UNIVERSITY OF MAINE AT FARMINGTON
LESSON PLAN FORMAT
Teacher’s Name: Lora Cyr,
Grade Level: Secondary
Date of Lesson: Nov. 3, 2008
Topic: BSCS 7E- Origin of Life
Objectives:
1) Students will use literacy strategy to synthesize ideas on origin of life.
2) Students will investigate the conditions necessary for origin of life through an
experiment creating coacervates.
3) Students will compare different hypotheses on Origin of Life.
Parameters for Essential Instruction and National Standards Alignment:
PEI Standard E: The Living Environment (9-Diploma)
E5) Evolution: Students describe the interactions between and among species,
populations, and environments that lead to natural selection and evolution.
b. Describe the origins of life and how the concept of natural selection
provides a mechanism for evolution that can be advantageous or
disadvantageous to the next generation.
Rationale: Students will be able to describe the origins of life hypotheses through a
conclusive concept map and explain how endosymbiosis begins evolution from the origin
of life into the present over time.
Assessment:
Students are pre-assessed during elicit phase for misconceptions. In the engage
phase, literacy strategy will be assessed to include key points proposed by expert.
Explore phase: assessed for how well lab procedure was followed, including safety.
Evaluate phase: Summative checking for understanding as students depict major
learnings in a concept map.
Integration: Lesson will connect to previous topic of phylogeny, and be extended to
other hypotheses on the origin of life. Students will use NOS as they compare theories
and hypotheses. Students will integrate biochemistry in the coacervate lab.
Differentiated Instruction:
Strategies:
Kenisthetic- “building” coacervates.
Intrapersonal- individual work on concept map.
Interpersonal- group work on in engage & explore
Logical- piecing together concepts
Naturalistic- building “life-like” vacuoles
Visual- endosymbyosis demonstration, & video
Verbal/ Auditory- Lecture during explain, elaborate, extend phases.
Technology: Videos, microscopes
Modifications/ Accommodations:
I will review the students Individual Education Plan (IEP) and make appropriate
accommodations and modifications. Engage Interview will be tiered for different reading
levels. Lab safety will be reviewed. Powerpoint formatted to be visible to all students.
Creationism acknowledged.
Extensions:
Students will revisit concept map for completion after other hypothesis reviewed,
and will become a branch off of the entire evolution “big picture” unit map.
Materials:
Lesson Materials:
Index Cards
Interview worksheets, butcher paper.
Lab Handouts- safety goggles, compound microscope, slides, coverslips,
test tube rack with clean small culture tubes, one medicine dropper per tube, one
dropping bottle with 0.1M HCl solution, pH paper
Three boxes (wrapped)
Sources for Lesson Plan and Research:
Interview: PBS NOVA. How did life begin? An interview with Andy Knoll. Conducted
on May 3, 2004, by Joe McMaster, producer of "Origins: How Life Began," and edited
by Peter Tyson, editor in chief of NOVA online
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/origins/knoll.html
Creating Coacervates: Adapted by Larry Flammer
© 1999 ENSI (Evolution & the Nature of Science Institutes)
http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/coacerv.html
Video: Only the Strong Survive: the story of the oxygen revolution. By Nikki Bitsack &
Alexandria Walker. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSjg_uYS_QY
Power Point: Explore Biology Lecture Notes Copyright © 2003-2008 Explore Biology
http://www.explorebiology.com/apbiology/notes/
Maine Standards for Initial Teacher Certification and Rationale

Standard 3 - Demonstrates a knowledge of the diverse ways in which students
learn and develop by providing learning opportunities that support their
intellectual, physical, emotional, social, and cultural development.
Rationale: I am meeting this standard by allowing students to cooperate with groups to
promote diverse interactions. Students will in turn learn from each other’s
learning styles as they apply their own styles to the lab activity.
•
Standard 4 - Plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter,
students, curriculum goals, and learning and development theory.
Rationale: I am meeting this standard by properly planning and preparing for students’
diverse needs and towards content goals, based on observed levels of
understanding.
•
Standard 8 - Understands and uses a variety of formal and informal assessment
strategies to evaluate and support the development of the learner.
Rationale: Students will be consistently checked for understanding, through homework
and inclass activities. They will be able to put together a unit concept map to
unify unit content, as well as a complete a summative evaluation.
Game Plan: (Will span more than one lesson)
Elicit- (5-10 mins) Quickie Question
“What was the environment life at the origin of life?”
answer on note cards, brainstorm list
Engage- ( 20 mins) Four Thought Box, Interview: How did life begin?
Each group reads interview question, summarizes, shares.
(See attached 1)
Explore- (30 mins) ENSI Creating Coacertives (similar to Urey-Miller)
*Note: Coacertives ARE NOT alive
Explain- (15 mins) (See Powerpoint)
Hypothesis Only
What is Life
Conditions
Origin of Organic Molecules
Origin of Cells
Origin of Genetics
Prokaryotes->Eukaryotes
Elaborate-(10 mins) Endosymbyosis Video – Only The Strong Survive: The story of the
oxygen
revolution. By: Nikki Bitsack, Alexandria Walker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSjg_uYS_QY
How did Eukaryotes form? Demonstrate: Three Boxes, different size, different
color, placed inside one another.
Evaluate (20 mins) - Concept map of terms: Access Power Point, Define each Term,
Form Map
Origin Of Life
Hypothesis
Spontaneous Abiotic Origin
Conditions
Urey-Miller Experiment
Endosymbyosis
Extend- Other Theories Creationism, Extraterrestrialism = All hypotheses