Reflections:
How did the use of a model work for you and your students?
I was not completely sure how to make use of a model in discussing the biomes of the earth. The students will themselves be creating a diagram after they learn about all the biomes. They will chose an animal and create it's living environment. So, I was thinking of how to make use of a model that would display their knowledge of where the various biomes are and why they are there. I decided to use that as an interactive thing so that I would describe a biome and then ask them to predict where they believed it would be based off of what they know about the relationship that the sun has on weather and seasons. Later, I made them create a model of the types of trees one would find in each of the taiga and temperate deciduous forests and explain in writing why it is that they would be found there.
Share the triumphs and challenges of using models in an effort to support student understanding of complex science concepts.
Well, I think that these activities helped me to be able to see where each student's misconceptions were. Since the students went outside for a walk to look at examples of how plants adapt to the winter season in western PA, that became a part of their answers for the model. In some cases, they became the answer for BOTH biome choices though and although I am fond of oak trees, I am pretty sure that they would not do well in the taiga biome regions. So, what I believe I would do is just like after asking students to predict where they biomes are, I showed them the real places, I would also do the same thing with the trees. I can show them examples of particular plants and then explain to them why those plants can or can not live in various biomes.
I would love to make this a game sort of like memory. I could make cards that have the pictures of various trees/plants and then have listed information on the card about the biome that it lives in and why it needs to be there. Students could either match up the same picture, or be able to take up pairs according to their biome, or a partnership between a plant and an organim in that biome or something like that! Through this sort of game the facts could be reinforced while the students are also having fun.
