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RET Project: Panama lesson plan Karen Lips (
[email protected], @kwren88) Graziella DiRenzo (
[email protected]; @gracediren) Edward Kabay (
[email protected]; @edkabay) Brief overview: This lesson plan is intended for use with Panamanian (or other Latin American students) on teach students how climate and land use affect animal abundance and diversity. Overview of lesson plan objectives: (1) To teach students how to use scientific equipment: a. Climate instruments: thermometer and rain gauge b. Data collection: field notebook (2) To provide hands-‐on experience in data collection and interpretation (3) To teach students how to present climate data in the form of a graph (4) To teach students climatic differences between seasons and biomes (temperate vs. tropical) (5) To explore the biodiversity of animals in (a) human disturbed habitats vs natural and (b) across biomes (6) To gain experience in locating, observing, counting, and identifying animals. (7) To understand and describe how human activity affects the number of animals and species observed. (8) To summarize ways that humans protect their environment and/or improve conditions for the growth of the plants and animals that live there (9) To teach students about the national park objectives, goals, and ecosystem services Project materials: Materials for the project module include: 1 Thermometer, 1 Rain gauge, 1 Pitcher (to simulate rainfall), 30 notebooks for students, 1 classroom data notebook for weather data, and 30 plastic toy frogs. Visit 1: Climate Day I The objectives for the first day include: (1) to teach and expose students to scientific equipment (i.e., how to use and read a thermometer and rain gauge, and learn to use a field notebook), and (2) to provide hands-‐on experience in data collection and interpretation Students will learn that the environment varies daily, recognizing difference between morning and afternoon, day and night, sunny and cloudy. Students will also learn to express temperature and rainfall in degrees and inches. Lesson Plan -‐ Introduce equipment (min/max thermometer, rain gauge, field notebook) o Answer the following questions: What is the instrument called? What is it used for? Why is it important? What kind of differences are we looking for? How does this affect plants and animals? o Practice reading instruments:
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Break up into 2 groups (Rain gauge and temperature groups) Explain how to read instruments How to record data-‐ explain data sheet set up • Date, time of day, min/max temperature, rainfall -‐ Hand out notebooks and pencils o Students personalize notebooks on front page ! Draw name and favorite animal – promote different animal groups o Students create a template for ecological data collection on following page. o Explain type of data biologists collect and why. ! On top of page: date, time, climate, activity/ place ! Make a column for each: animal, quantity, size, description, place, environment -‐ Encourage students to continue collecting climate data everyday by setting up weather station outside and assigning students daily recording tasks Activity Time allotment Introductions 10 minutes Weather station groups 20 minutes Field notebook explanation 20 minutes ! ! !
Visit 2: Climate Day II The objectives of second day include: (1) to remind students how to use weather instruments, (2) to teach students how to present climate data in the form of a climatograph, and (3) to teach students climatic differences between seasons and biome regions (temperate vs. tropical) Students are expected to learn how to visually represent climate data, how to summarize and display data, and to recognize seasonal and regionally weather differences. Students are also expected to learn how to add rainfall data, and to average monthly temperature data. Lesson plan: -‐ Break up into 2 groups like on 1st day o Temperature group o Rain gauge group -‐ Rotate groups -‐ Teach students how to summarize rain gauge data o Bring in simulated daily rain fall data for several months o Add daily rain values per month o Use bar graph to plot rain fall (mm) vs month -‐ Teach students how to average min and max temperatures o Bring in simulated data min/ max temperature data for several months
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o Average min/max temperatures o Add a 2nd y axis to graph ! Add line graph to plot temperature (C) vs month -‐ Display a climatogram from the temperate region o Seasonality differences? o Rainfall differences? o Temperature variability difference? Activity Time allotment Group review 20 minutes Climatogram construction 20 minutes Temperate vs tropical comparisons 15 minutes
Visit 3: Biodiversity Day I The objective on the third day include: (1) to explore biodiversity of animals in (a) human disturbed habitats vs natural and (b) across biomes, and (2) to gain experience in locating, observing, counting, and identifying animals. Students are expected to learn how scientists standardize procedure to count species and abundances, to recognize the use of morphological features to distinguish species, to recognize where different animals are found in habitats and weather conditions. Lesson Plan -‐ Practice using Field Notebook o Provide examples of when you would fill it out and how. o Example: you see a bird in a tree-‐ practice filling in a row together as a class. -‐ Explain what a transect is. o What is it used for? o What do scientists use this information for? o Why is it important to collect data systematically? -‐ Split class into 2 groups o Group 1: Transect group ! *Before class: Place model frogs on a fake transect to allow students to find later ! In pairs, have students walk along transect ! Have them record what they see in field notebooks. o Group 2: Weather group ! Practice recording weather data ! Provide fake measurements on the rain gauge and thermometer ! Have students record temperatures in notebook. o Have students rotate groups and repeat -‐ Explain to class about next visit to National Park o Clothing
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o Lunch o Logistics, etc.
Activity Field notebook practice Groups with rotations Telling students about Park Day
Time alloted 10 min 30 min 5 min
Visit 4: Biodiversity Day II The objectives of the fourth day include: (1) to understand and describe how human activity affects the number of animals and species observed, (2) to summarize ways that humans protect their environment and/or improve conditions for the growth of the plants and animals that live there, and (3) to teach students about the national park objectives, goals, and ecosystem services Students are expected to learn how the needs of different plants and animals can be met by their environments in El Cope, Panama, different locations in Panama, and throughout the world, describe how humans change the environment, how it might affect plants and animals, and the importance of making choices to protect natural resources. Lesson Plan -‐ Take kids to National Park -‐ Guided nature walk along a trail in the forest o Identify sounds, animals, and plants ! Abiotic-‐ stream, wind, etc. ! Biotic-‐ birds, frogs, etc. o Identify differences between school environment and National Park -‐ Animal show and tell o 2 Frogs, 1 Lizard, 1 Snake ! * Night before: captured several animals to show class o Talk about differences among animals-‐ skin type, ecological role, predation, defense mechanisms, etc. -‐ Questions to discuss: o Which location is better for humans? Animals? Plants? o What are differences between the 2 locations? ! Weather? Sun? ! Habitat? Food? ! Species abundance and diversity? ! Elevation difference? o What are main features of animal and plants in each location? -‐ Ask students to reflect on what they have learned. o Name 3 things you have learned and your favorite part about the module. Activity Time allotted Intro to how to sample in park, taking care 10-‐15 minutes of oneself and wildlife in the park
Transportation to and from Park Trail walk What did you learn?
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35-‐45 minutes (70-‐90 minutes roundtrip) 20-‐40 minutes 30 minutes
