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Sample Lesson Plan Science

Year/Stage:

Year 9/Stage 5

Teacher:

Syllabus reference
Knowledge and Understanding: Living World
Content:
LW2 Conserving and maintaining the quality and sustainability of the
environment requires scientific understanding of interactions within, the
cycling of matter and the flow of energy through ecosystems.
(a) recall that ecosystems consist of communities of interdependent
organisms and abiotic components of the environment
(c) describe how energy flows through ecosystems, including input and output
through food webs
Outcomes:
SC5-14LW analyses interactions between components and processes within
biological systems
Text: Oxford Big Ideas Australian Curriculum Science 9, Oxford,
Chapter 4, pp 9699
S Cash, G Quinton, C Tilley (2012)
Language focus: Classifying and describing, definitions, technical terms in
biological sciences
Preparing for reading (Stage 1)
Background knowledge: (from previous learning)

energy and matter, types of energy, flow of energy

organisms, kingdoms, ecosystems, biotic and abiotic, food chains, bacteria,
prokaryotic
photosynthesis, sugars, proteins, cellulose
chemical reactions, oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, phosphorus
Earths crust, energy from Sun, atmosphere, evaporation, condensation,
precipitation

Summary of the text: (dot-point for each section)

Define energy (ability to do work) and matter (building blocks of everything).

How energy moves through an ecosystem, and matter is recycled.
Plants use solar energy for photosynthesis, animals get energy from plants.
Sugars contain energy, organisms transform energy into other forms to do
work.
Matter flows through ecosystems as food and waste.
Water cycle transfers water through evaporation, condensation and
precipitation.

Detailed reading (Stage 2)

Read each paragraph, discuss and have students mark key information. In this
sample lesson plan, the information to mark is highlighted in the

accompanying copy of the text.

Detailed reading may be performed on part of the text and/or may be
set for students to complete individually or in groups.
Note: Discuss the illustrations that accompany the text as it is read.

Note-making from the text (Stage 3)

Students use their marked or highlighted key information to make notes. One
student may write the notes on the board as others dictate.
This might be a whole-class activity or it could start with the whole class and
then be completed individually or in groups, depending on the needs of the
class and the time available.
The following are examples of notes from the information highlighted on the
accompanying text:
Ecosystems
producers, herbivores, carnivores and decomposers
non-living (abiotic) factors also interdependent
energy and matter flows in cycles because of interactions within ecosystems
dynamic interactive unit
Energy and matter
energy is ability to do work transferred
matter is building blocks of everything recycled
Flow of energy
first source of energy solar energy via photosynthesis
animals obtain energy from plants and other animals
energy flows in only one direction not recycled
continuously take in more energy from the sun
Energy for work
sugars contain energy must convert into other forms
energy transformations metabolic processes
building compounds build and replicate molecules
communication within and between cells
physical movement muscles or movement towards sunlight (plants)
transport move substances nutrients and wastes organism's body into and out of cells
Flow of matter
plants absorb simple substances carbon dioxide, water, minerals
converted into sugars by photosynthesis
other compounds from the sugars
broken down by decomposers
reused by plants
Cycles of matter
atmosphere or earth's crust biogeochemical cycle
Water cycle
driven by heat from sun
precipitation evaporation transpiration from plants
water moved between land, oceans, atmosphere
Carbon cycle
carbon is in carbon dioxide, sugars, proteins, lipids
carbon dioxide
returns through respiration, burning fossil fuel, forest fires, decomposition
removed in photosynthesis
Nitrogen cycle

nitrogen:
gas in atmosphere

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organic nitrogen, eg ammonia, amino acids, proteins, nucleic acides, in

living things
micro-organisms convert nitrogen from air
denitrifying bacteria return nitrate to atmosphere

Oxygen cycle
oxygen originally produced by cyanobacteriaprokaryotic autotrophic organisms
plants came later and also contribute oxygen
respire aerobically or anaerobically
balance of oxygen: production photosynthesis, use aerobic respiration
Phosphorus cycle
essential compounds for living organisms phosphorus, potassium, calcium
plants absorb from soil
dead matter broken down to minerals

Note-making may be performed on part of the text and/or may be set

for students to complete individually or in groups.
Joint construction from notes (Stage 4)
This is an example of a text that could be written from the notes in
Stage 3.
Ecosystems are dynamic interactive units. Energy and matter flow in
cycles between abiotic factors such as the atmosphere and soil, and
biotic factors, including producers, herbivores, carnivores and
decomposers. Energy is the ability to do work and is transferred in
ecosystems. Matter is the building blocks of all things and is recycled in
ecosystems.
The Sun is the origin of energy in ecosystems. Energy is not recycled
but flows in only one direction, from the Sun through organisms. Plants
and other producers absorb the Suns energy through photosynthesis.
Herbivores consume energy from producers, and carnivores consume
energy from herbivores.
Energy is transformed into sugars by producers, and is then
transformed into other forms for organisms to use in their metabolic
processes. These processes include (1) building and replicating
molecules, (2) communicating within and between cells, (3) movement
of muscles in animals and towards sunlight in plants, and (4) transport
of substances, such as nutrients and wastes, around an organism's
body and into and out of cells.
Matter is cycled between the atmosphere or earth's crust (abiotic) and
organisms (biotic). This is called the biogeochemical cycle. Matter is

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absorbed by plants as simple substances like carbon dioxide, water

and minerals, and converted into sugars by photosynthesis. Other
compounds are then made from the sugars. These compounds are
later broken down by decomposers, and reused by plants. Matter
cycles include the water cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle and
phosphorus cycle.
In the water cycle, water is evaporated from the oceans and land by
the Suns heat, and transpired from plants. It then precipitates back to
the land and oceans as rain, snow or ice.
(continued
)Joint construction may be performed on part of the text and/or may be
set for students to complete individually or in groups.

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2.2 Content Selection and Organisation - Organise content into an effective learning and
teaching sequence.
Content in this lesson plan is organized very effectively and appropriately. The plan uses a
staging system, with each stage improving on and dependent on the previous one. This can be
seen through an examination of each stage. Stage 1 details the necessity of requiring previous
knowledge in topics which relate to this lessons content to ensure student understanding.
Stage 2 relates to student reading of the assigned text and the highlighting of information that
they deem key, whilst stage 3 consists of individual or group note taking. Stage 4 is the final
stage and involves the collection of information and compiling it to create a group made text
regarding the topic. This use of staging is also effective as each stage can be timed, resulting
in an effective lesson that is easily controlled and does not require and make up or follow up
lessons.
3.5 Use effective classroom communication Demonstrate a range of verbal and non-verbal
communication strategies to support student engagement.
The lesson plan utilizes both verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support
student engagement. This can be seen through the lesson plans use of individual or group
note taking and also the joint construction in stage 4. The lesson plan allows for the option of
either individual or group reading and highlighting of the text, and also group collaboration.
The use of individual work promotes non-verbal communication as it allows for students to
analyse the text themselves. As for the verbal communication, the lesson plan use of group
analysis of the text and collaborative note takin helps in improving student engagement as it
involves each student or each group of students. This group work ultimately promotes and
encourages student engagement as it employs both verbal and non-verbal communication.
4.2 Manage Classroom activities Demonstrate the capacity to organize classroom activities
and provide clear directions.
The stage system of the plan ultimately demonstrates the capacity to organize classroom
activities and provide clear directions. Stages 2-4 involve having the option of either
individual or group work depending on teacher discretion or previous assessment data, as to
which method works best. Ultimately, the lesson plan allows for teachers to choose which
method will work best for their students. This plan works as a very decent baseline that
allows for teachers to change how students are taught or engaged, depending on their own
experiences with students. The plan utilizes the stage system which allows for appropriately
timed segments of learning that are easily controlled, by time or direction. Similarly, these
segments are easy to follow as each stage is built on the last, which also makes a brief lesson
introduction easy.
4.1 Support student participation Identify strategies to support inclusive student
participation and engagement in classroom activities.
The lesson plan utilizes group work and engagement. This is clearly evident in stages 3 and 4
of the plan. Stage 3 involves the group compiling of key terms from the text, thus promoting
group collaboration and teamwork when doing this task. Stage 4 does the most towards
inclusive student participation as it involves a whole class joint construction of ideas to
compile a text from the notes. The use of a student being the one writing notes on the board
in stage 3 encourages whole class and student participation as the teacher has been somewhat
removed, allowing the students to direct this stage of the lesson and therefore becoming the
most involved possible, as they are directly responsible for the content they are learning.

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Assignment 2

Report:
Section 1
All schools are an ever changing environment of students and teachers with ever changing
needs. For the purpose of this report, only the diverse needs of students will be focused upon
in relation to the chosen standards of the Science lesson plan selected. Standards designed by
the Board of Studies Teaching and Educational Standards (BOSTES) are created to provide
teachers a guideline to effective teaching. The graduate standards selected for this lesson plan
were chosen as aspects of the lesson plan showing evidence of these standards being used
effectively. However, there are multiple variables that must be considered when designing
lesson plans and thus this report will discuss how well the chosen standards meet these
variables.
Ideally, a school classroom environment should be that of a differentiated classroom, an
environment where the individual and diverse needs of each student are catered for (Moore,
2012, p. 49). However this is not always the case and thus standards must be analyzed to see
which individual and diverse needs of students are met. One of the most important aspects in
designing a lesson plan is that of student learning styles. Sprenger (2008) and other
researchers have complied a list of components representing learning styles as follows;
environmental, emotional, sociological, physiological, and psychological. It is important to
recognize that each student may belong to one of these components, multiple of them, or
none at all and thus the wide variety of variables become evident. The lesson plan utilizes
almost all components of learning styles. This can be seen through standard 2.2 where the
organization of the lesson plan, involving stages, can help with emotional learners, whereby it
may be beneficial for the learner to focus on and complete one thing at a time. Similarly, this
structure of the plan also helps with psychological learners, whom may appreciate the use of
bit by bit or stage learning to achieve a final goal. The standards in the plan also do well in
dealing with sociological learners, people who appreciate working in groups or alone, as
standards 3.5 and 4.1 give the option to allow for group or individual work. Standard 3.5 also
deals with environmental learners, e.g. having sound present when learning or having no
sound present, as the option of group or individual work can provide both. Standard 4.2 could
help with psychological learners and their need to stay focused on the stage work provided by
the lesson plan. Ultimately, it is difficult to facilitate physiological learners in a science
classroom as it is often difficult and dangerous to involve movement.
Another important variable to consider is that of the cultural diversity of students. Students
from culturally diverse backgrounds are often faced with problems of trying to fit into a
school system that they may be unfamiliar with or does not cater to their needs. The standards
chosen for this lesson plan do not do well in facilitating this cultural diversity of students.
The text used in the plan is written in English and does not take into account English as a
second language (ESL) students. This could be fixed by using texts in languages that these
culturally diverse students are from and thus would help standard 3.5. Similarly, the lesson
plan and the standards do not show a catering towards Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
students and as Simpson and Clancy (2005) have examined, these students require a different
style of learning from the mainstream one in order to further understanding of content.
Ultimately, this lesson plan exists to be modified and amended to ensure teachers enable their
students to understand content. As this is the case, it can be seen the necessary changes that
need to be made to help facilitate culturally diverse students. The content in this lesson plan is
somewhat bare in terms of interaction however examples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander ecosystems could be involved to create discussions and possible interactions of

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students from these backgrounds. This would help promote standards 3.5 and 4.1 in
encouraging student communication and participation. Similarly, standards 4.2 and 2.2 could
be met through the use of Reynolds (2005) two-way schooling method where Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander education and culture is taught in tandem to mainstream education
resulting in an organized differentiated classroom.
Section 2
Peer feedback for the standards and focus areas which were selected for this lesson plan was
across the board positive with only one comment on possible improvement. Almost all
feedback stated that each standard was appropriately selected and that each annotation
explained its purpose. The only feedback which suggested change was that of possibly
focusing on other ways the lesson plan caters to student learning needs. This is a good
suggestion that helped in writing section 1 of this report. However it did not ultimately cause
a decision to alter or change the selected focus areas as different ways the lesson plan caters
for student learning needs was explored fully in section 1 and was left out of annotations due
to word count restrictions.

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Assignment 2

References:
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (2014) retrieved April 23, 2016,
from http://www.aitsl.edu.au
Marsh, C.J., Clark, M., Pittaway, S. (2014) Marshs becoming a teacher (6thEd.) Frenchs
Forest, Australia: Pearson Australia
Moore, K. D. (2012) Effective instructional strategies (3rd ed.) Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Reynolds, R. J. (2005). The education of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
students. Childhood Education, Fall, 31-5.
Simpson, L., & Clancy, S. (2005). Enhancing opportunities for Australian Aboriginal literacy
learners in early childhood settings. Childhood education, 15, 327-32.
Sprenger, M. B. (2008). Differentiation through learning styles and memory. Thousand Oaks:
Corwin/Sage.