Lesson Plan: Building an Aquarium with 5th Graders at Lea

Core Decisions:
What:
For our science lesson with four fifth graders at Lea Elementary School, we will be
constructing an aquarium using a 2 L plastic bottle, water, gravel, elodea, duckweed, and algae.
Students will make careful observations of each component of the aquarium and record their
findings. This lesson is a continuation of last weeks lesson in which students were introduced to
ecosystem models by assembling a terrarium. Students will then use their observations to
consider how the living and nonliving things within the model are interdependent.
How:
Students will move toward their learning objectives through experiential learning, careful
observations, and guided discussions. By using a constructivist approach to learning we will
review and informally assess what the students know about aquariums and how it may interact
with the terrariums from last week. Discussion will serve as a primary tool to make students
knowledge explicit. Discussion will be facilitated by encouraging students to respond to one
anothers observations and asking high level thinking questions.
Through Gardners theory of multiple intelligences we will ensure that we attend to at
least three varied intelligences. Visual intelligence will be used by students as they observe the
happenings inside the terrarium and aquarium. Auditory learning will occur as students discuss
their observations with one another. Lastly, bodily-kinesthetic learning will occur as the students
interact with the materials that make the aquarium. By touching and manipulating materials, the
students will further solidify their understanding of this experience.
Students will use graphic organizers to record their observations so that they become
accustomed to documenting their scientific findings. Additionally, the graphic organizers will
allow all students to keep a record of the discussion, particularly students who struggle with
auditory learning. Finally, in order to promote shared responsibility and promote collaborative
learning, students will decide themselves how to split up tasks.
Why:
This unit is important for our students to explore as it covers many different scientific
phenomena and builds upon a number of key scientific practices. Specifically, this lesson is a
strong example of developing and using models, one aspect of scientific and engineering
practices laid out in the Framework of K-12 Science Education. Students are using a model to
build their understanding of many of the core ideas in the life sciences, such as interdependent
relationships in ecosystems, cycles of matter and energy transfer in ecosystems, and ecosystem
dynamics, functioning, and resilience. These large concepts are brought down to a much
smaller, more accessible scale through the terrarium and aquarium model.

This lesson relates to many of the cross-cutting concepts laid out in the Framework.
Particularly, students will build their understanding of scale, proportion, and quantity as they
carefully measure and document how much of each item they add to the aquarium. Students will
also strengthen their understanding of systems and system models, as they investigate how the
parts of the terrarium and aquarium are interdependent within the isolated system, as well as how
outside effects influence the system. Furthermore, this lesson relates closely to one of the
disciplinary core ideas in Earth science, that the Earth is a system composed of interacting
subsystems, including the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.
This lesson allows students to plan and carry out an investigation, a practice which
supports students progression in making decisions that are appropriate based on the inquiry
focus. Throughout the lesson, students are asked to carry out practices that scientists regularly
use when conducting investigations, such as making predictions and recording their
observations. We are using graphic organizers to aid students in documenting their findings.
Having graphic organizers prepared ahead of time will save time so that students can focus on
the content and skills we are working on developing.
Based on our experience with our students last week, we are choosing to have students
divide tasks among themselves. This will give students ownership of the work and encourage
them to collaborate. Last week we assigned jobs, which went relatively well. However, our
students demonstrated that they are responsible and should be pushed to take a more active role
in designing the procedure. Additionally, when we assigned roles last week, some students were
very focused on their job and did not pay much attention to the lesson when it was not their turn
to perform a task.
Finally, we are choosing to wrap up the lesson by having students write down a
prediction and question to get students thinking beyond what happened explicitly during the
lesson. We also want them to encourage them to start developing their own questions that will
guide their observations when we are not there.
Lesson Plan:
Goals/Objectives:
Students will begin to develop an understanding of the interdependent relationships of living and
nonliving things in an ecosystem through careful observations and guided discussion.
Standards:
Next Generation Science Standards:
5-PS1-1
Make observations and measurements to identify materials based on their properties.
5-LS2-1

Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and
the environment.
5-ESS2-1
Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere,
and/or atmosphere interact.
Pennsylvania Core Standards, English Language Arts
CC.1.5.5.A
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions on grade-level topics and texts,
building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly.
Materials:
1. graphic organizers
2. 1 terrarium (from previous lesson)
3. 1 plastic bottle (cut open at the top)
4. 1 liters of water
5. 2 clear plastic cups
6. gravel
7. paper towels
8. 1 or 2 sprigs of elodea
9. 10-15 duckweed plants
10. 3 dropperfuls of algae
11. 1 hand lens
Lesson Environment and Management Issues:
For this lesson, students and teachers will be seated around a group of desks in either
their classroom or the neighboring classroom to allow for more room. From our experience last
week the students seem to work well together and are good at following instructions. Students
could, however, improve on their discussion skills. Students occasionally spoke over one
another. They seemed to always be directing their comments to one of us rather than to their
peers, and they did not seem to be listening to each others comments. One student was
particularly silent throughout the lesson and did not seem comfortable sharing her input unless
addressed specifically. In order to facilitate a better discussion this time, we will review
expectations for having a small group discussion at the beginning of the lesson, focusing
particularly on only having one voice share out at a time, listening to each others input, and
directing their comments to the whole group.
Before getting into the body of the lesson, which is assembling the aquarium, we will
outline the necessary steps for the students. We think this will be an improvement on last weeks
lesson during which we jumped from one step to the next, which seemed to cause some students

to get distracted. We will also review clear expectations for handling the objects. Last week we
had a couple instances in which students almost knocked over materials, which may be because
we went over the expectations relatively quickly.
Plan:
1. Students will review small group expectations.
(2 minutes)
2. Students will discuss their observations of the terrarium over the past week. We will
guide the discussion by asking questions such as: What have you noticed about your
terrarium in the past week? What did you think about while making observations? What
did you do take care of your terrarium? What does each organism in your terrarium need
to stay alive? We will record answers to the last question on chart paper.
(10 minutes)
3. We will then hand out the graphic organizers and outline the procedure for assembling
the aquarium. We will ask the students to split up the tasks among themselves.
(2 minutes)
4. One student will get two cups of gravel from the front of the room. Students will record
their observations of the gravel on their graphic organizers. They will each get to look at
the gravel up close and feel it. If they need prompting for descriptions, we can ask
questions such as: What does it look like? How does it feel? How does it move? Does it
remind you of anything? Then one of them will pour the gravel into the plastic bottle.
(4 minutes)
5. Another student will get two pieces of elodea, and students will record their observations.
The student will then put one end of the elodea in the gravel.
(4 minutes)
6. Another student will get enough cups of water to fill the bottle until the water reaches
about 3 to 4 centimeters below the top. For the sake of time, students will not record
their observations of the water.
(2 minutes)
7. Another student will get about 10-15 duckweed plants from the front of the room.
Students will record their observations. The student will then pour the duckweed into the
bottle.
(4 minutes)
8. Another student will get the algae from the front of the room. Students will record their
observations of the algae while it is still in the container and easier to see. The student
will then put three dropperfulls of algae into the water.
(4 minutes)
9. To close the lesson, we will revisit our list of what the organisms in the terrarium need to
survive. We will then consider what the organisms in our aquarium need to survive and

10.

identify any differences. Students will then try to identify where each organism will get
what it needs within the system.
(8 minutes)
Finally, we will ask students to write down one prediction they have about their
aquarium/terrarium system and one lingering question.
(5 minutes)

Assessment of Goals/Objectives:
We will evaluate students understanding throughout the lesson, taking note of their level of
engagement with the materials and the level of detail included in their observations. We will
focus closely on students comments during our closing discussion, seeing if students show an
increased understanding of how the materials in the aquarium are interdependent. Our most
concrete form of assessment will be the exit slip, in which students record one prediction and one
lingering question.
Anticipating Students Responses and Our Possible Responses:
1.

2.

Based on last weeks lesson, it is unlikely that we will face management issues. If there
are any issues, however, we will first address them by going over our expectations as a
whole group and evaluating whether or not we are successfully meeting them. We will
use praise to highlight students who are following the expectations and use specific
language so that other students know how to correct their behavior. If problems persist,
we may have to remind individual students about the expectations. From there, we may
have to change the seating arrangement, our own positioning, or reassign tasks.
Our main goal with students responses to the content of the lesson will likely be on
guiding them to take their time and be specific with their observations. Last week,
students rushed to describe each object and did not include many details. We will likely
need to ask them specific follow up questions to encourage them to expand on their
thinking. If students struggle identifying the interdependent relationships within the
system, we may only focus on one or two organisms and focus on them more in depth.
As students may struggle more identifying the needs and resources of aquatic organisms,
we may have to revisit our discussion of the terrestrial organisms and generalize from
there.

Accommodations:
We believe that by starting the lesson with a review of what students have observed in the past
week, students will generate a collective pool of prior knowledge that all students will be able to
build upon throughout the lesson. This will allow students to feel more confident going into the

lesson. If any student appears to be struggling, we will call on them to answer questions first,
allowing them to give a response before we ask students to think more critically. If students do
not seem to want to participate, we will call on them to rephrase what one of their classmates has
shared. Additionally graphic organizers will help students who struggle organizing their
thoughts on paper. They will also provide a visual record of what students have been discussing,
which can aid students who struggle following along during a discussion. For students who need
to be challenged more, we will direct more difficult questions to them and follow up with more
challenging response questions.
References:
A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Cross-cutting Concepts, and Core Ideas.
(2012). A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Cross-cutting Concepts,
and Core Ideas.