Web of life

Students will apply their knowledge of the different categories of species that live on Earth. Students will then use a variety of thinking maps to display their information.

A lesson plan for grade 6 Science

By Danielle Pickard

Learn more

• Examples of Thinking Maps

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Related topics

• Learn more about biology and life science and science.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• explore different species of life on Earth.
• describe how different species affect living on Earth.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

90 minutes

Materials/resources

Physical resources:

• pencil and coloring utensils
• two sheets of 8 ¹/₂ × 11 inch white paper
• 11 by 18 inch white paper (one per group)
• poster (one per group)

Classroom environment: a large open space, enough for students to be groups away from one another

Set-up:

• teacher should post a list of categories on the board
• groups should be chosen either by students or teacher
• once students are in groups, give or have students choose the category they will be concentrating on (should have each member of the group working on a separate category)
• distribute one 8 ¹/₂ × 11 inch sheet of white paper to each student in the group

Pre-activities

This was our lead activity for our unit. All that is required for beginning this activity is an exploration of previous knowledge.

Activities

1. Students will have the option of choosing a category from one of the following: plants, fish, birds, mammals, reptiles, or amphibians.
2. Using one of the plain sheets of white paper, students will begin by taking their category and creating a circle map. The inner circle should have the category, the outer circle should be examples they know about that category and the box around should be where/how the students knew the information.
3. After completing the circle graph, students should turn their paper over and create a bubble map using the same category. The bubbles around should contain characteristics of their category. (approximately twenty minutes)
4. On the second sheet of plain white paper, students will create a tree map from the other two maps. The category should be at the top and then branch into two different categories: characteristics and types. Using the other two maps, they simply fill in the information. (approximately twenty minutes).
5. When each member of the group has finished the individual tree map, they create a group tree map with all the categories. For this, each group will require one eleven-by-eighteen inch sheet of white paper. The title will be "Web of Life" and the branches will be the different categories for each group member. Then, each of those categories will split into two. Each member will fill in the information for the category (approximately twenty minutes).
6. Finally, each group member will create a pictoral representation of the category. Then, each picture will be placed on the poster board. This will be represented in the form of a bubble map. The words “Web of Life” should be written in the center of the poster board. Then, each group member’s picture placed around (approximately thirty minutes).
7. If you have any extra time, you may want to have each different group present to see the similarities and/or differences between what they know.

Assessment

We looked at each thinking map to see if students understood each task. Each step was also reviewed to see if students were following directions.

Supplemental information

Comments

This idea came from a thinking maps staff development session. We took the information from the session and decided to create a lesson plan and introduction to our unit based on thinking maps. This also gave our students the chance to become familiar with the different types of thinking maps and how they can be used.