Lesson Plan Two

After all the participating classes have submitted their macroinvertebrate identification findings and they have been posted to the Student Area, the students will read the submissions, draw conclusions, and answer the project question: Were the organisms the same in all the pond water samples? Students will prepare and submit a final report for posting in the Discussion Area.

To do this activity, students need to see the reports that were posted to the Discussion Area.
Students can access the Discussion Area individually or in groups. If the classroom has one computer, the teacher can make printouts of the messages.

Have the students restate their hypotheses.
Give them time to review the Discussion Area postings.
Lead a whole class discussion centering on whether or not the discussion area reports supported or did not support their hypotheses.
Students should return to their groups and write their final reports. Students may write their reports in groups or as individuals. The teacher also has the option of sending one final report from the whole class, particularly if the class members all made the same hypothesis.
Students should include their answers to the following questions in their reports:
- Look at the locations of the schools that submitted data. Were they located in different parts of the United States? Were any of the participating classes from other countries?
- How did the types of organisms you found compare with those found by others?
- What conclusions did you draw?
- Did your findings prove or disprove your hypothesis? Give your reasons.
- How did the new information change your thinking?
- What questions would you like to ask other project participants?
Submit final reports to the discussion area and visit the site often to read what students from other schools have written.