University of Notre Dame



Teacher Notes:Section 1: Characteristics of Living ThingsEssential QuestionsWhat is living?Why are there ambiguities about what is “life”?How are living things interconnected?How have living things changed over time?Activity 1a: Mystery Jars (Is Yeast Alive?)-Paradigm Activity(Learning Objective 1)Students complete a lab activity that asks the students to think about whether a mystery jar contains living or nonliving substances. Students use their whiteboard to make observations and draw conclusions. A board meeting is held to discuss the students’ findings. This activity addresses three characteristics of life: cells, energy, and reproductions; and is be used to start a discussion on the other characteristics. It can also be referred to throughout the unit.Activity 1b: Is Sammy Alive? Activity (Alternative assignment to the Mystery Jars)Students read the “Is Sammy Alive” scenarios and draw their own conclusions. The teacher leads a class discussion of each of the scenarios ensuring that all students have an opportunity to express and opinion. A class consensus should be reached to determine Sammy’s status. From this scenario, students form small groups for Activity 2.Activities 2-3-4: Characteristics of life: What is life? / Video clip(Learning Objective 1)Students form small groups (3-5 students), collect a whiteboard, and 1 dry erase makerAsk the students to write at the top of their board “What is life? / What characteristics make something alive?” Divide the lower half of the board into 2 halves (split the board into a left and right side.)Give the groups approximately 5 minutes to brain storm and come up with ideas on what they feel makes something alive. Students should record their ideas on the left side of the board.Stop the students, collect the dry erase markers, have a brief discussion of what characteristics they have derived in their group.Show the video clip “Introduction to the Characteristics of Life” ()Give the students a second colored marker, students are given 5 more minutes in their own group to come up with additional characteristics or modify their initial list (this should be done in a second color on the right side of the board. ) Students are not to erase any of the original information.After about 5 minutes, call time, conduct a board meeting. (In a large circle, each group will present their board to every other group. You should reach a consensus on what are the characteristics of life)Have the students write down (in their notes, notebooks) the characteristics that you collaboratively decided are the keys to life.Activity 5: How are living things connected?(Learning Objective 2)Preparation before the lesson: You will need to create a set of biotic and abiotic play cards. On index cards you should paste pictures of living organisms and non living objects from a variety of locations. (These cards should be organized by biomes. Each table will be given a different set of cards from a different biome.) You should prepare enough cards that each student should receive at least 5 cards (more would be better).Day of lesson: Divide the students into groupsEach group of students will be given a stack of biotic/abiotic playing cardsThe students should deal the cards until none remains. One student will lay out a card face up and state what is on the cardThe student to the left of the first player will place a card on the table and explain how it is related to the first card (EX: The bear eats the berries. Sun allows the berries to grow. The sun creates the wind on Earth. Pollen from the tree travels on the wind. Etc.)Each student is allowed to play one card and attempt to make a connection. If a student is not able to make a connection he must pass on that round and the next player is allowed to play. If a student plays a card the other members of the group may veto the play if a majority of the group does not accept the reason for connection.The player who plays all of his/her cards first is the winner of this game. Once the students have completed the game you may end the activity, shuffle the cards and play again, or trade cards with a different group so they can view different organisms and objects.Once all groups have completed the activity have the students answer the following questions... (this can be completed on individual paper, a group paper, or white boarded)Can any organism on Earth survive without interacting with other living creatures? Explain your answer.Can any organism on Earth survive without interacting with non-living factors? Explain your answer.If you removed every tree from your state, how would that impact your life?Do the actions of a person in a foreign country impact a person living in the United States?Activity 6: Abiotic vs. Biotic(Learning Objective 1)Have the students make a list of what they see in their environment (living and nonliving) on small whiteboards. You can take them outside or even use your classroom if you have living organisms. Have each group list what they observed. The students should listen to the other groups and make note any differences. Using larger whiteboards, ask the students to divide their lists into two separate categories. Most of them will divide them into living and nonliving. Conduct a board meeting to discuss their boards. Introduce the terms biotic and abiotic.Activity 7: How is life on Earth organized?(Learning Objective 3)Working in groups of 3-4, the students will obtain whiteboards and markers. They will respond to the question “How is life on Earth organized?” The students are to use pictures, charts, and lists to create their whiteboards. Also, they should write 3 questions that they have about this topic. Conduct a board meeting. Students will discuss their boards. Teacher will ask leading questions to bring out students’ misconceptions.Card Sort Activity: Students will be given cards that they are to categorize. These cards will have been made up in advance. The large cards have the following words: atom, molecule, organelle, cell, tissue, organ, organ system, organism, population, community, ecosystem, biome, and biosphere. The small cards have examples for each of those categories. Ask the students to take the LARGE cards out of the bag first and determine their order from small to large. Have a class discussion of the correct order. The correct order should be placed in the students’ journals.Ask students to place the SMALL cards into the correct categories. The small cards are examples for the categories of the larger cards. Discuss these as a class. Develop definitions based on the correct examples. The students should write these definitions into their notebooks with the correct examples. ................
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