Olivia Stott ELED 3221-03 March 17, 2014 edTPA Indirect Instruction Lesson Plan Fossil Fragment Inferences

_____________________________________________________________________________ Central Focus/Big Idea: Paleontologists makes observations and inferences when studying fossils. Subject of this lesson: Making observations and inferences about fossils Grade Level: 4th Grade NC Essential Standard(s): 4.E.2.1 Compare fossils (including molds, casts, and preserved parts of plants and animals) to one another and to living organisms. 4.E.2.2 Infer ideas about earths early environments from fossils of plants and animals that lived long ago. Next Generation Science Standard(s): 4-ESS1-1. Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers for changes in a landscape over time to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time. 21st Century Skills:
Creativity and innovation: making inferences to draw a picture of what you think an organism and its environment looked like based on a fossil Critical thinking: observing a fossil and thinking about what organism it may have come from, piecing together what a skeleton for an organism may have looked like based on fossil cutouts provided Communication: students must communicate ideas with their partners, communicating ideas about what an organism and its fossil looked like through drawing, communicating together to compile what a skeleton looked like based on fossil cutouts provided

Academic Language Demand Language Function: Students are analyzing observations made about given fossil fragments to make inferences. In the second activity, students must interpret their observations about the different skeleton cutouts to try to form a skeleton of an organism. To do this, they must be able to categorize the fossil cutouts to see which fossil cutouts make which part of the skeleton.

Analyze Interpret

Argue Predict

Categorize Question

Compare/contrast Describe Retell Summarize

Explain

Scientific Vocabulary: paleontologist, observation, inference, organism

Instructional Objective: After trying to make observations and inferences themselves, students will be able to explain how a paleontologist makes observations of fossil or fossil fragments and make inferences about the organism and its environment. They will be able to successfully answer 3 out of 3 discussion questions at the end of the lesson. Prior Knowledge (student): Students already have a basic idea of what a fossil is. They know that it is formed after minerals build up on top of an organism from long ago. Content Knowledge (teacher): The teacher needs to have background knowledge about the fossil fragments being used in this lesson (fossil fragment information is located on the cards within each fossil fragment bag.) The teacher must also know what observations and inferences are (observations are characteristics that you can physically observe in a concrete way, and inferences are characteristics that one assumes based on observations.) Teachers also must understand how paleontologists use observations about fossils or fragments to make inferences about an organism or the organisms environment. Accommodations for special needs (individual and/or small group): Many of the students in the class have difficulty with writing, so the inferences made in this project are made through drawing. For students with more difficulty expressing ideas through writing, the student can answer the assessment questions verbally. Also, I will make sure that students who are not as well behaved will not receive the more fragile fossil fragments. Materials and Technology requirements: Fossil fragment kit (with at least 8 fossil fragments), 4 sets of fossil cutouts from MSED website mystery bones activity, one sheet of construction paper for each pair of students, one piece of white paper for each pair of students, scissors, colored pencils, document camera, comic from MSED website fossils activity Total Estimated Time: 1 class period (approximately 1 hour) Source of lesson: http://msed.iit.edu/projectican/bone.html http://msed.iit.edu/projectican/fossils.html Safety considerations: Students must be careful if they have to cut the window for the fossil fragment through the construction paper. Students must also be very careful with the fossil fragments so they do not break or get damaged.

Content and Strategies (Procedure) Engage: Gather students in a circle, and hand every other student a fossil fragment enclosed in a bad. Emphasize that students must not play with the fossils, they must be kept in their bags, and any irresponsible behavior will lead to the fossil fragments being taken away. Turn on music and tell students to pass around fossil fragments clockwise while looking at the different fossil fragments. When the music stops, tell students to stop passing the fossils, and that piece will become their fossil fragment for themselves and a partner. Ask students what observations they made about the fossil fragments. Explore: Give each pair of students a sheet of construction paper that has the corresponding cut out of the outline of that pair of students specific fossil fragment. On the back of the construction paper with the fossil fragment window cut out, there is a white sheet of paper stapled on the side so that the two pages open like a book. On the white sheet of paper there is an outline of the fossil that can be seen through the construction paper window. Ask the students the following questions to answer with their partners:
What do you observe about your fossil fragment? What kind of organism do you think your fossil fragment came from?

Now, tell students to use the information observed from the fossil to draw a complete fossil drawing on the white paper around where they just drew the outline. Each student will end up with a fossil drawing based on inference made about their fossils. Ask students the following questions:
Did you draw an extinct organism or one that is still around today? Why? How did you decide if your fossil came from an animal or a plant? How did you decide what the organism looked like? Is what you did today similar to what a scientist would do? Why or why not?

After students have drawn the organism, ask students to think about the organism they drew and the fossil they observed and draw the organisms environment on the white paper as well.
What observations of the organism or fossil helped you to draw the environment? What kind of environment did you draw?

Explanation: Discuss the process the students just went through in order to create their organism drawing Ask students the following questions:
What kind of scientist were you acting like in this? (paleontologist, a review from last week) How do you think what we did is similar to what a paleontologist does? (we used observations we made about fossils to make inferences about the organism) What kind of observations did you make of the fossil fragments before making inferences? Was the picture that you drew of the organism based on an observation or an inference?

Have a discussion on the differences between observations and inferences. Observations are about using the senses to find information about something. Inferences involve logical reasoning

to make conclusions based on observations made. Ask students which paper in their drawing is the observation and which is the inference. Tell the students to label the red paper with just the fossil outline as observation and five senses to help them remember that an observation is made by using the 5 senses. Have students label the white piece of paper with the picture they drew as inference along with the definition of inference (a logical conclusion based on an observation.) Ask the students the following questions:
What observations did you make about your fossil fragment? What senses did you use to make these observations? What inferences did you make about the fossil fragments and the organism you drew? What observations specifically did you use to make these inferences? How is this the same or different than what paleontologists do?

Paleontologists are scientists who study fossils. When paleontologists find fossils, they have to make observations about what they see and make inferences about something based on what they have learned with their senses. We made observations and inferences about fossils of organisms, which are living things like animals or plants, but paleontologists can also make observations of other things such as wood and rocks. Show the cartoon on the MSED fossils resource to explain how paleontologists often have to make inferences on organisms when they only actually have a few fossils to make observations about. Elaborate: Split students up into 4 groups and hand each set of students a set of fossil cutouts. Have students work together in teams to make observations about the fossil cutouts. After students make observations, have them make inferences about the fossil cutouts by trying to arrange the fossils to form the skeleton of the organism. Walk around to student groups and discuss observations and inferences made. After students make their best inferences to put together the organisms skeleton, use the document camera to show the students what the organism should have looked like (print out on MSED fossil resource.) Allow students to see if they put the skeleton together correctly and make corrections. Evaluate: An informal, formative assessment will be used. Students will be given a half sheet of paper as ab exit ticket where they will answer 3 discussion questions. Full Mastery: student thoroughly and accurately answers 3 out of 3 questions Partial Mastery: student thoroughly and accurately answers 2 out of 3 questions No Mastery: student thoroughly and accurately answers 0 or 1out of 3 questions 3 exit slip questions:
1. What is an observation? 2. What is an inference? 3. How do observations and inferences relate to paleontologists?