Project+1+Plan

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= Project Plan: Phase 1 of R2D2 =

Project Guidelines and my online scavenger hunt.
General Topic: ** Science ** Specific Topic: ** Food chains ** Audience: ** Sixth grade students ** Activity: ** Online scavenger hunt **

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)
At the beginning of our unit on food chains, the students will be given a list of 8 questions they need to answer. The questions will include vocabulary associated with food chains such as; producers, first level consumers, second level consumers, third level (tertiary) consumers, carnivore, omnivore, herbivore, and scavenger. Along with defining these words, students will need to list at least two examples of each from at least one biome habitat. Extra credit will be given if students can list one example of each from three different biome habitats given the list of all eight (8) biomes.

Process/ Guidance (how you will create the project)
There will be a class wiki page that all students will be invited to in order to link their own pages or documents to once their homework is completed. Each student will access the class page to view the questions they need to answer. Each student will be given 30 to 45 minutes to answer eight questions associated with food chains using internet search engines and any viable online source of information they can find (and will be expected to document). A list of suggested sites will be given to scaffold an assist students in their search, although students will be encouraged to find other viable sites of their own if they choose to, and have time.

Basic and proficient students will answer the eight questions and turn them in as a linked wiki site to the class wiki page.

Below basic students will fill in a clozed note outline, and do their best to answer the original eight questions as a homework assignment.

Advanced students will be encouraged to answer the eight questions of the scavenger hunt only using sites providing definitions. Later they can view the video examples to see if their initial answers were correct before turning in their final draft.

Evaluation (how will you evaluate your audience)
Through the scavenger hunt, my students will be able to identify producers, first level consumers, second level consumers, and potential third level (or tertiary) consumers. My students will also be able to define herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, and scavengers as well as accurately placing them within their potential food chains. I will be able to grade student work and accuracy by reviewing their word documents turned in as linked wiki sites to my teacher page.

Reflection (why did you choose to create this project)
I chose this project because I feel it is something I will be able to easily incorporate into the classroom to truly enhance student engagement and knowledge retention while decreasing my lecture or direct instruction time (which I know is not the most effective way to engage all of my students).