ISTE STANDARDS: CITIZEN
LEARNING GOAL
OVERVIEW
Educators inspire students to positively
contribute to and responsibly participate
in the digital world.
NARRATIVE
I presented this assignment during my 4th-6th hour
Biology classes in my Student Teaching experience.
Before the students completed their informational
posters, I gave them a brief introduction into the
nationwide biology project of March Mammal Madness
and their assignment: I showed them the “hype video”
that was created to get the students excited and went
through a Google Slides presentation to give them the
details. There are four different groups of animals that
are involved in the “tournament”: mammal collectives,
wild North America, queens of the sea and sky, and a
group of animals that had strange combinations of traits
(“why not both?”). The students were to conduct
research on two of the 64 animals listed and create an
informational poster on their findings. Through this
research, the students were to get a better
understanding on their animal and learn how they can
help endangered species similar to the one they were
researching. This gave the students a better
understanding of the world around them and how their
actions, no matter how small they are, can help animals
that need it. After the posters were completed, students
hung up their work in the hallway and did a “gallery
walk” to understand the other animals that their
classmates researched. Students then used this
information to build a “bracket”, similar to the
basketball game’s March Madness, in order to possibly
win extra credit. Throughout the weeks, I would show
videos to update the students on who was “winning”.
Below are sample pictures of the assignment:
Students were to create posters for
the nationwide known biology project
of March Mammal Madness. This is a
creative and fun way for students to
do research and learn about different
animals, habitats, nature, and ways to
help these endangered animals in
need. Students created informational
posters and created “brackets”,
similar to March Madness, to
advocate for these animals.
REFLECTION
I thought that this lesson went well
and gave the students something
different from their ordinary learning.
The students had fun choosing and
learning about their different animals,
most of them being something the
students had never heard of before!
The posters turned out great and the
students enjoyed hanging them up
and looking at the different animals
their friends/classmates researched
and drew. This gave them more
perspective on the outside world
around them and they were able to
discover that their actions do, in fact,
impact the world too. I think the idea
of March Mammal Madness is very
intentional because if we want to
save the world and animals around us
from being endangered or extinct, we
have to start teaching and preparing
the young minds now to make the
world a better place in the future.
Giving them a chance to earn extra
credit is always an extra incentive for
them to get working too!