Purpose
- To assess growth in students’ understanding of the underlying causes of ecosystem
Description
Revisit the driving question (Why are the fish dying in the Sunrise Farm pond?) and cross-sectional pond models students made in Part Two. Ask students to again draw what they think might be happening in the pond based on their experiences in the simulations and related discussion. After they have completed their models, have students make comparisons to their original models.
Questions to Ask Students
- Describe your model now. What does each part represent?
- How has your model changed? What have you learned that has led to the changes?
- How does your model explain what happened to the fish?
- How is what you now think happened to the fish different from what you thought when we first heard the story of Sunrise Farm Pond?
Science Practices
Developing and Using Models Like in Part 1 and Part 2, in this experience, students make revisions to their model based on what they have learned about the relationships among biotic and abiotic factors in Sunrise Farm Pond. In addition to prompting students’ thinking with the provided questions about their model, it is also important to have students reflect on how their model has changed over time, and what that suggests about how their ideas about the mystery have changed.
Constructing Explanations Students’ revisions are driven by their new understandings and developing explanations of what is happening at Sunrise Farm Pond. Their models should reflect their thinking about the predicted causes, and these new predictions should be supported using evidence from their experiences in all three parts of the driving question pathway.
Crosscutting Concepts
Cause and Effect Students’ thinking about the possible causes may have changed after their experiences in Part 3. Encourage students to revise based on what they now predict are the causes and to be explicit about the relationship between the cause and effect.
Implementation Tips
- The suggested questions could be a class discussion, or could be given to students as writing prompts and used as an assessment.
- A final sample pond model, which corresponds to this stage of the pathway, is available for your reference. Student models may not include all of the elements appearing in the sample, but the necessary phenomena should be represented in the model. When assessing student models, use the rubric to look for evidence of understanding.