Microworlds
Lesson 15
Looking at Living Things: Hay and Grass Infusions I
This is an exploration lesson for students to discover what the infusions have produced. Lesson 16 will allow them to record and communicate their findings.
3. Lesson Set-up and Management
4-5 SYSB A system can do things that none of its subsystems can do by themselves.
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.
4-5LS1C Certain structures and behaviors enable plants and animals to respond to changes in their environment.
4-5LS2A An ecosystem includes all of the plant and animal populations and nonliving resources in a given area. Plants and animals depend on one another and the nonliving resources in their ecosystem to help them survive.
- Students will discover microbes that developed in the hay and grass infusions.
- Students will begin to record their observations.
- Students will work independently and should show skill in working with the materials.
- The teacher can begin to evaluate student progress.
3. Lesson Set-Up and Management
Materials:
- The teacher will need the hay and grass infusions started in Lesson 10.
- Each of the jars will need a separate clean dropper.
- Cotton balls, tissue, and gelatin will also need to be available, if students need to slow down the organisms. (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.)
Student Management:
- It is important to have students collect their samples from near the vegetative matter, near the top, or near the sides of the container. It is challenging to make sure that there are organisms. There are usually more specimens in those areas.
- Students enjoy making creative names of the organisms they discover. Name appropriateness should be discussed.
- Remind students that the better their notes are in this lesson the better prepared they will be for Lesson 16.
- Students should not put their hands near their eyes or mouths. They need to wash their hands when they have finished cleaning up.
- Since students have already had multiple experiences observing organisms with their microscopes. It is okay to begin the lesson with the Student Activity Book reading selection from page 55.
- It may be helpful to write a list on the board of the expectations in their student notebook for the lesson: Drawing and Recording of Observations of at least one microbe. This is a very exciting lesson and students can easily forget to record their learning.
Writing Support:
- The observation organizer could be used to provide sentence starters for describing the organisms observed in the hay and grass infusions. A blackline master of this can be found on sciencenotebooks.org.
Reading Support:
- Research could be done on Louis Pasteur and his disproving of spontaneous generation. See Extension 2.