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Vivian Choong

Dr. Carrie La Voy

C&T 366: Classroom Interactions in Mathematics & Science

December 9, 2013

Teach 2 Analysis

Students in Mr. Ralph’s General Biology class learned about biodiversity through playing

“biodiversity Jenga” and creating posters which depicted an ecosystem of their choosing. The Jenga game

allowed students to learn about the function of invasive species, biotic and abiotic factors, and food webs

in a more visual and tactile manner. Consequently, students were able to apply their knowledge from the

game when making posters during the second day of the lesson. The purpose of the posters was to have

students collaborate and learn from each other, in addition to being a way to assess students’ knowledge.

An important discussion that occurred was an elaboration on how the lesson extends beyond the

classroom and affects our daily lives in the real world.

The lesson objectives were that the students would be able to: identify and understand the effects

of abiotic factors and invasive species on a food chain; model a food chain and explain the relationship

between organisms; and apply their knowledge of biodiversity, abiotic factors, and invasive species to the

real world. The first day of the lesson focused on the first objective of exploring the definition and

purpose of both biotic and abiotic factors, invasive species, and the effects they had on a food chain.

These definitions were emphasized throughout both days of the lesson. The second objective was

achieved by having the students play “biodiversity Jenga”, which modeled a food web, and by having

them illustrate a model of an ecosystem on posters. Applying their knowledge of what they had learned

from the lesson occurred during discussions when students shared an example of and invasive species and

how it affected the environment with their neighbors.

The results showed that most of the students had attained the objectives of the lesson. On the first

day, the students simulated biodiversity in a food web with the “Biodiversity Jenga” game. The

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definitions for biotic factor, abiotic factor, and invasive species were written down accurately, and

students used their knowledge of those definitions when experimenting with each scenario. While the

students described what happened to the Jenga blocks in each scenario, the descriptions were not always

connected back to how it affects the actual ecosystem. For example, the response, “It shrinks” (p. 6), for

scenario B on the Biodiversity Jenga worksheet does fully explain how the extinction of three species of

consumers would affect an ecosystem. When students were asked to create their own scenario, one of the

responses were that “Abiotic flood wipes everything out it all dies” (p. 6). A way to expand on this

response would have been to ask questions such as, “How could that impact surrounding ecosystems?”,

“Would everything in the ecosystem be gone forever?”, and “Do humans have anything to do with

flooding or is there a human solution to flooding?” in order to encourage the students to see more aspects

to that scenario.

According the poster outline that the students had created, they had a good understanding of the

different components of the project. The group had decided to model a forest ecosystem with appropriate

producers and consumers. In addition to providing an example for each component, they included

sufficient explanations of the role of each component. The group understood the impact that humans have

on this type of environment, evidenced by their example of how “they have cut down trees to make

houses and supplies and they hunt the animals” (p. 8). A solution of having humans “find different

sources to make their supplies from and find different food to hunt or give them a limited amount” (p. 8)

is feasible and has occurred many times in history. If this lesson had been longer, I would have asked

them to research a real-life occurrence and include that with their posters in order to create a stronger tie

to the real world. During the class discussion, students would tell stories of how they have witnessed or

heard of invasive species.

Similarly to Lesson 1, the students did not explain their thoughts fully when writing it on paper,

but they were able to provide clear explanations during class discussions. The philosophy presented in the

Askey article was not reflected entirely in this lesson. One of my goals for future lessons is to emphasize

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the importance of being able to explain something as opposed to just providing a statement at the very

beginning of the year. On the ecosystem poster worksheet, the student wrote “non-living” and “living” as

the definitions for “abiotic” and “biotic”, respectively (p. 5). While that is technically true, it would be

more beneficial to include a more in-depth explanation of what that means exactly. One activity that could

be performed as an engage or elaborate for future lessons would be showing an example of an oak desk,

and ask whether it is biotic or abiotic. This activity would challenge them to think about how the desk

came from a living (biotic) oak tree, but is now non-living (abiotic) in the form of a desk. Students could

then brainstorm other examples to share with the class.

Something that was unsuccessful during day two of the lesson was attempting to have students

both complete and present their posters. There were a couple groups that were frustrated because they

were not able to complete the posters to their liking. Since some students needed more time, I had decided

to let them continue working on it while other groups presented. This proved to be a mistake because as

groups presented, there were a number of students who were still working on their posters and did not pay

attention to the presentations. Something that I would definitely change in the future if using this lesson

again would be to decide, depending on what the students needed, whether they should focus on making

the posters and getting all of the information down on paper, or if I wanted to discussion and sharing of

information to be prevalent. After speaking with my mentor teacher about lesson one, I had received

feedback that it would be beneficial to go over important key terms as much as possible. I made that a

priority during my second lesson with the vocabulary, and it reflected in the posters and presentations.

The one thing that I wanted to focus on for lesson two after teaching lesson one was to engage the

whole class instead of having the same handful of students speak. I waited longer after asking a question

so that more students would raise their hands. This was not always effective, and I realized that there were

other repercussions to this technique. Since the students seemed to have been used to my calling on the

first hand that was up, the student that normally raised their hand first was confused when I seemingly

ignored them. This caused them to refrain from raising their hand afterwards because they assumed that I

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would not call on them. In the future, I would be sure to establish my expectation of having the entire

class contribute to discussion in order to avoid the situation that I encountered. Walking around and

asking questions of students who normally did not speak aloud during discussions was effective. Their

responses proved to be insightful. I asked them if they would be willing to share their example with the

class later, and that was how I encouraged them to speak out during class discussions.

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