significant, by having opportunities for the students to voice their ideas in groups
and class discussion. I did not limit them to expressing their knowledge of the biomes’ conditions to one
particular avenue. I could have developed my initial usage of data, related to biomes. I feel as though
adding the element of farming, makes this lesson more data focused. The students must come up with
hypotheses about what might grow in a particular area, test it, and then determine if their findings
reflected their hypotheses. I also think that as the teacher, I was utilized as a resource, in this particular
lesson. I allowed the students to tell the story of biomes. I had to scaffold the knowledge for them
somewhat, but once that was done, the students were free to construct their knowledge.
The following are just notes after my presentation:
There were a lot of different means of communication.
Real world connection: show growing season for plants.
Place seeds that would work for different biomes.
Might do different climate diagrams for different places in Washington.
Might start by predicting what Seattle would be, and then see what it actually is.
Explain the concept of growing season.
No interpreting of evidence or minimal.
Possible diagram about what exactly what a biome is.
For next lesson: pick the RTOPS that fit with my lesson.
Give them a problem: like we are farmers, where would we grow certain things?
Notes
Masha
Start with a mystery/surprising facts.
Start by misconceptions or preconceptions or just general knowledge about the topic.
Start with hypothesis about what’s going on.
Peak students interest by engaging them, so that they really want to know the answer.
Choose students with particular ideas that you already know, so that you can build on the concepts by
seeing the flow of ideas.
Start with something that kids know.