New Ways with ICT 2008 - RMIT University
Mighty Minibeasts
This unit of work has been adapted from a unit of work prepared by Anne Baird, Deirdre McKenzie and Tanya Chalmers during their participation in an Intel® Teach Program Essentials Course. See Accessed 1 June 2008
|Unit Overview |
|Unit Summary |
|In this unit of study, students will explore the world of minibeasts and along the way they will discover the important role that these creatures |
|play in our lives. They will decide whether the world would or could survive without their chosen minibeast and will present their conclusions to |
|the class. Students will investigate the characteristics and habitat of a minibeast of their choice and create a table-top minibeast zoo for the |
|classroom. At the conclusion of the unit they will invite visitors into their classroom to visit their zoo. |
|Curriculum-Framing Questions |
|Essential Question |
|Are some little things in life as important as big things? |
|Unit Questions |
|How do minibeasts affect our lives? |
|Is a minibeast really a “mini” “beast”? |
|How is the food chain important to our understanding of the role of minibeasts in the world? |
|Content Questions |
|What is a minibeast? |
|What are the characteristics of a minibeast? |
|What is a food chain? |
|What is the role of minibeasts in the ecosystem? |
|What is the best environment for a minibeast? |
|Teaching and Learning Strategies |
|Whole class discussions |
|Socratic questioning |
|Brainstorming |
|Fieldwork |
|Collaborative learning |
|Research and investigation |
|Individual and group journaling |
|Prerequisite Skills |
|Students’ Prior Knowledge |
|An understanding of the use of multimedia and publishing software-saving work; inserting text, images and sounds; custom animation etc. |
|An understanding of blogging software, how to post a message and upload images. |
|Students may need some practice in presenting and ‘selling’ in preparation for the Minibeast Zoo. |
|Teachers’ Professional Learning |
|Teachers will need to familiarise themselves with the Visual Ranking and Showing Evidence Tools and will then set up a workspace for their |
|classroom. |
|Have students work through simple activities to familiarize themselves with the tools. |
|Instructions and examples are available at |
|Teachers may wish to also familiarise themselves with blogging software. Instructions are available through [1] |
|VELS standards |
|Year Levels – Years 2,3,4 |
|VELS level 3 |
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|Strand |
|Domain |
|Dimension |
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|Physical, Personal and Social Learning |
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|Personal Learning |
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|Interpersonal Development |
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|The individual learner |
|Managing personal learning |
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|Working in teams |
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|Discipline-based Learning |
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|English |
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|Mathematics |
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|Science |
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|Reading |
|Writing |
|Speaking & Listening |
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|Measurement, chance and data |
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|Science knowledge and understanding |
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|Interdisciplinary Learning |
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|Communication |
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|ICT |
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|Thinking Processes |
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|Listening viewing and responding |
|Presenting |
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|ICT for visualising thinking |
|ICT for creating |
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|Reasoning, processing and inquiry |
|Creativity |
|Reflection, evaluation and metacognition |
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|Materials and Resources |
|Technology Hardware |
|Interactive Whiteboard, or teacher laptop and data projector |
|Student access to computers regularly (in classroom) |
|Digital cameras |
|Technology Software |
|Internet browser |
|PowerPoint |
|Photostory |
|Excel |
|Access to Learning Federation online digital resources |
|Other materials |
|Gather a range of text books and children’s story books around minibeasts and food chains |
|Locate a suitable container e.g. glass aquarium to create an environment for the “Guess the Minibeast” activity and “Classroom Minibeast Live Zoo”.|
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|Prepare enough sets of laminated sorting cards for groups of three students in the class (see teacher support). |
|Prepare flipchart with images of animals for whole grade sorting. |
|Gather magnifying glasses, electronic microscopes for viewing of live specimens. |
|Prepare minibeast wondering journal as a reflective, learning journal for students to use throughout the unit. |
|Create an accessible space in the room for the wondering wall and provide felt pens, insect |
|Useful websites |
|Gould League - Food Webs - build your own |
|Welcome to ! - |
| The Animal Kingdom |
| Yucky Worm World |
|Insects on the Web |
| Australian Insect Common Name |
| About Insects |
| Insect Facts |
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|Teaching and Learning Activities |
|1. Preparing for the Unit |
|Gather a range of text books and children’s story books around minibeasts and food chains. |
|Locate a suitable container e.g. glass aquarium to create an environment for the “Guess the Minibeast” activity and “Classroom Minibeast |
|Live Zoo”. |
|Prepare enough sets of laminated sorting cards for groups of three students in the class (see teacher support). |
|Prepare flipchart with images of animals for whole grade sorting. |
|Contact local authorities and/or universities to ask entomologists or environmental experts to help students answer the wondering |
|questions. |
|Create a class blog (weblog) for help visit Learner Blogs*. |
|Create a "Virtual Learning Environment" (open source software available) or online class page to allow students and teachers to access |
|online resources and activities. |
|Gather magnifying glasses, electronic microscopes for viewing of live specimens. |
|Prepare minibeast wondering journal as a reflective, learning journal for students to use throughout the unit. |
|Create an accessible space in the room for the wondering wall and provide felt pens, insect cut-outs or thinking clouds for students to |
|write and post their wonderings as they are working through activities. |
|Lay some old squares of carpet in various locations around the school yard to attract minibeasts underneath in preparation for minibeast |
|collection and observation. |
|2. Introducing the Unit ( TCHE2116 Lesson 1) |
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|Throughout the unit read books and websites to students that illustrate the way minibeasts affect our lives. Include information that |
|refers to the food chain, the characteristics of minibeasts, their habitats and their place in the ecosystem. |
|Learning |
|What is a minibeast? Is a mini-beast really a mini beast? |
|Using an interactive whiteboard or an ordinary whiteboard and data projector pose the question. Is a mini-beast really a mini beast? |
|Define the words mini and beast. View multimedia teacher support (PPT 1.84MB). While revealing the images consider are we really seeing |
|mini beasts? |
|The images are chosen because they aren’t pleasant to look at. The idea is to try to get a reaction from the students that will create |
|discussion. |
|Students will need to decide on a definition of minibeasts. |
|Wondering |
|Are the little things in life as important as big things? |
|Pose the question “Would it be good if we got rid of some of these slimy, creepy creatures? Would it really matter? Are the little things |
|in life as important as big things?” |
|Defining and Sorting |
|What is a minibeast? |
|Use an interactive whiteboard (or data projector showing Inspiration) to display a range of images of creatures from the animal kingdom. |
|(see Figure 2.1) This file should be stored on the online class page for this unit. |
|Have two students at a time come to the board (or your computer) and move and sort the images in silence according to their own criteria. |
|Other students observe, discuss and decide why they think the images have been sorted in a certain way. E.g. big and small, pets and wild |
|animals, insects and non insects, number of legs, wings, no wings. |
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|What differences between the animals do you notice? |
|Provide students with a set of laminated images of creatures which includes animals large and small. In small groups students sort the |
|cards according to their own criteria. Have students share the way they have sorted the animals. E.g. wings/no wings, large/small, |
|insect/non insect, mammal/non mammal. |
|Alternatively, provide two large hoops or string circles for large Venn Diagrams to each small group and have students sort according to |
|set criteria. E.g. have students sort into minibeast and non minibeast. |
|Altenatively, using Insipration, have students work in pairs to sort the images according to their own criteria |
|Explore differences and similarities between groups? |
|Refer back to Is a minibeast really a minibeast? What do we think we know about what a minibeast is now? What is a minibeast? Class to |
|revise its definition of a minibeast. |
|Categorizing |
|What are the characteristics of a minibeast? |
|If an interactive whiteboard is available, use an IWB flipchart of minibeasts. Students come up to board and physically move the images |
|into groups. They can use their own method of sorting but they should explain it to the class. |
|In small groups give students a packet of laminated images of a variety of minibeasts and ask them to sort them according to their own |
|criteria. Teacher introduces concepts such as exoskeleton, skeleton, vertebrates, invertebrates, arachnids and insects. |
|As the teacher is introducing each term students select the minibeasts that they have in front of them that belong to that group. |
|The IWB can be used to illustrate the different minibeasts that belong to each category. Create a permanent display of the minibeasts and |
|their categories in the classroom using some of the images and terms that have been referred to. |
|Alternatively, using a data projector and Inspiration, create a file that contains images of minibeasts. Locate this file on the online |
|class page. Introduce concepts such as exoskeleton, skeleton, vertebrates, invertebrates, arachnids and insects. (See Fig 2.3 as an |
|example) |
|As the teacher is introducing each term students create a concept map showing how these categories relate to each other. |
|Then students group the images of insects in their Inspiration filer into each category as they are explained, connecting the categories |
|and images |
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|Write personal entry in minibeast wondering journal in blog. |
|3. The Minibeast Zoo (TCHE2116 Lesson 2) |
|Wondering |
|Introduce the Wondering Wall. |
|The wondering wall is where students and teacher can post wonderings about minibeasts. As we are learning and discovering we may be able to|
|answer some of the questions along the way. Explain to students that this is a display that will stay here for the duration of the unit. |
|Model this process to the students. E.g. “I wonder why insects have six legs and we have two?” , “I wonder why spiders need to look so |
|scary?”, “I wonder why some animals are really big, like an elephant and some are really small, like a mosquito?”. |
|Have cut-out insect shapes that are large enough for students to write their wonderings on. Each child takes one cut-out and after sharing |
|some thoughts with a partner, writes one thing that they are wondering about. Post on wondering wall. |
|Times should be allocated to regularly return to the “wonderings” to see if any of them have been solved. Continue to add to this wall over|
|the course of the unit. It is important to impress that some questions may never be answered and that this is fine. The more important |
|thing is to keep asking questions. |
|The wondering wall is an ideal place to also display the Curriculum-Framing Questions so that students can keep referring to them as they |
|are wondering and learning. [Remind pre-service teachers to connect the wonder wall to ideas about questioning from Understanding the |
|Learner] |
|Display class definition from lesson 1 on the Wondering Wall. |
|Creating and Exploring |
|What is the best environment for a minibeast? |
|At the end of the Unit students are going to invite visitors into the classroom to view the table-top minibeast zoo they have created. |
|Introduce the live minibeast habitat/zoo to the classroom. What sort of habitat will we need to create? |
|Students will participate in an exploration activity to try to identify the characteristics of a successful habitat. In small groups/pairs,|
|students section out a square meter of ground and look for any types of minibeasts. Remember to look up in the trees, in the shrubs and in |
|the earth and mulch. |
|Use a sheet divided into centimetre squares to indicate the location of each creature that they find. What did they discover? Describe the |
|environment; using digital cameras take pictures of the environment and the minibeasts that they have found. |
|Create a portfolio of images of the minibeasts and habitat for use during the course of the unit. |
|Back in the classroom use Excel to record and graph the data about the number and type of each minibeast in their section of the garden. |
|Brainstorm ideas for elements of the habitat as a whole class using Inspiration to capture and group ideas. |
|Ask students to describe the pedagogical strategies employed in this lesson – constructivism, discovery learning, |
|3. How do Minibeasts affect our lives (Part 1) (TCHE2116 Lesson 3) |
|Listing and deciding |
|Briefly revisit the images of minibeasts to reignite the emotional response to the enlarged images. Pose question - Why do you think we |
|have these creatures in the world? Can you see any evidence of minibeasts in the classroom? (Spider webs fly droppings, dead flies) What |
|about outside? What can we see? What do they do? I wonder what would happen if they disappeared? Wouldn’t it be better if we didn’t have |
|these annoying little creatures that bite and buzz and leave a mess? |
|Ask the question - How do minibeasts affect our lives? |
|In small groups or individually, list on the T chart (good ways bad ways) the ways that students think minibeasts affect our lives. |
|Prepare a flipchart or page on the interactive whiteboard with an enlarged blank T chart, Good Ways, Bad Ways. Collate the small group |
|responses on the flipchart. As a group evaluate whether there are more positive effects or negative effects. |
|Ask, why this is so? (the expectation here is that there would be more negative effects on our lives). |
|Place the collated T chart in an accessible place in the classroom for students to add to as they learn more. |
|Connect pre-service teachers to the ideas underpinning this approach – questioning, open ended questions, Bloom’s Taxonomy - ?? |
|Wondering Wall - Continue daily visits to the wondering wall to maintain interest and challenge students to keep asking questions, thinking|
|and searching for answers. |
|Understanding |
|Are the little things in life more important than the big things? |
|How does knowing about the food chain help us answer our Essential Question? |
|What is the role of minibeasts in the ecosystem? In what other ways do minibeasts affect our lives? |
|To help visualize the way a food chain works, prepare blocks for the balancing the food chain activity. Using the blocks to represent the |
|sun, plants, primary and secondary producers demonstrate how when one thing is removed from the pyramid the whole structure falls. |
|Alternatively students could play the food chain tag game. Students play the role of algae, insects and frogs. The numbers need to |
|represent a balanced system where there are many more algae than insects and frogs. After a time stop the game to see how many algae, |
|insects and frogs are left. If all the algae has disappeared then what happens to the insects and what happens to the frogs? |
|Continue to use other resources such as books, websites, DVD’s, learning objects to reinforce the understandings of the importance of the |
|food chain. Using the interactive whiteboard illustrate a very simple food chain and have the children move each of the images around to |
|demonstrate their understanding. Seek answers to the content question “What is a food chain?”. |
|To reinforce the food chain understandings introduce the teacher multimedia resource (PPT) to help explain the role of each member of a |
|food chain. The presentation uses terms such as predator and prey, producer, decomposer, primary producer, secondary consumer, tertiary |
|consumer and top consumer and encourages students to discuss the different roles of animals and how they impact on one another. The |
|penultimate slide illustrates the complexity of a food web but also raises the question of the absence of minibeasts and the ultimate |
|effect on the whole food web. |
|For more information see food chains and food webs at Enchanted Learning*. |
|Students are to complete one of the food webs at (accessed 1 June 2008) or one of the TLF |
|learning objects on foodwebs |
|students are to animate a simple food web using PowerPoint, making sure they label each part of the web using the terms predator and prey, |
|producer, decomposer, primary producer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer and top consumer. |
|Make the connection between the scaffolding that this lesson provides the students – information about food chains, the online game to |
|reinforce these concepts, then the students flying solo – also follows the modelling (the teacher PowerPoint), guided practice (the online |
|activity), independent practice (the PowerPoint animation) ideas they used in their lesson planning assignment in Understanding the |
|Learner. |
|In what other ways do minibeasts affect us? Discuss the other ways minibeasts might affect human lives, both negative and positive – for |
|example, dung beetles clearing away excess cattle dung; biological controls eg the mimosa beetle eating the roots systems of the invasive |
|mimosa plant that is choking our wetlands across Northern Australia, ladybirds eating scale insects on fruit and vegetable crops; spread of|
|diseases; leeches assist in medical procedures; products made by insects eg honey, silk; weed control; pollination of plants; use of |
|insects in forensic science. |
|4. How do Minibeasts affect our lives (Part 2) (TCHE2116 Lessons 4 & 5) |
|Introduce the student’s assessment task. Using the Socratic Questioning method to have a whole class discussion about the positive and |
|negative reasons for eliminating flies from the world as an example of what the students will be doing for themselves in their major |
|assessment task. |
|The teacher poses the scenario that a scientist has invented a poison that will kill all of a particular species of minibeast in the world.|
|In groups of 2 or 3 students pretend that they are the Ministry for the Environment and they must decide if this is a good thing. Their |
|task is to think of reasons for and against the eradication of a particular minibeast eg flies, mosquitoes, spiders, cockroaches, leeches, |
|scorpions, termites. |
|In their groups, students formulate an argument supporting why they believe that their minibeast should survive or not. |
|They will present their argument in a short multimedia presentation using Photostory and Audacity. |
|Their presentation should include |
|basic information about their minibeast - image, facts, habitat, place in food chain, sustenance needs, predators. Refer students to a |
|liited range of web sites from the online class page |
|arguments for why it should not be eradicated. |
|arguments for why it should be eradicated. |
|their opinion. |
|The teacher emphasizes to the students that this type of multimedia product is used to add to, not dominate, a presentation. Therefore they|
|should use dot points, clear and relevant graphics and succinct information. Each group should practice using their presentation to make a |
|powerful argument. See the rubric (DOC 40.5KB). |
|In order to assist students to prepare their argument and supporting presentation the teacher may employ a number of strategies and tools. |
| |
|Preparing, Thinking and Questioning |
|The teacher may invite local experts into the class or establish email contact with scientists and entomologists so that students can begin|
|the thinking that will be required to formulate arguments for and against the worth of their minibeast. |
|Additionally have students use the Showing Evidence Tool to formulate their arguments for the "Save My Minibeast" task. |
|Students will need to learn how to use the tool. Practice by proposing a claim “I think that all flies should be eliminated”. Ask students |
|to think of 3 reasons why they think it would be a good idea to get rid of all flies in the world and three reasons why we shouldn’t. |
|Impress upon them that they must give reasons for their claims and that they have to also think very carefully why they might hold the |
|opposite view. |
|Use this scenario to practice using the tool. |
|Then have students use the tool to prepare their arguments and stance for their group presentation. |
|5 Deciding (TCHE2116 Lesson 6) |
|Creating and Presenting |
|The culminating event for the unit will be a day where parents and friends will be invited to visit the Minibeast Zoo. The title for this |
|special day could be “Just because it’s little, it doesn’t mean it isn’t worth preserving!”. |
|In preparation for the day, students will create their own minibeast display/diorama that shows the habitat of the minibeast they have |
|chosen. It will be based on research they have done over the previous weeks and must illustrate accurately the characteristics of their |
|chosen minibeast and the optimal habitat. |
|Using Publisher, students will also prepare a brochure to print out and accompany their display and give to visitors. The brochure will be |
|designed to “sell” their minibeast and will provide arguments for why it should be preserved, and why it is a valuable member of the |
|ecosystem. |
|Brochures could feature: |
|Snappy heading (Crazy Cockroaches, Flittering Flies, Beautiful Bees). |
|My Best Environment-includes the environment that minibeast needs to survive. |
|Why we should look after them? |
|Interesting Fact |
|It may be valuable for students to practice ‘selling’ their minibeast with other students before the visiting afternoon. |
|On the day, students will locate themselves near their diorama and their brochures, talk with visitors and show and tell them about their |
|minibeast. Visitors will be asked to vote for |
|the scariest |
|the prettiest |
|the ugliest |
|the most important |
|etc |
|Votes will be cast by pasting an image of that minibeast on a display board. |
|Incidental activities for the day could include: |
|making minibeast food eg butterfly cakes, ant chocolate balls, etc. |
|writing and creating invitations for the visit. |
|writing thank you notes. |
|drawing maps to show how to get to the classroom. |
|taking photographs of the visit. |
|writing an article for the newspaper/newsletter. |
|taking video of activities on the day. |
|To complete the unit the teacher may have students reflect on the activities of the day and the unit using photos and recording. Students |
|could write an article for the school newsletter or local newspaper. The teacher may also have students write a reflective piece for their |
|MiniBeast Wondering Journal, classblog or for display. |
| |
|The teacher will also bring students back to the Essential Question through a final time of pondering/wondering. |
| |
|Have we answered our Essential Question? |
|Are some little things in life more important than big things? |
|Assessment Strategies |
|A range of assessment strategies and tasks will be used throughout the unit to assess student understanding prior to the commencement of |
|the unit, during the unit and upon its completion. The strategies will include self, peer and teacher assessment, teacher anecdotal notes |
|and observations as well as formal student presentation and product development. |
| |
|Beginning of Unit |
|Wondering Wall |
|Students begin their reflections very early in the unit by posting their initial wonderings about minibeasts. Have students write their |
|names on the back of their wonderings so that they can be used as a form of anecdotal assessment. |
|Wondering Journals |
|Introduce ongoing minibeast wondering journals – Today I Wondered, Today I Learned, Things I Will Remember |
| |
|During Unit |
|Ongoing adding to wondering wall and minibeast journal |
|Observation of sorting activities |
|Use of Visual Ranking Tool |
|Use of Showing Evidence Tool |
|Group work and preparation of “Save My Minibeast” presentation |
|Investigation and preparation of minibeast and habitat diorama |
|Contribution to class blog |
| |
|End of Unit |
|Presentation (“selling”) of minibeast and habitat diorama |
|Completion of minibeast wondering journal |
|Accommodation for Diverse needs |
|Students with special needs - Mixed ability partnerships/groups. Tips for using multimedia, peer mentoring, negotiated timelines, |
|negotiated modifications of tasks. |
|English as a second language (ESL) students - ESL teacher involved within the class – providing extra assistance for these students. |
|Gifted students - Students are involved in open-ended activities, debating, developing collective understandings, etc. |
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[1] For the purposes of TCHE2116 students will be using the Campus LX blog within Blackboard. Edublogs and learnerblogs are two alternative blogging resources that may be used in a primary classroom.
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