Teaching about Life Cycles and the Water Cycle

 

STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO:
- Explain concept of life cycles to younger students.
- Explain steps of the water cycle to younger students.
- Develop communication and teaching skills.

GUIDING QUESTION: How can we teach others about life cycles and the water cycle?

MATERIALS:
- SECRETS of our Forest/Shrub-Steppe Home lesson plan (Lesson 6: Cycles)
Note: In order to coordinate lessons with the high school curriculum, students will teach Lessons 6 and 7 (Cycles) before Lessons 4 and 5 (Adaptations).
- Lesson materials noted in SECRETS of our Forest/Shrub-Steppe Home lesson (Lesson 6: Cycles)

CLASS ACTIVITIES:
Day 1: Organize
1. Lead your students through the lesson activities in the SECRETS Cycle lesson. Point out specific things to be conscious about when teaching.
2. Hand out lesson plan to students. (You may also do this the day before and have students read the lesson plan for homework.)
3. If necessary, have students tailor the lesson, which spotlights the life cycle of salmon, to an organism in your specific ecosystem.
4. Have students break into groups. Pair up the groups, so that one group (the stewards) teaches the lesson activities to another group (the students). After each activity, the group of "students" should give constructive criticism to the "stewards."
Alternatives:
1. Have your students use their posters and kinesthetic presentations to teach various cycles to younger students. Class can have a fair-like atmosphere, with small groups of students rotating around to go to every poster presentation - a cycle in itself!
2. Having just researched and mapped their watersheds, high school students teach a younger class how to find out about and map the watershed. For instance, high school students might introduce research techniques, compile and provide a list of phone numbers or websites, or tell younger students helpful ways to draw watersheds. This lesson should open with the crumpled paper that teaches the definition of watershed.

Day 2: Share
1. Your students teach the lessons to a classroom of younger students.
2. If time allows, students should critique the experience immediately after teaching. What was most challenging? What was most enjoyable? What can they do to be better teachers in the next lesson?