Contextual+Teaching

It has often been recognized that real life examples help students to learn concepts more quickly and in a context to which they relate. This idea is at the heart of contextual teaching. Contextual teaching means that instead of providing examples while teaching concepts, a teacher uses the examples as a platform through which concepts are learned. In this assignment, you will develop a contextual activity or demonstration to teach a concept, using the 5-E model as the basis of your lesson planning.

5-E Lesson plan template





Contextual Teaching Lessons:

 * [[file:Man Without a Stomach.pdf]] Man Without A Stomach -** **Mrs. Palmer**: This lesson introduces students to the digestive system through a video of a man who attempted suicide by swallowing bleach. Throughout the lesson, students are introduced to the structure and function of the the organs of the digestive system (including accessory organs), the mechanical and chemical digestion of organic compounds, and different disorders of the digestive system and their causes.

This is the fictional police report to set up the case. Student instructions for hands-on activity modeling restriction enzymes and gel electrophoresis. Final police report for students to report their findings. Information sheet for students on DNA, restriction enzymes, and gel electrophoresis (for after the completion of the hands-on activity and Explanation phase of the lesson). Extension worksheets to re-inforce the concepts of restriction enzymes, gel electrophoresis, and their relationship to DNA. Teacher Resources: Power Point for teacher use in the Explanation phase of the lesson to re-inforce or clarify what students have learned in the lesson. Cover sheet for case files given to students. Fictional letter for teacher use to introduce the lesson and videos used in the Engage portion of the lesson. DNA sequences for teacher use in the Case of the Crown Jewels lesson.
 * The Case of the Crown Jewels - Melissa Doellman** This lesson introduces students to the application of DNA in forensics, restriction enzymes, and gel electrophoresis through a fictional forensics case entitled //The Case of the Crown Jewels// (DeRosa and Wolfe 2007). Throughout the lesson, students are introduced to restrcition enzymes and gel electrophoresis, their relationship to DNA, and how the two are linked in forensics.Students will need to draw on current knowledge of DNA (structure, base pairs, charges, and specificity) during the lesson to complete the activities.

**Happy and Sad Bears**- Meghan Bagby. This activity introduces students to Natural Selection and how the principles of Natural Selection effect the genotypes of a population and population size. They use Teddy Grahams to model Natural Selection and the effect of a predator on the environment. One could easily use this as a Natural Selection activity or they could use it for a population/natural selection unit as well.

Activity Sheet for Students for Teddy Graham Activity

__**The Human Body: Control Freak**__- Kimberly Weems. This activity introduces students to homeostasis by looking at how the body regulates itself during exercise. The students will look at a partner's heart rate and respiration rate to look at how the body changes to maintain a homeostasis. This is a worksheet to go with the activity.

[|Prezi: Control Freak] This is the Prezi made to go with the Homeostasis lesson.

**The Mystery of the Romanovs: Pedigree Analysis.** //Carrie Simonson//. This lesson introduces students to the late Romanov Family of Russia and their secret sex-linked disorder. Throughout this lesson, students use the Internet to discover more about the sex-linked disease, hemophilia, and pedigrees. The students will watch a video clip, perform a webquest, and construct a pedigree given a prompt. This is the webquest with step-by-step instructions. This is the Exit Slip the students will be completing before leaving class. **The Cell City Activity** - Amanda Dawson. This lesson is embedded in the unit of the cell after the organelles have been introduced to the students. They will have the opportunity to connect the idea of a cell to a city. The students will be shown a short YouTube clip prior to working on the cell city analogy worksheet. The purpose of the lesson is to have the students see how a cell cannot run properly without every organelle just like a city cannot work without all of its aspects. The worksheet will be extended by having the students create their own cell analogy. Water Quality-Michael Prendergast. This lesson based upon the 5-E model examines humanity's impact upon water quality and marine life. Students will examine water samples for oxygen content as a lab activity. They will also evaluate a hypothetical situation to choose between industry and agriculture based upon their impact upon water quality and oxygen levels.

Mutations-Emily Sandy. This lesson uses the 5 E Model to give and introduction on types of mutations and how they affect (or do not affect) protein synthesis. Students watch a short video of a case study on a boy who has Sickle Cell Anemia. They will then explore how different mutations may change their name, where every letter is assigned an codon. A short lesson and group presentations wrap up this lesson.

Mutations- Emily Sandy. This handout is to be used with the Mutation Generator

Mutations- Emily Sandy. This PPT is to be used with the lesson

**Taxonomy--Amanda Monaco**. This lesson introduces students to taxonomy through a fictional situation in which scientists discover alien-like creatures on the planet Pamishan and require the students’ help in classifying them. In this lesson students will use the physical characteristics of the Pamishan creatures to identify them and create dichotomous trees. They will then compare their trees to a real Cladogram, giving them the opportunity to discover the problems and limits of “traditional” classification.

This is the fictional letter I will read to the class during the engagement portion of the lesson.

This is the worksheet students will receive during the extension portion of the lesson.

**Convection- Megan Sharp.** This lesson will be a continuation with Earth Sciene and learning about the different layers of the Earth and what they are composed of. This lesson involves an in class activity where the students will be exploring how convection cells move within the mantle. Given certain materials the student's will have to observe the movement of the convection cells as well as the forces that are driving them. In addition to that the students will also be exploring how convection currents play a role in plate tectonics. In addition, students will take the concepts they leanrned from the in class activity and do mini reserach on the Ring of Fire to explore how convection cells and plate tectonics can lead to volcanoes and earthquakes.

This will be the handout that the students will recieve in order to complete the in class activity along with the accompanying questions. The students will work in groups of 3-4 and each group will recieve 3 Styrofoam cups, 1 pie pans, 2 candles, small container of water, glitter, matches, and 2 small pieces of cardboard. Following the instructions given in the activity the students will be able to demonstrate how convection currents occur within the mantle of the Earth, and how these motions can drive the movement of the plate tectonics.

**Ecosystems - Patrick Murphy** This lesson will be taught when introducing the topic of ecosystems. This lesson is designed to teacher students about the different facets of an ecosystem through an intruder entering the ecosystem and disrupting it. This activity gives students a chance to research an ecosystem close to them in the Great Lakes. Throughout the lesson we will go over factors of an ecosystem and the different relationships that go on within an ecosystem to further enhance the students understanding of an ecosystem. This is the presentation that will go along with the Explain part of the lesson. This is the worksheet that will be handed out after the movie/engage portion of the lesson where they can explore the topic on their own. This worksheet will be given out after the Explain part of the lesson. This worksheet will give the students the opportunity to research intruders in other ecosystems around the world. This will also connect back to the engage activity. This lesson uses the 5E Model to introduce meiosis/mitosis to the students. This lesson starts with a video called "meiosis square dancing" by Discovery Education. Students will then generate questions based off the video and will be asked to investigate these questions. They will also be asked to use a website by Nova to compare and contrast meiosis and mitosis. Throughout this lesson students will be investigating their questions and have discussions.

This lesson introduces the students to Mimicry using the 5E model. Students will watch a video about a Mimic Octopus and then conduct a mimicry scavenger hunt. After a lecture about mitosis the students will be asked to create a mimic organism based off of assigned criteria such as the habitat and the type of mimicry.

This lesson starts with an interactive activity where the students are the bears of a population. They must obtain enough food to survive, and in doing so will be introduced to limiting factors and how those factors determine carrying capacity. Rather than giving the definitions first, students will participate in the activity and start to ask themselves what is preventing some bears from surviving. After I have their attention, we will explore the concepts of carrying capacity and limiting factors in more detail and students will be able to continually relate what they learn to the activity they did. Students will then apply those concepts to the human population and discover the complexities involved in determining the Earth's carrying capacity for humans.
 * ...and Bears, oh my! - Arianna Medema - Population Ecology**

This lesson introduces students to the idea of natural selection and evolution. Through this lesson students will be able to interact with the concept of natural selection by morphing into a bird like person and foraging for lima beans. The lesson also correlates with Darwin's finches on the galapagos islands and also the Galapagos tortoises.

Genetic disease lesson plan and worksheet - This lesson based upon the 5-E model examines a hitorical event about the gender determination. Students will examine a genetic disease which has nondisjunction of sex chromosome. They will also research nondisjunction diseases.

Genetic disease- YoungHak Kim. This PPT is to be used with the lesson.

Plant lesson plan - This lesson based upon the 5-E model examines plant adaptations and how plants incorporate them in order to survive in the variety of ecosystems/biomes found on Earth

Plant Adaptation Worksheet - Correlates with lesson plan [|Killer Plants!][|Frog][|Mouse]

This lesson is a three day lesson that teaches the students about endangered species as a subtopic to our biodiversity unit. The students will watch a video on the Yangtzee Giant Soft Shell Turtle, have a discussion, do a web search, and then finally do a class presentation on an endangered species of their choosing.

This is the websearch the students will do after we have watched the video and discussed it. It is a simple worksheet for them to go explore what exactly being an endangered species means, and it also takes them to the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species website where they will look around and gather some information. This is the directions and grade sheet for the Endangered Species Awareness project.

Maggie Quinn's 5E lesson plan on reproduction including worksheet, lesson plan, and power point.

**Illniois Ecology Presentation - John Abbott** This lesson plan introduces students to ecosystems in Illinois. Students will research Illinois specific ecosystems and biomes design a poster and present to the class. The lesson also includes discussion on the differences between ecosystems, how they have changed over time, and how humans affect ecosystems.

This lesson uses the 5E Model to introduce meiosis/mitosis to the students. This lesson starts with a video called "meiosis square dancing" by Discovery Education. Students will then generate questions based off the video and will be asked to investigate these questions. They will also be asked to use a website by Nova to compare and contrast meiosis and mitosis. Throughout this lesson students will be investigating their questions and have discussions.



This lesson introduces the biomes of the world using the 5E model. It begins with a video, followed by an activity about animal life in biomes. Further along in the lesson students will be able to read graphs depicting precipitation and temperature. Students will need to find which graph goes along with which city around the world according to which biome it is located in. This shows the graphs students will use to decipher which city and biome correlate to which temperature/precipitation graph. This contains the directions for the match up activity as well as accompanying worksheets for the video and related animal cracker activity