I. Curricular Framework

Concept:

Growth

Essential Question:

How does the study of insect growth and development compare to the growth and development of other

Bridge:

My Collection

Content:

Stages of Insect Development

Outcomes:

II. Standards Aligned

III. Instruction and Assessment

1. Connect: Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Objective: To observe and experience a living insect. To enhance observational skills.

Activity: Students are assigned partners. Each pair of students is given its own live grasshopper. Containers: large glass jar covered with screen and/or cheesecloth. Add leaves, grass, food and water. Place on shelf or counter that allows for sun and shade. Instruct students as to proper care. Give them the following observation worksheets. 1. Name the body parts (head, thorax, abdomen). 2. Sketch and label them. 3. Observe the antennae. Are they thick or thin? 4. Sketch the antennae. What do you think they are for? 5. How many legs? All the same length? Are there joints? 6. Sketch the legs. 7. Are there wings? 8. What does your grasshopper eat? 9. How does it eat? Suck, bite or chew? 10. What environment does your grasshopper need? 11. What is its range of activity? Does light or darkness affect its activity? 12. Name your grasshopper. 13. Both of you must make a sketch of your grasshopper. Refer to your textbook if you need help.

Assessment: Quality and accuracy of worksheets.

2. Attend: Attending to the Connection

Objective: To pool observations and begin systematizing data.

Activity: Discussion of worksheets and observations. (In the class in which we piloted this lesson, we collected the grasshoppers after two weeks and changed the containers, and to our amazement, the students were able to identify their own.)

Assessment: Quality of the discussion.

Assessment, Phase One, Level of Engagement, Fascination:

3. Image: Creating a Mental Picture

Objective: To provide an activity that will broaden their grasshopper experience to insects in general in preparation for lecture and reading materials.

Activity: Instruct students to begin their own insect collections. Any good science text will explain this process.

Assessment: Insect collecting process.

Assessment, Phase Two, Seeing the Big Picture:

4. Inform: Receiving Facts & Knowledge

Objective: To teach stages of insect growth.

Activity: Lecture with accompanying text; eggs, larvae, pupae, adults; eggs, nymphs, adults. Read the assigned chapters in the text.

Assessment: Objective test.

Assessment, Phase Three, Success with Acquiring Knowledge:

5. Practice: Developing Skills

Objective: To practice the concepts and reinforce the learning.

Activity: Workbooks, worksheets, activities in text. Students begin identifying their insect collections.

Assessment: Quality and accuracy of the above.

Assessment, Phase Four, Success with Acquiring Skills:

6. Extend: Extending Learning to the Outside World

Objective: To personalize students' learning by allowing them to choose an activity that explores some facet of insect life.

Activity: Do a sketchbook of various insects. Do sculptures of various insects. (Teachers should use some of the excellent experiments listed in various science texts.) Invent and build an insect, using what you now know about insects. (Have various materials: pieces of styrofoam, toothpicks, remnants of cloth, colored paper, pipe cleaners, etc. Consider an all-school display.) At this step the students turn in a project plan for teacher and (where necessary) parent approval. They write a contract specifying: the project, the materials needed, the resources, the concepts to be examined, worked through or tested, and the date of completion.

Assessment: How well the students go about the task of planning their projects and the scope of their activity.

7. Refine: Refining the Extension

Objective: To enhance student ability to plan and work systematically.

Activity: Students begin their projects.

Assessment: The manner in which they "get to work."

8. Perform: Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Objective: To increase student ability to complete what they begin. To give them the opportunity to explain what they have learned.

Activity: Students complete their contracted projects and present them to their classmates, either by display, explanation or both.

Assessment: Quality of completed projects, faithfulness to project contract and quality of sharing.

Assessment, Phase Five,Performance, Creative Use of Material Learned: