Project+2

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[[image:collaboration.jpg width="144" height="144" align="left"]]Phase 2 of R2D2
General Topic: ** Science ** Specific Topic: ** Food chains ** Audience: ** Sixth grade students ** Activity: ** Group reflection writing **

Topic Overview
Food chains exist in every ecosystem, biome, and habitat all over the world, even in your back yard. Food chains are both necessary and delicate parts of the world around us. As the top of the food chain, knowing more about food chains can make us all better stewards of the planet Earth. A food chain is a simplified extraction of a food web in which energy is transferred from one organism to another as each higher level in a food chain ingests or eats lower organisms along the chain for survival. Prior knowledge for being able to understand food chains would include knowledge of Earth's original energy source, the sun, and how this energy is converted into a tangible form for Earth's organisms to utilize this energy (photosynthesis).

Task (what will your audience be doing)
Now that you have newly acquired knowledge of food chains, I would like for each of you to reflect on what you have learned. In order to do so, you will work in pairs to write a reflection paper based on one of three writing prompts. You are to write a reflection about what they observed and learned in the introduction to food chains. Your group needs to include at least 3 vocabulary words within the reflection in an effort to keep the focused on the information you have learned, as opposed to just responding with derailed or off topic thoughts. After completing your group reflection, each individual student is then required to post his/her opinion on at least one other groups reflection within our class blog. All reflections and responses to reflections will all be posted on the class blog site.
 * 1) //Choose one of the eight different biomes discussed in class. Follow a food chain from the producers through the tertiary consumer. You may need to re-read or revisit some of the websites for more information about the organisms and their diets. //
 * 2) //Choose an animal from one of the biomes/food chains presented from a given website. What do you think a day in this animal’s life might be like? Where does it live? What does it eat? How does it avoid predators? //
 * 3) //Which ecosystem represented in the online scavenger hunt presented your favorite food chain? Why? //



Process/ Guidance (how you will create the project)
For this assignment, I want you all to use your 3 o'clock clock buddies to pair off into groups of two. Each group will produce their work in a word file and save a copy in a secure location, such as a their desktop. After you have saved a copy, log onto the class blog site and copy and paste the writing prompt response with the writing prompt clearly stated at the top of the page along with a list of your group members.

Use your __ 3 o'clock __ clock buddies from our clock buddy sheets established early in the year.
 * Grouping: **
 * In the event that you were not here at the beginning of the year, clock buddies were assigned using a clock face, and 12 blank slots meant to be filled in with 12 different names of classmates. Keeping this buddy sheet in a safe folder, we all refer back to it when we need to do organized grouping in pairs. If you did not complete the clock buddy sheet, or cannot find your clock buddy sheet, please come see me, or email me and I will make accommodations for you to be pair up or grouped with someone.


 * Writing prompts: **
 * 1) //Choose one of the eight different biomes discussed in class. Follow a food chain from the producers through the tertiary consumer. You may need to re-read or revisit some of the websites for more information about the organisms and their diets. //
 * 2) //Choose an animal from one of the biomes/food chains presented from a given website. What do you think a day in this animal’s life might be like? Where does it live? What does it eat? How does it avoid predators? //
 * 3) //Which ecosystem represented in the online scavenger hunt presented your favorite food chain? Why? //


 * Blog address: **
 * Click here to go our blog, or follow this link: @http://foodchainposts.blogspot.com/p/group-reflections.html

Evaluation (how will you evaluate your audience)
Your work will be evaluated on the clarity of your rational and accuracy of any examples that you state within your reflections. All groups need to post their group reflections on the blog site by the due date, as well as each individual student posting a comment on another group's reflection by the date assigned. Feedback will be given to each student and each group concerning their reflection by email. Below is an example rubric, or scoring guide for your responses.