What's In That Pond Anyway? What Do They Do All Day?

     The second the lesson I taught, while the shortest and most simple, was the most surprising and I learned the most from it. This lesson was short and simple; squeezed in between the first and third lessons as a way to touch base on what was in the tanks and what the inquiry cycle was to aid in the work students would do for the science fair. This direct instruction lesson was structured so that I would teach the basic information the students would need to know about their ecosystems and the animals in them and so I could remind them of the inquiry cycle and they could practice tying the two together. As I began this lesson it became evident that the students knew what I was teaching already- they had memorized the Tabletop Reference book! This made the lesson quicker because the students could answer chorally as a class and the check for understanding showed conclusively that the basic knowledge required was mastered. Once this piece flew by we had more time to ficus on the inquiry cycle and examples of how to use it in reference to our model ponds. This extra time turned out to be a blessing because the students had lots of good ideas and theories about what might be going on in their tanks.
     This short lesson turned into such a memorable experience for me because I had to gear up the first part from teaching them the info to having them chorally give me the information. I also had to go deeper into the second part than I planned which was a last minute adjustment as well.  Gearing a lesson up or down is all part of being a responsive and effective teacher so I was glad I got to experience a lesson that required this.
     Gearing down came into effect with the Elephant Poem and questions. The students were eager to read the poem aloud and enjoyed the cleverness in the poem. Them volunteering to read it aloud instead of us was a pleasant surprise. The questions were too complex, however, and the students did not understand what was being asked. This part of the lesson I had to gear down by giving clues and riddles in conjunction with each question that helped students discover what the question was trying to get them to think about and answer on.
     In the closure students were asked to think about questions they would like to investigate within their pond and they began to formulate testable questions. This part was interesting because students were coming up with questions and experiments that I had not even thought of. The exit ticket was a posed situation that asked the students to formulate all steps of the inquiry process to go along with it. This showed me which students understood applying the inquiry process to the ponds and which students did not.
     I would do this lesson again in the future but I think next time I would like to make this an inquiry lesson where the students use the reference materials to formulate their information and to begin thinking about questions or plans for experiments that they have. The students showed they could have been successful at this independently and this is something I could take advantage of in the future to make the learning more the students and less mine.