Microworlds
Lesson 14
Looking at Living Things: Vinegar Eels
Students will observe the fast moving organism Vinegar Eels. They will try to find ways of slowing them down for observations.
3. Lesson Set-up and Management
4-5 INQD Investigations involve systematic collection and recording of relevant observations and data.
4-5 LS1A Plants and animals can be sorted according to their structures and behaviors.
4-5 LS1B List parts of an animal’s body and describe how it helps the animal meet its basic needs.
4-5 LS2B Plants make their own food using energy from the sun. Animals get food by eating plants and/or other animals that eat plants. Plants make it possible for animals to use the energy of sunlight.
- Students will observe a very fast moving organism using their microscopes.
- Students will experiment with methods to slow down vinegar eels.
3. Lesson Set-Up and Management
Materials:
- Divide the culture into more than one jar, so distribution is done more quickly.
- Set up additional clean up stations for this lesson. Students will be preparing more than one slide, so they will need to be cleaning up multiple times in this lesson.
- The teacher will need to get out cotton balls, tissue paper, and gelatin for this lesson. Those are all tools that are used to slow down the Vinegar Eels. (Cotton balls are not included in the kit, when purchased from STC. It will depend on individual resource centers whether or not they come in the kit.)
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A student is setting up his notebook
to record observations on Vinegar Eels. |
Student Management:
- Make sure students do not pick up their microscopes during this lesson and the rest of the unit, while looking at their specimens. Everything will be in liquid. The specimen will slide off of the slide.
- Students need to make sure they don’t get too much of the liquid on their slide. When they adjust the focus, they may get it wet. Students would then need to use a lens cleaner to dry it off.
- Students should focus their microscopes up and down, while allowing the Vinegar Eels to swim into view. Moving the slide back and forth will only making it harder to find them, because they move quickly. This is the same strategy as they used with the Blepharisma.
- Students should have a drawing and observations in their notebook. Have a circle pattern available to them to trace. This gives them a place to draw the organism to scale. They can write their observations beside it.
- After students have a drawing of the vinegar eels, introduce them to the strategies for slowing down the Vinegar Eels. If time is an issue, have students in one group try different strategies and share their findings and look at each others slides.
- Students should then do another drawing and write down how the slow down strategy of their choice affected the Vinegar Eels.
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This sample notebook page shows the
student’s drawing in a circle (from pattern). |
- Instead of having students read the information on Vinegar Eels first, allow them the opportunity to look at the specimen – then do the reading (Activity Before Content).
- Once students have their slide with Vinegar Eels, encourage them to try and see them with their naked eye. Students will probably be able to see small, thin, transparent organisms wiggling.
- If students don’t see anything with their microscopes, you may need to get them a different sample. (Their sample may only be vinegar.)
- After students have made their observations and drawings, read the selection on Vinegar Eels together from the Student Activity book. Be sure to discuss the three bullets from Procedure 2. Allow plenty of time for students to go back and make observations – trying to identify the properties and behaviors of Vinegar Eels from the reading.
- Make sure you discuss how the Vinegar Eel travels (muscles), and how it gets energy (eating bacteria and tiny pieces of apple).
- Remember to do the final activities. This is the time for students to reflect on their learning. They will not get to that part of the learning cycle without this. If time is an issue, this can be done on the following day.
- Extension #2 provides an opportunity for students to design a complete inquiry investigation. Students need to be familiar with this for the fifth grade science WASL.
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This student is reading information on Vinegar Eels that was pasted in the notebook. |
Reading Support:
- The Discovery Deck (that is found in some older STC Microworlds kits) has a card on Vinegar Eels. It does a good job giving information about Vinegar Eels.
- Vinegar Eels are a kind of roundworm. There are a large number of kinds of roundworms. Students could do research on a kind. They may find one of the disease causing ones quite interesting.