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• Unit plan
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Lesson plan 1

Grade 9: Regular Biology

Student teacher: Girma Tessema

University supervisor: Professor James Harris

Cooperating teachers: George Crump and Brian Nixon

 Unit 2: Ecology (Chapter 3)

 Main points

To avoid misunderstandings of some concepts, definitions will be given for important terms.

1. Brief introduction on ecological methods will be given to acquaint students how an ecological system is studeid and what procedures need to be followed to arrive to a representative summary.
   
2. The biosphere, the global ecological system integrating all living things and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the lithosphere (rocks), hydrosphere (water), and atmosphere will be studied.
   
3. Levels of organization in ecology from highest to lowest or vis versa will be shown to students and they will be asked to give other examples of organization in life or in other subject areas.
   
4. There is interdependence among and between organisms and energy flows from one form of life to the other in an ecosystem. Matter also recycles in the ecosystem without being destroyed.
   
5. There are some nutrients that are crucial for the growth and development of plants and other organisms. Some nutrients are said to be limiting because their absense in the medium will affect the survival and growth of an organism (plant). Students will find out how the deficiency of a certain nutrient will affect growth by accomplishing some experiments (to be designed).
   

General objectives: Students will be aware of what ecology mean and be able to recognize the interactions that exist among and between biotic and abiotic factors. They will acquire knowledge that will enable them contribute to the conservation and wise use of biodiversity and natural resources as a whole.

Specific objectives

At the end of this chapter students will:

1. understand energy flow and cycles of matter
2. acquire knowledge  on the interaction and interdependence of organisms and the environment
3. know how to investigate nutrient limitation in the growth of plants

Materials

Power point presentation will be the method of conveying information and it will be supported by a video show. Overheads might be used as necessary and  lecture guide is provided to keep students alert during the discussion.

Discussion will be highly encouraged as it is one of the best methods of participating students in the teaching learning process. It also strengthens the interaction among the students and students with their teacher. Revision is one other method to enable students to focus on main points and make connections with previous lesson and the next lessons.

Laboratory activity related to nutrient recycle and nutrient limitation.

Objectives: This activity will enable students to understand the importance of nutrient cycle and how an interruption in nutrient cycling will result in shortage of a particular nutrient that will affect the whole system.

Problem

Is the shortage of phosphate limit the growth of algal population?

Materials

Pond water collection

• Algal culture (pond water)
• Dropper pipette
• 10 test tubes with stoppers
• Test tube rack
• 50 ml graduated cylinder
• Glass marking pencil or label paper
• 10% tri-sodium phosphate solution (demonstrate how to prepare this)

Hypothesis: Shortage of phosphorous will not affect the growth of algal population

Procedures

1. Students will work in group of four or five
2. Collect pond water from a near by stream
3. Label 5 test tubes as control (C) and the other 5 as phosphate (P)
   
4. Arrange the test tubes in the test tube rack
5. Put 20 drops of the algal culture in each of the test tubes
6. In the control test tubes add about 30 ml of water
7. In the phosphate tube put 30 ml of the 10% phosphate solution
8. Stopper both types of test tubes
9. Observe the 2 types of tubes and record color changes in your note book
10. Continue your observation for 5 days and summarize the results

At the end of this experiment students will be able to understand how deficiency of a certain nutrient will affect the growth of algae.

Assessment

At the end of every chapter students will be tested on quizzes with selected response type of question. In addition, the day to day interaction in question and answer and discussion will be very much helpful to insure the delivery of the subject matter.

Result

Students were able to recognize that the deficiency of phosphorous suppressed the growth of algal population in the test tubes. Due to limited algal sample in the original pond water the growth of algae was not profuse as expected but there was variation between the treatment and control tubes within a week time..