Lesson Plan

Subject/Grade Level: Biology II / 10-12

Lesson Title: Virtual Plant Collection Blog
Lesson Duration: 4 blocks (6 hours to 6 hours 20 minutes)
Performance Objective: Upon completion of this lesson, the student will be able to
construct, design, and publish a virtual plant collection blog displaying three examples of
non-vascular plants and three examples of vascular plants using plants collected virtually
during a scavenger hunt.

Preparation
Framework Strand:
Life Science
Content Standard Competencies/Objectives:
5: Develop an understanding of organism classification.
5b: Categorize organisms according to the characteristics that distinguish them as Bacteria,
Archaea, or Eukarya. (Nomenclature of various types of plants - e.g., Bryophyta,
Tracheophyta, Gymnospermae, Angiospermae, Monocotyledonae, Dicotyledonae, vascular
plants, nonvascular plants.)
MS CCR/CCSS:
RST.11-12.2: Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; summarize complex
concepts, processes, or information presented in a text by paraphrasing them in simpler but
still accurate terms.
RST.11-12.7: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse
formats and media (e.g., quantitative data, video, multimedia) in order to address a question
or solve a problem.
WHST11-12.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization,
and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
ISTE:
1: Creativity and Innovation
1b: Create original works as a means of personal or group expression
2: Communication and collaboration
2a: Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of
digital environments and media
2d: Contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems
3: Research and information fluency
3b: Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a
variety of sources and media
4: Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making
4b: Plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project
5: Digital citizenship
5a: Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning,
and productivity
[Biology 2]: [Virtual Plant Collection Blog] Plan
Global Academic Essentials Teacher Institute 2015: MSU

Instructional Aids:
Plant Kingdom PowerPoint

Kahoot account
Post Kahoot Review PowerPoint
Biology II Textbook
Plant Kingdom Unit Note Packet
QR code creator
QR code sheets for the supplemental readings on the non-vascular plant characteristics and
vascular plant characteristics
Crash Course video: Non-vascular plant characteristics
Crash Course video: Vascular plant characteristics
Scavenger hunt handout
Kidblog account (teacher account with individual and team accounts)
Kidblog handout
Virtual Plant Collection Blog Rubric (summative assessment)
Poll Everywhere account
Poll Everywhere prior knowledge assessment
Socrative account
Socrative.com formative assessment
LeafSnap iPad app
GPS coordinate handout
Bellringer assignment sheets
Non-vascular plant summary writing assignment rubric
Vascular plant summary writing assignment rubric

Materials Needed:
Each student will need the following:
Biology II Textbook
Plant Kingdom Unit Note Packet
Notes taken from the supplemental readings on the non-vascular plant divisions and
vascular plant divisions
Notes taken from the Crash Course video: non-vascular plant characteristics
Notes taken from the Crash Course video: vascular plant characteristics
Research notes taken from electronic device about each plant example used in the Virtual
Plant Collection Blog post
Pictures saved on jump drive; previously taken in-field with iPad
Scavenger hunt handout
GPS coordinate handout
Kidblog handout
Kidblog account (1 for each team)
Virtual Plant Collection Blog Rubric (summative assessment)
iPad, BYOD electronic device, or desktop computer
Jump drives (1 for each group)
Non-vascular plant summary writing assignment rubric
Vascular plant summary writing assignment rubric

Equipment Needed:
iPad (iPad cart for Day 3 and Day 4)
BYOD smartphone (if students want to use them)
Desktop computer (in lab)
[Biology 2]: [Virtual Plant Collection Blog] Plan
Global Academic Essentials Teacher Institute 2015: MSU

Teacher computer
Projector
SmartBoard
Jump drives (1 for each group)

Desired Student Prerequisites:

Ability to distinguish plants from other organisms
Know how to use Kidblog
Know how to use Google Maps to locate GPS coordinates
Know which class team the student belongs to
Introduction/Anticipatory Set
Teacher will provide a bellringer: use Poll Everywhere open-ended question. Students will
work in teams to share their base-level knowledge of non-vascular and vascular plants.
Lesson Outline/Procedures:
Day 1:
Teacher will provide a bellringer: use Poll Everywhere open-ended
question. Students will work in teams to share their base-level
knowledge of non-vascular and vascular plants.
Teacher will discuss general characteristics of non-vascular plants.
Students will take notes on the general characteristics of nonvascular plants in their note packets.
Teacher will assign a textbook reading on the general characteristics
of non-vascular plants. Students will take notes on the general
characteristics of non-vascular plants.
Teacher will provide a QR code for students to work in teams to read
an online article about general characteristics of non-vascular
plants. Students will take notes on the general characteristics of
non-vascular plants.
Teacher will show a YouTube video about non-vascular plants and
require students to take notes on the information provided in the
video (https://youtu.be/iWaX97p6y9U?list=PL3EED4C1D684D3ADF).
Teacher will provide a summary writing assignment where students
will summarize information about general characteristics of nonvascular plants from the textbook, online article, video, and teacher
lecture. In the writing assignment, students will highlight the
characteristics that were found in only one of the sources.
Teacher will provide a rubric for the non-vascular plant
characteristics summary writing assignment.

Teacher will display an example of a finished summary writing

assignment using information from multiple sources.
Students will complete the summary writing assignment on non[Biology 2]: [Virtual Plant Collection Blog] Plan
Global Academic Essentials Teacher Institute 2015: MSU

vascular plant characteristics.

Teacher will assign a textbook reading on the general characteristics
of vascular plants. Students will take notes on the general
characteristics of vascular plants.
Teacher will provide a QR code for students to work in teams to read
an online article about general characteristics of vascular plants.
Students will take notes on the general characteristics of vascular
plants.

Day 2:
Teacher will provide a bellringer assignment with a QR code.
Students will work in their class teams to scan the QR code and
answer the bellringer questions about general characteristics of
non-vascular plants. Students will use their own notebook paper to
write the answers to the questions.
Teacher will discuss the general characteristics of vascular plants.
Students will take notes on the general characteristics of vascular
plants in their note packets.
Teacher will show a YouTube video about vascular plants and require
students to take notes on the information provided in the video
(https://youtu.be/h9oDTMXM7M8?list=PL3EED4C1D684D3ADF).
Teacher will provide a summary writing assignment where students
will summarize information about general characteristics of vascular
plants from the textbook, online article, video, and teacher lecture.
In the writing assignment, students will highlight the characteristics
that were found in only one of the sources.
Teacher will provide a rubric for the vascular plant characteristics
summary writing assignment.
Students will complete the summary writing assignment on vascular
plant characteristics.
Students will play a Kahoot game in their class teams. Students will
have to determine whether each pictured plant is non-vascular or
vascular depending upon their knowledge of the characteristics of
both groups of plants. This game will be used as a formative grade.
Teacher and students will discuss the characteristics of each plant
pictured in the Kahoot game and determine whether each pictured
plant is non-vascular or vascular based upon the discussion. Teacher
will show these pictures on the SmartBoard using a PowerPoint file
containing the Kahoot game pictures.

Day 3:
Teacher will provide a bellringer assignment. Students will answer
[Biology 2]: [Virtual Plant Collection Blog] Plan
Global Academic Essentials Teacher Institute 2015: MSU

questions about general characteristics of vascular plants.

Teacher will provide a review demonstration on the SmartBoard on
how to use Google Maps to locate a specific GPS coordinate.
Teacher will assign the plant scavenger hunt activity. Provide
students with a handout containing the GPS coordinates of all plants
to be photographed. Students will work in class teams to locate
each of tagged plants using an electronic device (BYOD phone or
iPad) and take pictures of a leaf from each plant.
In classroom, teacher will work with student teams to download
their pictures and save them to their team jump drives.
Teams will use electronic devices (BYOD phone or iPad) to research
specific physical characteristics of their example plant species.

Day 4:
Teacher will provide a bellringer: Socrative.com quiz containing 10
questions about the general characteristics of non-vascular and
vascular plants. Students will work in their teams to answer the quiz
questions using one BYOD smartphone.
Teacher will take students to the computer lab.
Teacher will provide a handout reminding students how to create a
Kidblog post.
Teacher will provide a rubric for the Virtual Plant Collection Blog
post.
Teacher will display an example of a finished Virtual Plant Collection
Blog post so that students will have an idea of how their blog posts
should look. During this time, teacher will explain each element of
the rubric.
Students will work in their teams to create a blog post (Kidblog)
displaying three examples of non-vascular plants and three
examples of vascular plants. Teams will choose and import
photographs taken of each example plant by the team during the
scavenger hunt. Teams will identify and classify each species
according to traditional Linnaean classification characteristics to the
species level if possible (required: classify to the most specific level
possible). Teams will describe three physical characteristics (Nonvascular: height, moisture requirements, light requirements, etc.;
Vascular: gymnosperm/angiosperm, monocot/dicot, biome
characteristics) for each plant example.
Once all teams are finished posting their blog posts, teacher will
take students back to the classroom.
Individual teams will present their Virtual Plant Collection Blogs.

[Biology 2]: [Virtual Plant Collection Blog] Plan

Global Academic Essentials Teacher Institute 2015: MSU

Application

Guided Practice:
Example of summary writing assignment
Review for Google Maps/GPS coordinates
Downloading team photos from scavenger hunt
Example of Virtual Plant Collection Blog post

Independent Practice:
Textbook readings
Supplemental reading on non-vascular plant characteristics
Supplemental reading on vascular plant characteristics
Summary writing assignment on non-vascular plant characteristics
Summary writing assignment on vascular plant characteristics
Bellringers
Scavenger hunt
Research plant characteristics
Creating Virtual Plant Collection Blog post
Presenting Virtual Plant Collection Blog post
Summary

Lesson Closure:
Team presentations of Virtual Plant Collection Blog posts
Evaluation
Informal Assessment/Review:
Bellringers
Kahoot game: vascular or non-vascular plant? and post-game discussion
Summary writing assignment on non-vascular plant characteristics
Summary writing assignment on vascular plant characteristics
Socrative.com quiz
Teacher will monitor student progress during independent practice/application and provide
independent reteach/redirection as needed
Teacher will conduct periodic progress checks while students are working on
assignments/projects and provide on-the-spot subjective feedback

Formal Assessment:
Virtual Plant Collection Blog Post (rubric-based) Project
Lesson Extension
Extension/Enrichment:
Students learn collaboration skills by working in teams to complete projects. These skills can
be transferred to college or career.
By working in teams, students learn peer-teaching, tutoring, and mentoring skills that can
be transferred to college or career.
Students can apply multistep project-based learning skills to future career activities.
[Biology 2]: [Virtual Plant Collection Blog] Plan
Global Academic Essentials Teacher Institute 2015: MSU

Accommodations/Differentiation:

Auditory Learners:
Teacher lecture on vascular and non-vascular plant characteristics
Crash Course video: Non-vascular plant characteristics
Crash Course video: Vascular plant characteristics
Post-Kahoot game discussion
Student-led discussions during team-based assignments and projects

Kinesthetic Learners:
Use of BYOD to read supplemental articles on non-vascular and vascular plant
characteristics
Use of BYOD to scan QR codes
Use of BYOD to play Kahoot game
Use of BYOD to answer Poll Everywhere question
Use of BYOD or iPad during the scavenger hunt to locate GPS coordinates via Google Maps
Use of BYOD or iPad to take pictures of plants during the scavenger hunt
Use of BYOD to research characteristics of the plants chosen for the Virtual Plant Collection
Blog post
Using computer to create the Virtual Plant Collection Blog post
Visual Learners:
Textbook readings contain pictures and graphics
Supplemental readings on non-vascular and vascular plant characteristics contain pictures
and graphics
Lecture PowerPoint file with pictures, graphics, and visual transitions
Kahoot game and post-review PowerPoint file with pictures
Crash Course video: Non-vascular plant characteristics
Crash Course video: Vascular plant characteristics
Socrative.com quiz
Note packet
Scavenger hunt handout
Kidblog handout
Google Maps/GPS coordinate location review
Summary writing assignment rubrics
Virtual Plant Collection Blog post rubric
Example of a finished Virtual Plant Collection Blog post
Creating the Virtual Plant Collection Blog post
Example of a finished summary writing assignment
Poll Everywhere poll
LeafSnap iPad app
Researching plant characteristics

References:
Textbook (info goes here)
Supplemental Readings (URLs go here)
Kahoot.it
Socrative.com
PollEverywhere.com
[Biology 2]: [Virtual Plant Collection Blog] Plan
Global Academic Essentials Teacher Institute 2015: MSU

 maps.google.com
https://youtu.be/iWaX97p6y9U?list=PL3EED4C1D684D3ADF
https://youtu.be/h9oDTMXM7M8?list=PL3EED4C1D684D3ADF

[Biology 2]: [Virtual Plant Collection Blog] Plan

Global Academic Essentials Teacher Institute 2015: MSU