Bodacious Biomes!

Subject Area(s):

• K-12: Science
• K-12: Technology

Grade Level(s):

• 7th-8th Grade
• 9th Grade

Description:

Students will further explore the types of biomes they learned about in Earth Science class. They will have chosen a biome that interests them and locate information on that biome. Students will break up into teams, pairing up as favorite biomes are selected. A poster board session will be held in the library for parents at the end of this lesson.



Students will have the opportunity to locate ready-source information as well as information they must retrieve from a database. This lesson plan is intended to be a fun way of information retrieval and a creative way to put that information together and share with others.

Goals & Objectives:

Instructional Goals

• Students will understand project requirements.
• Students will retrieve and organize information.

Learning Objectives

• Students will be able to recognize websites that provide accurate information.
• Students will understand how to organize information.
• Students will work together in a collaborative environment.
• Students will use a poster session to communicate their new information.

Motivational Goals

• Generate an interest in science.
• Develop competence in database searching.
• Promote student satisfaction in exploration and ownership of work.

Materials:

see attached lesson plan in supporting files.

Procedures:

see attached lesson plan in supporting files.

Assessment:

Assessment will be a grade on the final project, the poster board session. I will not be giving out the grade, but it will be in having fellow students "judge" their top 3 favorite poster boards. This will be done anonymously by numbered vote count. All students will be given an effort grade in the amount of thought and creativity they put into their work.



Assessment Methods

1. Poster board session

2. Type and quality of information retrieved

3. Activity sheet questionnaire

4. Works cited page and backup of information retrieved sheets (from folder)

5. Discuss with earth science teacher success of project and learning goals of students

Supporting Files:

• Biome_Worksheet.doc
  
• Bodacious_Biomes_Revise.doc
  Complete lesson plan.

Standards:

National Information Literacy Standards (K-12)

Accesses information efficiently and effectively.

• Recognizes the need for information.
• Identifies a variety of potential sources of information.

Evaluates information critically and competently.

• Determines accuracy, relevance and comprehensiveness.
• Selects information appropriate to the problem or question at hand.

Uses information accurately and creatively

• Organizes information for practical application.
• Produces and communicates information and ideas in appropriate formats

Practices ethical behavior in regard to information and information technology.

• Respects the principles of intellectual freedom.
• Respects intellectual property rights.
• Uses information technology responsibly.

Participates effectively in groups to pursue and generate information.

• Shares knowledge and information with others.
• Respects others' ideas and backgrounds and acknowledges their contributions.
• Collaborates with others, both in person and through technologies, to design, develop, and evaluate information products and solutions.

Information Skills and Subskills (K-16)

Definition

• Identifies requirements of research task
• Determines amount/type of information needed to complete research task

Planning

• Formulates a search strategy
• Identifies potential information sources

Exploration

• Locates and accesses information resources
• Explores range of information resources

Collection

• Selects most appropriate information sources
• Locates relevant information within selected sources
• Identifies and extracts relevant information from selected sources

Organization

• Summarizes/synthesizes/classifies final information
• Sequences final information
• Organizes final information for presentation

Presentation

• Presents results