Symbiosis Rap

Students were studying Interactions among Living Things this week.  Students used partner teaching where they taught each other gestures to help them remember the three types of symbiosis - mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism.  Students also listened to the Symbiotic Rap to help them learn in another way. 

We also spent part of the week working on our Good Buddies Podcast.  Students researched an example of a symbiotic relationship and will then create a radio show discussing their assigned relationship.  These podcasts will be available for you to listen to when we are finished!

Next week we will record our podcasts and also take a quiz over Interactions on Thursday.

Project-Based Learning

Students have been working on a new project this week.  This project helps students apply what they learned through note-taking about interactions between organisms.  Students were asked to create a radio show that discusses the symbiotic relationship they were assigned.  Students then had to pick an example of that symbiotic relationship to research and then write a script for the radio show.  Students also had to learn how to collaborate with others and be creative in their script-writing.

Next week, we will be recording our podcasts and uploading them to our class wiki for all to hear.  Stay tuned!

Rapping about Science

This week we started off talking about natural selection and adaptation.  Students always have a tough time differentiating between the two, so in order to help students remember what an adaptation is we watched the adaptation rap.  Students should know that natural selection is the process that eventually leads to an adaptation.  Whereas an adaptation is a behavioral or physical characteristic that helps the organism live successfully in its environment.  View the adaptation rap below:




We also discussed the types of interactions between organisms.  Students learned that there are three types of interactions - competition, predation, and symbiosis.  Under symbiosis, there are 3 types of symbiotic relationships: mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism.  We had gestures for each symbiotic relationship and did some partner teaching to address all of our learning styles.  We also viewed several short video clips of examples of symbiotic relationships in nature.  In addition, students listened to the symbiosis rap featured below: