My learning activity is to make an online poster to define and show biomagnification to help explain the causes and effects when contaminants enter a food chain. I used the SECTIONS method to design a lesson that I could use in my class. The lesson is to make a poster of an aquatic food chain. I found a website called Canva https://www.canva.com/ which is a graphic design website.
Science 7 Lesson Plan
Class: Grade 7 Science
Task: Make a poster of an aquatic food chain showing 3 or 4 Trophic levels
Objectives:
- Trace and interpret the flow of energy and materials within an ecosystem
- analyze an ecosystem to identify biotic and abiotic components, and describe interactions among these components
- analyze ecosystems to identify producers, consumers and decomposers; and describe how energy is supplied to and flows through a food web.
Report Card Outcomes:
- Analyzes and solves problems through scientific reasoning
- Understands and makes connections between concepts
- Explores scientific events and issues in society and the environment
Resources: Canva.com, Google images
Lesson:
- Review previous lesson on consumers, producers, decomposers and how energy flows through a simple food chain.
- Students would log onto Canva.com, being led by teacher on Smartboard.
- Show basics of how to make a poster and use navigation bar on Canva.
- Images of different organisms can be obtained by using google images.
- Comment on biomagnification and amount of pollutants at each level.
I searched for some graphic design websites and settled on Canva. It seems easy to use and should, with some guidance, be manageable for my students. Students can sign up with school email accounts, can save copies of designs on their computers and export their designs. Canva has a free option, however there seems to be a charge for some pictures. Most pictures are free and pictures can be uploaded from google images and used in the design. The site seems safe for students to use, they are giving no personal information other than a school email address.