| ERESE Teacher Lesson Plan Template (CEO1A) |
| Teacher Name | Greg
Goebel |
| Lesson Title | Hydrothermal
Vents and Ecosystems |
| Grade | 6,7,8 |
| School | Congress
Middle School |
| City, State | Boynton
Beach, FL |
| Purpose
of Lesson |
To
determine how an ecosystem can thrive at a hydrothermal vent |
| Education
Standards |
Grade 6,7,8 - FL SC.G.1.3.4,
SC.H.1.3.1, SC.H.1.3.2, SC.H.1.3.3, SC.H.2.3.2 |
| INQUIRY STAGE 1 | |
| Orientation |
Introduce
available tools and concepts. |
|
Purpose |
Make students feel safe taking intellectual risks. |
| Procedure | A) I will review what is required to make
an ecosystem self supporting. Discussion will include: a) food chains / food webs b) types of producers - photosynthesis B) I will briefly explain to students that there are hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean where there no light penetrates and there is no direct influence from the Sun. |
| INQUIRY
STAGE 2 |
|
| Fieldwork |
Provide
students with provoking, relevant phenomena. |
| Purpose | To foster their interest and ownership and generate their own questions about the phenomena. |
|
Procedure |
A)
I will show the Black Smoker Movie and ask the students: Do you think
there is life here? a) If not, why not? b) If so, what kind(s) and why? Anticipated Observations statements 1) The smoke is dark in color 2) The smoke is erupting upwark with significant force 3) There are lots of different colors on the rocks themselves 4) There are visible no green plants 5) There are no visible animals questions 1) Why is there light in the movie? 2) How far down in the ocean can light penetrate? 3) At what depths are these hydrothermal vents? 4) Can organisms make their own food without light? 5) What exactly is in the black smoke? 6) How hot is the temperature? B) Next, I will show the Eel City Movie and ask the students: Are you surprised at what you saw? a) If not, why not? b) If so, what surprised you and why? Anticipated Observations statements 1) There were eels that were "hiding". 2) The eels came out all at once. 3) The undersea volcanoes around the eels seemed to be relatively barren. questions 1) Do the eels live here or are they "visiting"? 2) What do the eels eat? 3) Why did the eels all come out at once? |
| INQUIRY
STAGE 3 |
|
| Debriefing |
Teacher honors all student observations. |
| Purpose | Assist students in developing testable questions and hypotheses. |
|
Procedure |
A) First, talk
about the Black Smoker and Eel City movies. Divide students into
2 groups. The students will choose which group they want to be in depending on whether or not they think there is life that permanantly lives there. Each group will list as many reasons as they can come up with to support their claim. B) I will briefly review with students the kinds of living things that commonly live in the ocean. If phytoplankton were not mentioned already by the students, a brief discussion of their importance will take place here. This will lead to a discussion of how oceans form in the first place. I will show maps of the Atlantic Ocean bathymetry and Pacific Ocean bathymetry . I will point out the ocean ridges and explain why volcanism occurs at these spreading centers using the Diverging Plate Boundary Model. C) Have students engage in a simple activity where they see how heat can be released from an oxidation process. For example, have students see how the temperature of steel wool changes as it begins to rust. D) At this point, students should still be pondering the possibility of life being able to exist under these "harsh conditions". Have a discussion with the students about whether or not an ecosystem can be self-supporting here. Write down on the board what they think. Hopefully all of their ideas will include these 3 notions: 1) An ecosystem can be self-supporting as there could be organisms that are able to process some chemical from an oxidation reaction to get usable energy 2) An ecosystem can be self-supporting as there could be organisms that are able to take convert heat energy into a usable form of energy 3) An ecosystem cannot be self-supporting as there simply is no light for photosynthetic organisms to make food which would needed by consumers as part of a food web |
| INQUIRY
STAGE 4 |
|
| Experimental
design |
Design
an appropriate investigation. |
|
Data
collection |
Define
approach for collecting data. |
| Purpose | Gather data that address the identified question and hypothesis. |
|
Procedure |
All
students will be presented with the same lesson: Each student
will choose which hypothesis they will attempt to prove. Question: Can an ecosystem be self supporting without a source of energy from the Sun (light)? Researchable Hypothesis A: If there are chemicals associated with energy from inside the Earth, then they can be used by organisms to convert that energy into usable forms by oxidation. Researchable Hypothesis B: If there is enough heat released from inside the Earth, then it can be used by organisms to convert that energy into usable forms. Researchable Hypothesis C: If there is no light from the Sun, then there will be no way to make food to sustain an organism. |
|
Data
analysis |
Define approach for analyzing data. |
| Purpose | Analyze data that address the identified question and hypothesis. |
|
Procedure |
Have
students find out how hydrogen sulfide can be used by chemosynthetic
organisms to make "food". They will need to also need to find out
how these organisms are involved in symbiotic organisms with other
organisms. They will also need to be able to explain
where the hydrogen sulfide comes from and how it is released. The
following two links will help the students to find these answers: Basic Hydrothermal Vent Tubeworm at hydrothermic vent The students will also find out what other organisms depend on these "primary consumers" for food. |
| INQUIRY
STAGE 5 |
|
| Presentation |
Communicate what they have learned. |
| Purpose | Provide
students an opportunity to communicate their results in a forum that
reflects the scientific community. |
|
Procedure |
A) Students
will fill out a lab report and answer several questions as to: 1) how chemosynthesis takes place 2) in geological terms, how a hydrothermal vent is able to release a high concentration of minerals which precipitate out. B) Students will make a food web which illustrates energy movement in a hypothetical hydrothermal vent ecosystem. They will need to have at least 10 organisms including at least two producers (containing chemosynthetic bacteria), two primary consumers, and one secondary consumer. |
| ERESE
Teacher Reflective Plan Template |
|
| INQUIRY STAGE 1 |
|
| Orientation |
Introduce available tools and concepts so that students feel safe taking intellectual risks |
|
Type of Evidence |
Review (including questioning), brief introduction |
|
Teacher profile |
3.0 - Show food web examples, make sure students remember how
photosythesis works and why it is important in food webs - find out if
anyone is familiar with a deep sea vent |
|
Student profile |
1.5 - will be answering guided questions concepts reviewed and
explained, students will take part in a KWL on deep sea vents,
undersea volcanoes |
| Reflective
practice |
|
| INQUIRY STAGE 2 |
|
| Fieldwork |
Give students experience to foster their interest and ownership; provoke students to explore, observe and generate their own questions about the phenomenon |
|
Type of Evidence |
Two questions - allows for open ended thinking / interpretations with
lots of possibilities |
|
Teacher profile |
1.5
- show the videos without any explanation other than they were taken at
deep sea vents, allow students to wonder, question |
|
Student profile |
3.5 - students will be allowed to observe anything they find, although
they should be focusing on observations of things that might affect
life and vise versa |
| Reflective practice | |
| INQUIRY STAGE 3 |
|
| Debriefing |
Teacher
honors all student
observations, questions and hypotheses in order to identify and discuss
their viability as a research topic. |
|
Type of Evidence |
Guided
group discussion, a content lesson, then an exploratory lab activity |
|
Teacher profile |
2.5
- facilitate group discussions as they ponder possibilities of life,
demonstration of plate tectonics with time for discussion, allow
students to explore while getting them focused on oxidation and temperature changes |
|
Student profile |
2.5
- discussion with group pondering possibilities of life; look at maps
of bathymetry while learning about plates and plate movenent;
answer questions about temperature changes while doing a hands on oxidation experiment - while at the same time wonder how this might apply to deep sea vents |
| Reflective practice | |
| INQUIRY STAGE 4 |
|
| Experimental
design |
Design an investigation wherein students gather and analyze data that address the identified question |
| A.
Data
collection |
Define
approach for collecting data |
|
Type of Evidence |
one
specific question - three possible hypotheses |
|
Teacher profile |
2.5
- Focus all students on one question of whether or not life can exist
in a self-supporting ecosystem. Allow students to pick any of
three hypotheses which should have been student generated |
|
Student profile |
2.0
- Choose a hypothesis based on prior knowledge, instruction, and new
observations |
| Reflective practice | |
| B.
Data
analysis |
Define approach for analyzing data |
|
Type of Evidence |
questioning
- looking for cycles, cause and effect relationships |
|
Teacher profile |
3.0
- Show diagrams, explain important concepts |
|
Student profile |
2.5 - After
understanding basics of deep sea vent formation, explore and analyze
specific examples further |
| Reflective practice | |
| INQUIRY STAGE 5 |
|
| Presentation |
Teacher provides students an opportunity to prepare and communicate what they have learned. |
|
Type of Evidence |
lab
report then designing a food web |
|
Teacher profile |
3.0
- guide students through lab report, allow many possible food webs |
|
Student profile |
2.0
- answer questions about deep sea vents, make food webs based on data
collected |
| Reflective practice |