iTeachers+Class+Introduction+and+Excursion,+Data+Collection+and+Observation

===Home Page>>Class Introduction, Excursion, Data Collection and Observation>>Reflective Journal>>Representational Art>>Student Group Presentation>>Extra Teacher Resources === .

=Introduction and Excursion =

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Objective: Brief whole class introduction to the topic 'Life Cycle of the Frog'. Excursion to find and collect tadpoles for classroom terrarium.
Teachers can show the students a brief IWB resource/video or power point presentation to introduce them to the topic of the 'Life Cycle of the Frog'. Following the viewing the teacher can explain that the objective for the students over the term is going to be to observe the real life transformation from a tadpole to a frog. Briefly explaining how they will observe and record their results in a variety of ways including a online journal, storyboard drawing and spreadsheet. Teachers will inform the students that they will be working in small groups of 4 through out this process and at the end of the project they will be bringing together all of the knowledge that they have acquired about the life cycle of the frog via a group presentation that they will present to the class as well as uploading it onto a class website.

The first step is locating and collecting tadpoles to observe from a local reserve. This excursion will require planning and permission slips from the students' parents. Although it may be a little time consuming to organize and run, the excursion helps to ignite the students' interest and motivation toward the task. Students will take class digital cameras to take photos of their excursion to create a visual diary of their experience. Photos of each step, where tadpoles were found, collecting tadpoles, tadpoles in the bucket, pouring tadpoles into class terrarium, these photos can assist in prompting students in recollecting what the process entailed so that they can write their first blog/journal entry in their online reflective journal.

Technology Used:
> @http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Spring/FrogLifeCycle.aspx?age=ks2@http://sciencewithme.com/learn-about-frogs
 * Online Reflective Journal - blogging about what they observed when collecting tadpoles, any interesting facts they have learnt during the introduction presentation, what kind of environment the tadpoles were found in, what time of year can you find tadpoles etc.
 * IWB Introduction to Frog Life Cycle examples
 * Video Introduction to 'Frog Life Cycle' examples: see above.
 * Digital Camera for the creation of a visual diary of their excursion, this can be be displayed around the classroom.

Australian Curriculum Link:

 * Yr 4 - Science Understanding - Biological Sciences - Living things have life cycles (ACSSU072)

Teacher Tips:

 * Split children up into groups of 4 - endeavoring to make the groups balanced with students with different strengths together - prearrange your groups.
 * Ensure you decide to run this activity at the right time of the year to find tadpoles.
 * Tadpoles are usually around 4 weeks old when found and the transformation to a frog can take between 8 and 12 weeks. Therefore this activity would need to be started at the beginning of term to ensure you have enough time to see the activity through.
 * If collecting tadpoles or going on an excursion to find them is too difficult, you can arrange to already have some tadpoles in the classroom before beginning the topic. FrogWatch is a tadpole exchange program that you may wish to use.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ensure the tank/terrarium is already set up before collecting tadpoles.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ensure you have enough collection buckets and lids to safely collect and transport tadpoles back to the classroom.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ensure you have a plan of relocating the frogs back to their natural environment once the life cycle is complete.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Extension Activities:

 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Researching and setting up their own terrarium in class.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Researching the habitat of frogspawn, tadpoles and frogs. Students can then brainstorm local areas where tadpoles may be able to be found.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Using photo graphs taken during excursion to create a digital story where the students narrate each step of finding and collection tadpoles. Describing the environment, time of year etc that the tadpoles were found.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Class excursion to release the frogs back into their natural environment.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">References:
nl8vq. (2010, March 30). //Life Cycle of a Frog// [Video file]. Retrieved from <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 14.6667px;">[] on 6th May 2012.

Education Services Australia. (nd). //The Australian Curriculum// [website]. Retrieved from @http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Mathematics/Curriculum/F-10 on 1st May 2012.

= Data Collection and Observation =




 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Objective: For students to observe, record and report on the different phases within the 'Life Cycle of a Frog'. **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Using tadpoles caught in the previous lesson that are being kept in a terrarium in the classroom, students will be asked to closely observe the tadpole and record their observations in a variety of ways. Prompting can be given such as how big do you think that tadpole is? How many legs does it have? How long is his tail? etc these question will vary depending on the phase the tadpole is in. Students will all be given a tadpole in a Petri dish and a magnifying glass to closely observe them. The students will then use relevant measuring equipment to measure the entire length of tadpole, the length of the tail and the width of the head (these measurements can be used to compare with the estimates the students made regarding the tadpole's size during their visual observation). The students will record their estimates and measurements in a spreadsheet, examples shown below. At the end of the life cycle the students will display their estimates and measurements in a graph/table of their choice.This information can be used in group final presentation via power point/video/digital story.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After each observation and measurement session students will be required to draw what they saw in the 'Life cycle of a frog' story board, creating a visual diary of their observations. Students will draw each phase and write a simple description at the bottom of each section. At the completion of each session student will collaborate the knowledge they have gained through blogging. The blog will be in the structure of an online journal, more can be seen about this on the Reflective Journal page of this wiki. Through exposing the students to a variety of ways of recording the data they have gained, it will hopefully appeal to a wide range of learners. Helping each different type of learner to learn and retain the information they have gained. For example some students may respond and learn better through visually recording (storyboard) the information they have gained rather than through just blogging/writing.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Technology used:

 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Online Journal/Blog
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Spreadsheet for data recording i.e. Microsoft excel
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Graph/table for presentation of data collected

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Resource Examples:

 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Estimate and measurement spreadsheet example[[file:Life cycle measurements.xlsx]]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Storyboard
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Blog/Journal entry, please see Reflective Journal page.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teacher Tips:

 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Story boards are best created on A3 paper as this allows adequate room for students to both draw and add text about the particular phase observed. Depending on availability of time the students can draw up the storyboard or this can be previously made to link in with how many lessons etc you wish to devote to the topic.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Australian Curriculum Links:

 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Yr 4 - Science Understanding - Biological Sciences - Living things have life cycles (ACSSU072)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Yr 4 - Mathematics - Statistics and Probability - Data representation and interpretation - Construct suitable data displays, with and without the use of digital technologies, from given or collected data. Include tables, columns graphs and picture graphs where one picture can represent many data values (ACMSP096)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">References:
<span class="wiki_link_ext">MontessoriAMS. (2011, February 5). //Frog-life-cycle-6// [image]. Retrieved from @http://www.flickr.com/photos/montessoriams/5483790807/ on 14/5/2012.

Education Services Australia. (nd). //The Australian Curriculum// [website]. Retrieved from @http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Mathematics/Curriculum/F-10 on 1st May 2012.