Appendix 1

LESSON PLAN
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

LESSON ORGANISATION
Year Level: 4 Time: 60 min Date: Week 4 Students’ Prior Knowledge:
Students have created a design template on how they
Learning Area: Science; understanding. will go about making their mini ecosystem.
Design and technologies; creating solutions.
Students understand that insects and animals need
Strand/Topic from the Australian Curriculum food in order to survive and have come up with ways to
cater to the insects that will be in mini ecosystem.
Biological Sciences
Living things depend on each other and the environment to Students have been educated on the importance each
living thing within ecosystems.
survive (ACSSU073).
Producing and implementing
Select, and safely use,
appropriate components and equipment to make solutions
(WATPPS24)

General Capabilities (that may potentially be covered in the lesson)

Literacy Numeracy ICT Critical and Ethical Personal and Intercultural
competence creative thinking behaviour Social understanding
competence
Cross-curriculum priorities (may be addressed in the lesson)
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia Sustainability
histories and cultures
Lesson Objectives (i.e. anticipated outcomes of this lesson, in point form beginning with an action verb)

As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:

 Construct a mini-ecosystem using soil, plants and critters.
 Write their first observations on the mini-ecosystem.

Teacher’s Prior Preparation/Organization: Provision for students at educational risk:

- Each student will have already created their
repurposed mini-ecosystem. The teacher will need
to bring in fly wire for the lids of these, so the
critters do not escape and so they can breathe.
- It is a nature hunt so the teacher will need to
organize a parent helper with each group.
- Teacher will need to warn students of the dangers
of picking up certain foreign insects etc.
- Parent helpers will be with each group on the
nature hunt to assist when needed.
- Observations can be done via drawing for
those that struggle with literacy.
- Extension students will be prompted to help
others, colour in and label diagrams.

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 LESSON DELIVERY (attach worksheets, examples, marking key, etc, as relevant)
Resources/References
Time Motivation and Introduction:
Align these with the
WALT segment where they will
0 min
be introduced.
The teacher will address the students as follows;
“Now ladies and gentlemen, the moment we’ve all been waiting for, the
Nature hunt!”
“The past 4 weeks we have been designing and creating our own ‘mini-
ecosystems’”
“We have also been looking into the important roles each insect or animals
play in ecosystems”
“Can anyone tell me what we learnt about ants last week?”
“Did you know that ants dig tunnels in the soil which allows water to be
absorbed easier and keeps it moist”
The teacher will then highlight the criteria for their mini ecosystem homes.
15 min
Lesson Steps (Lesson content, structure, strategies & Key Questions):

The teacher gives out a checklist which has the following on it.

The criteria are as follows

Students must have:
1. Soil and a water source (can be a little spray bottle)
2. At least two types of plants
3. At least 2 critters.

“We are going outside so don’t forget to grab your hats as we go.”

“Just to be safe we are also going to be wearing gloves so come and grab
some to put on.”

The students will now go off in the organised group with either the teacher or
the parent helpers and begin their nature hunt.

The role of the parent helper is to make sure the students are on task and to
make sure each of them are safe when locating and getting what they need
for their mini ecosystems.

The students will be given roughly 30 minutes to complete this activity.

45 min The students will then pass their mini-ecosystem to a parent helper or teacher
to place a flywire lid on top to contain its habitants. Observation Booklet
Once they return to the teacher with their ‘mini-ecosystems’ completed they
will be given their observation booklet.

The booklet is 7 pages long and consists of half a page for diagrams and half
a page for writing.

The students will be encouraged to write as much as they can in fine detail for
55 min the benefit of the task.

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 Lesson Closure:(Review lesson objectives with students)

Once the students have finished their first observation the teacher will invite
the students on to the mat.

The teacher will then ask the students what some of the cool things are they
have in their mini-ecosystem.

The teacher will also question the kids on some of the observations they
came up with. Encouraging the use of descriptive words.

Transition: (What needs to happen prior to the next lesson?)

Students sit on the mat awaiting the teacher to let them leave for lunch.

Assessment: (Were the lesson objectives met? How will these be judged?)

The objectives will be marked within the observation booklet and their mini-
ecosystems.

Cross Curriculum Priority

Concept 1 of the cross-curriculum priority of sustainability refers to the interdependent and dynamic
nature of systems that support all life on Earth as well as the promotion of healthy social, economic and
ecological patterns of living for our collective wellbeing and survival. The idea of creating a mini-
ecosystem enforces the idea that the interdependent and dynamic nature of systems support all life on
earth especially. Ideally students come out of this situation with the knowledge that there is more than
meets the eye to ecosystems and that we must care for everything as even the smallest of animals and
insects play a major role in keeping our Earth alive and well.

The sustainable development goal of Life on Land, number 14; to protect, restore and promote
sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt
and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. This goal links to the topic of creating a mini-
ecosystem as students are simply just taking a closer look at the ecosystems all around us and observing.
Hopefully coming out with the want to sustain.

OI.2 of ACARA under systems, all life forms including human life are connected through ecosystems on
which they depend for their well-being and survival.

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Reference:

Australian Curriculum. (n.d). Sustainability. Retrieved

from: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f -10- curriculum/cross-curriculum-
priorities/sustainability/

School Curriculum and Standards Au thority. (2014). Year 4 Syllabus. Retrieved from:
https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/teaching/curriculum -browser/science-v8#year-4-
syllabus

School Curriculum and Standards Authority. (2014). Year 4 Syllabus. Retrieved from:
https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/teaching/curriculum -
browser/technologies/digital - technologies2#year-4-syllabus

Sustainable Development. (2019). Sustainable Development Goals.

Retrieved from: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300

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 Week:___ Observational notes and diagram

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