Lesson Title: Anticipatory Set (Directed Inquiry)
AZ Teaching Standard(s):
SG1S1C2PO2: Participate in guided investigations in life, physical, and Earth and space sciences.
SG1S1C2PO4: Record data from guided investigations in an organized and appropriate format (e.g. lab book, log, notebook, chart paper).
SG1S1C3PO1: Organize (e.g. compare, classify, and sequence) objects, organisms and events according to various characteristics.
SG1S1C4PO1: Communicate the results of an investigation using pictures, graphs, models, and/or words.
Lesson Outcome:
TSW identify items as living or nonliving and explain why.
Evidence:
Observation log book
Big Idea: Living things need each other to survive.
Materials: Clear cup or bowl, aquarium gravel, bean seeds, water (for each group), unlined paper, construction paper.
Sub-Objective
Teacher Actions
TSW participate in
discussion on living
things.
 Display a clear bowl with aquarium gravel
Participant Actions
 Participate in discussion.
and bean seeds for students.
√ for Understanding
 Paraphrase or summarize a
classmate’s thinking.
 Engage students in discussion on whether
bean seeds or gravel are living things.
TSW work in
groups to prepare
bowl for directed
inquiry.
 Record student thinking on chart paper.
 Have each group measure approximately



TSW record
observations in log
book.


half a cup of aquarium gravel and add to
clear bowl.
Using a deck of number cards (containing
numbers from 3 - 6), have one student
per group draw one card.
The number on the card represents the
number of bean seeds to be placed in the
bowl.
Have each group measure 6 tablespoons
of water and add to bowl.
Have each student create an observation
log book by folding 5 sheets of unlined
paper in half and stapling inside a folded
piece of construction paper.
Model for students the format that their
observations will take:
Day 1 (date)
Illustration
with labels
# of seeds: __
tbsp of water: ___
Written observations
Prediction:
“I think _____ because _____.”
 Measure aquarium gravel.
 Count out correct number of bean
 Completed bowl.
seeds.
 Create log book.
 Write Day 1 observations in log book.
 Log book entry.
TSW record
observations in log
book for 4-5 days.
 Engage students in discussion on changes
TSW evaluate the
items in the bowl.
 Ask which item in the bowl is living and
to the aquarium gravel and bean seeds in
their cups each day of the experiment.
which item is nonliving? Why? (e.g. the
bean seeds are living because they grew
and changed; the aquarium gravel is
nonliving because it did not grow or
change).
 Participate in discussions.
 Write Day 2-5 observations in log
 Discussions
 Log book entries.
book.
 Participate in discussion.
 Paraphrase or summarize a
classmate’s thinking.