OBJECTIVES The student will:
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(1) Collect a variety of living things found in and around the pond.
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(2) Using textbook and field manuals, identify the animal and plant life discovered at the pond.
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(3) With the assistance of the instructor, set up an aquarium in the classroom in order to observe a pond community in captivity.
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(4) Keep a journal noting any changes that occurs in the aquarium.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
A wide variety of pond animals can be maintained in captivity with a minimum amount of care and equipment. Keeping samples of plants and animals collected from a pond community in the classroom, under conditions approximating their habitat, will give students the opportunity of studying them at close range and in detail. Given adequate care and feeding, many of the animals collected will carry out their complete life cycles in captivity.
All the information needed to set up the aquarium can be found in the sectioned titled, “Constructing A Pond Community”.
PROCEDURES
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(1) Find a pond located near your school. If a pond is not within walking distance arrange a bus to take you to a nearby pond. Some parks have park rangers working in them. Most of the time they will be happy to assist you if you contact them in advance.
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(2) Tell your student to bring jars, gallon jugs, small plastic bags, etc... Let your students know that they will be going on a field trip to a pond so that they will dress appropriately.
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(3) Set up the aquarium in class as mentioned previously. Bring back enough water from the pond to fill the aquarium.
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(4) Have the students collect a variety of plants and animals from the pond’s edge.
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(5) Upon your return to school, place the water and living organisms in the aquarium.
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(6) Instruct students on how to keep a journal of observations made after viewing the aquarium each day.
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(7) Also have students use field guides to identify as many of the plants and animals as possible.
LESSON PLAN III: Food Webs In The Pond Community
OBJECTIVES The student will:
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(1) Explain that a community is a large group of diverse organisms that live together in an orderly interrelated fashion.
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(2) Differentiate between food chains, pyramids and webs.
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(3) Design a typical food web that could exist within a pond community using magazine pictures, or figures that they draw themselves.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The community of plants and animals that live in a pond make up a network of interconnected food chains called food webs. All of the food in the web eventually comes from photosynthesis of green plants using sunlight, water, carbon dioxide. Use the diagram at the end of this unit titled, “Food Web In A Freshwater Pond” as an example to show students what their food web should look like.
PROCEDURES
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(1) Write the terms and definition for the following words on the board: (a) community (b) food chain, (c) food pyramid; and (d) food web.
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(2) Have the student define the term community. Then have them to describe what a pond community would look like.
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(3) Have the students explain the differences and similarities between the three concepts.
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(4) Have the students orally state some examples of typical food chains that may occur in a pond community.
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(5) Give each student a duplicate copy of handout, “Food Web In A Freshwater Pond” and have them add onto their previously mentioned responses.
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(6) As a small scaled science project, have the students collect or draw pictures of a pond community on a poster board. You may want to give the students a few days to complete the assignment.
EVALUATION
The students finished project should be used as an evaluative tool. If the students food chain was done correctly, then they should have grasped the concepts of webbing.
LESSON PLAN IV: Exploring The Microscopic Pond World
OBJECTIVES The students will:
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(1) Prepare a wet mount slide from a drop of pond water.
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(2) Draw and identify any animals seen underneath the microscope.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
A microscope will literally open up an entire new world for your students when exploring a pond. Each time a child place a drop of pond water on a slide and bring it into focus they venture into an world unknown to them. The movement and the animals themselves are amazing. NOTE: you may need to review the parts of the microscope and remind the children how to handle the microscope.
PROCEDURE:
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(1) The teacher may want to collect water from a pond for this experiment or the water from their aquarium may be used. However, if you collect new pond water near an algae bloom the variety of microscopic life will be numerous.
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(2) Review with the students how to properly prepare a wet mount slide.
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(3) Have the students take a sample of pond water from the sample that you have prepared.
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(4) Tell the students to draw the animals that they see in the microscope.
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(5) Have the students look through library books, and identify the animals that they drew.
SPECIAL NOTE: The Regional Water Center will perform this activity with your students in their laboratory.
LESSON PLAN V: Science Projects
OBJECTIVE The students will either
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(1) Design and implement an experiment relating to pond ecology.
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(2) Design a poster relating to pond ecology.
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(3) Write a research paper relating to pond ecology.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
This science project can be used as an evaluative tool at the end of the unit. Students will turn in a science project using any one of the previously mentioned projects. As the teacher, you have the choice of letting students work in groups or individually on their science projects. I allow students to design experiments together, especially if they are using live animals. However, research papers and posters are to be done individually.
Notice how I give students the choice of doing an experiment, designing a poster or writing a research paper. This allow students to work from their strongest standpoint. Of course some students draw better than others, some perform scientific investigations better than other and some students enjoy writing. Giving students a choice usually motivate them to turn in award winning projects.
PROCEDURES
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(1) Explain to the students that they will be doing a science project. Let them know that they have a choice of doing an experiment, designing a poster, or writing a research paper.
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(2) Give the students a list of possible topics. Also brain storm with the class about other possible topics. Let the students know that the topic that they choose must be approved by the instructor.
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(3) Place the following list of possible topics on the board, along with any others the students suggest:
Experiments
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(1) What would happen if you place five fish, three snails, and four plants in a gallon jar? Explain what happened and why?
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(2) How would a drop of gasoline or oil affect an ecosystem in a jar?
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(3) What would happen if you placed three to five snails in a jar? Why did this occur?
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(4) Make a terrarium using reptiles, plants, etc... Explain why this represents an ecosystem.
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(5) Get samples of two different forms of pond water, draw and identify the microscopic life found? Do all ponds have the same kind of pond life?
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(6) How long does it takes for a tadpole to turn into a frog?
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(7) Can a fish survive frigid water temperatures?
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(8) How can too much light or any other limiting factor discussed in class affect a pond community?
POSTERS
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(1) Food chains in a pond
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(2) Ecological succession in a pond community
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(3) How an aquarium works
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(4) The life cycle of a frog
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(5)The hydrologic cycle
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(6) Different types of plants found in the pond community
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(7) Food pyramids within the pond community
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(8) The ecological makeup of pond
RESEARCH PAPER TOPICS
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(1) What is a pond?
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(2) Different types of ponds
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(3) Limiting factors in a pond community
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(4) Food webs that exist within a pond community
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(5) Ecological succession of a pond
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(6) Different habitats found in the pond community
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(7) The ecological makeup of a pond
