BACKGROUND:
This multi-day lesson focuses on knowledge of scientific discoveries and understanding how these discoveries relate to one another and have impacted the field of biology. As part of this lesson, students will research and create a visual timeline of important scientific discoveries in the field of biology using an online interactive timeline template to organize their ideas. The finished product is not only a timeline, but an essay exploring some of these important discoveries in greater detail and their impact on advances in biology.
The interactive timeline is a free online interactive program created by readwritethink.org and allows students to enter, organize, and manipulate scientific information into a blank template. The template then takes the information and creates a visual representation including units of measure and descriptions. This program could be used to record information from a scientific experiment or to create a timeline of a series of events. In this lesson, the interactive timeline is used to organize and display information about various scientific discoveries to show the evolution of scientific knowledge and advances over time.
By completing this lesson, students will gain scientific literacy skills through understanding how important discoveries in science are related to one another and have influenced the way in which we learn about biology today.
21st Century Student Outcomes:
Learning and Innovation Skills - think creatively and work creatively with others, communicate and collaborate with others about ideas
Critical Thinking Skills - make connections between information
ICT Literacy Skills - use digital technology to research, organize, evaluate, and communicate information
Life and Career Skills - productivity and accountability to manage projects and produce results
OBJECTIVES:
Students will be able to create a timeline with dates and descriptions of important discoveries and events in the field of biology, and describe the ways in which a particular discovery influenced society, science, and technology.
STANDARDS:
Science, Technology, and Society N.12.B.1 - Students know science, technology, and society influenced one another in both positive and negative ways.
Science, Technology, and Society N.12.B.4 - Students know scientific knowledge builds on previous information.
MATERIALS:
- Biology textbook
- Textbook scavenger hunt graphic organizer (click here to download the PDF file)
- Computer with internet access to interactive timeline - http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/timeline/
- Scientific discoveries essay assignment grading rubric (click here to download the PDF file)
TIME FRAME:
6 to 7 days (designed for 50-60 minute class periods)
STEPS:
DAY 1:
What is a scientific discovery? Begin by having students brainstorm scientific discoveries that they already know to activate prior knowledge. As students are sharing their responses as a whole group, write them on the board.
What does it take to make a discovery? Review the steps of the scientific method. Discuss how scientific discoveries are made through the scientific method.
DAY 2:
Scientific Discoveries textbook scavenger hunt - Divide students into partners and give each team a graphic organizer to write down their findings. Have the pairs look through specific chapters in the textbook or research online to find scientific discoveries. They will record each discovery's date, name, and a brief description about the discovery including the scientist's name. Give students the entire class period to research and record as many as they can to use for their timeline. Don't worry about putting them in date order, as they will have to reorder the discoveries by date later to enter them into the interactive timeline.
DAY 3:
Organizing information into the interactive timeline - Have students log on with their partners to the interactive timeline at the web address above. Type in the Title and partner Names in the fields and select Date from the Unit of Measure dropdown (this will arrange their entries in date order). Click on Next Entry to start entering the information.
Have students use the graphic organizer from the textbook scavenger hunt and browse online to choose at least 10 scientific discoveries that they think are important in the history of science and scientific technology. Enter each discovery's Date, Title, and Description in the fields. Students will need to put the discoveries in date order by entering the earliest discovery first. To enter the next discovery, click on Next Entry.
Once students have entered at least 10 discoveries on their timeline, click Finished. Then click on Print to print out a hard copy of the timeline in horizontal or vertical format.
DAY 4:
Constructing the essay - Using the information on their timelines, have each student individually choose a few of the discoveries that are related to one another. For example shown above, the discovery of microorganisms under a microscope and the discovery of the cell nucleus.
Discuss the expectations of the essay assignment - students will write a 3 paragraph essay response describing the background on each discovery, how the discoveries are related to one another, and how they have impacted the field of biology in today's society. Pass out a grading rubric to each student at this time to review the grading criteria for the essay.
DAY 5:
In-class writing workshop - Have students begin to write a rough draft of the essay in class. Assign completion of the rough draft for homework, students must bring a copy of the rough draft to be edited by their peers to the next class.
DAY 6:
Peer editing of rough drafts - Have students exchange their essays with one another. Students will read each others' essays and grade based on the grading rubric as well as make edits to the grammar and content of the essay. Assign completion of the edited final draft.
DAY 7:
Students should turn in the graphic organizer, hard copy of the interactive timeline, essay rough draft and rubric with peer corrections, and completed final draft as part of their final grade for this lesson.
Adaptations/modifications for students with special needs:
- Students can create a short PowerPoint presentation about one of the scientific discoveries including background information on the discovery and scientist who made the discovery.
- Students can choose one of the scientific discoveries and write one paragraph explaining how this discovery has impacted their life.
Click below to download this entire lesson as a PDF file
Constructing the essay - Using the information on their timelines, have each student individually choose a few of the discoveries that are related to one another. For example shown above, the discovery of microorganisms under a microscope and the discovery of the cell nucleus.
Discuss the expectations of the essay assignment - students will write a 3 paragraph essay response describing the background on each discovery, how the discoveries are related to one another, and how they have impacted the field of biology in today's society. Pass out a grading rubric to each student at this time to review the grading criteria for the essay.
DAY 5:
In-class writing workshop - Have students begin to write a rough draft of the essay in class. Assign completion of the rough draft for homework, students must bring a copy of the rough draft to be edited by their peers to the next class.
DAY 6:
Peer editing of rough drafts - Have students exchange their essays with one another. Students will read each others' essays and grade based on the grading rubric as well as make edits to the grammar and content of the essay. Assign completion of the edited final draft.
DAY 7:
Students should turn in the graphic organizer, hard copy of the interactive timeline, essay rough draft and rubric with peer corrections, and completed final draft as part of their final grade for this lesson.
Adaptations/modifications for students with special needs:
- Students can create a short PowerPoint presentation about one of the scientific discoveries including background information on the discovery and scientist who made the discovery.
- Students can choose one of the scientific discoveries and write one paragraph explaining how this discovery has impacted their life.
Click below to download this entire lesson as a PDF file
scientific_discoveries_timeline.pdf | |
File Size: | 916 kb |
File Type: |