Stem 32-Lesson Plans By Shelly J. Thomas P.S. 273 (The Wortman School) Brooklyn, NY

STEM32 Lesson Plan #1 Teacher’s Name: Shelly J. Thomas School: Public School 273 (The Wortman School) 923 Jerome Street, Brooklyn, NY STEM32 PD Attended: April 16, 2011 to May 21, 2011 Lesson Title: Sea Creatures (Meroplankton) Are you my Mommy?

Grade Level: First Grade Common Core Standards: R.I.T. 6a-G1: W2-G1

Objective: Students will be able to observe various species of sea creatures in both the larval and adult forms.

Materials and Websites Ocean related topics: Book References: My Visit to the Aquarium by Aliki Curious George Goes to the Aquarium by Elizabeth K. Cooper Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister You will need:  Chart paper, markers, sentence strips, glue sticks and the Meroplankton Match-up Worksheet, the Answer Sheet and Science notebook journals.

Smart Start: What are Meroplanktons? Vocabulary Words: Meroplankton- Are sea creatures that start out as plankton, (not being able to swim in the larval form) to eventually grow into Meroplanktons. They are classified as Meroplankton because they cannot control their own movement against the water current. (ex. Crab, lobsters, Sea Urchins,etc.)

Mini-Lesson  You can use one of the book references above to introduce this lesson; reading all or just some of it.  Ask the students what kind of fish do they think they can you find in an aquarium? Solicit some answers and write the on the chart paper.  Tell the students that, today, we will be discussing some sea creatures we may have seen when we visited an aquarium are called Meroplanktons. Ask the students if they have ever heard of that word before? Do they know what it means? Explain to them that they start out in the “baby or juvenile” form not being able to swim at all. But, when they reach their adult form, they cannot control their own movement against the water current. Some examples of these sea creatures are lobsters, crabs, sea urchins and snails.(Use the Meroplankton worksheet to cut out these sea creatures with the names of them on sentence strips and show what they look like in their adult form only) . Show one or two more pictures from the cut outs and ask the students if they are able to identify any more Meroplankton just from their background knowledge. (Choose the pictures you think they will be able to guess correctly. Do not use all of the pictures on the worksheet unless you have an advanced group).  Can anyone guess what they think our “aim” or “smart start” is for our lesson today? Students should eventually say our lesson is about Meroplanktons or they should say: “What are Meroplanktons”?  After modeling matching an adult Meroplankton with an exact larva one, tell the students that during their independent work period, they will be given individual pictures of a few baby Meroplanktons in their larval form and they will see if they can “find their mommy”. In other words, they will see if they can match the larval form with the adult form of the same Meroplankton just like they saw you modeling a match-up.

Application (Group Work) Using the pictures from the match-up worksheet, cut out the various pictures of both the larval and adult form of the Meroplankton. The answer sheet is for the teacher so he/she would be able to tell immediately whether or not the students are matching up correctly (use the bottom part of the answer sheet only) You may adjust this lesson by having them work quietly at their desk individually or with a partner. Or you can evenly divide the class up. Give 1 half of the class the adult form pictures and the other half will get the larval form. Then the students will have to walk around the classroom to each person to see if they can find their match.After they have found their match, have the students individually record in their science journal notebooks what they learned about Meroplankton today. Students can even use the pictures from the match-up sheet to glue in their journals as picture examples of what Meroplankton are in both the larval and adult form.Teacher should ask these following questions to the class :Bloom’s Taxonomy Questions: (Grouping)  Are these sea creatures the same as fish? Why or why not?  What do they have in common? How are they different?  Why aren’t fish considered Meroplankton?

Conclusion Choose two to three students to “share out”what they learned from what they wrote in their Science journal notebooks.

Extensions: >The students can write an informational writing mini-report on 1(one) Meroplankton that they learned about showing it in both their larval and adult form. > Take a field trip to the aquarium and have the students identify some Meroplanktons they saw there that they learned about.