1. Topic-
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| Ecological Forest Succession |
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2. Content-
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| Ecological/Forest Succession, Ecosystem Ecology, Primary, Secondary,
and Cyclic Succession, Biomass, Carrying Capacity, Competition, Keystone
species, Climax Community, Tree Identification |
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3. Goals: Aims/Outcomes-
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1. Students will actively engage in identifying defining characteristics
of ecological succession in the forest.
2. Students will learn to use their mobile phones as as useful learning
tool in a school activity, rather than as a purely social tool. |
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4. Objectives-
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1. Students use plant identification to assess the ecological succession
of a wilderness area.
2. Students recognize the value of their mobile devices for academic
learning.
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5. Materials and Aids-
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- Mobile telephone with a camera and the ability to send picture
messages and take notes on the phones' "notepad."
- Ushahidi account for the class
- Internet on a computer in the classroom
- Tree Identification textbooks
- Projector in the classroom |
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6. Procedures/Methods-
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A. Introduction-
1. How do we track the life cycle of a forest?
2. Show a slideshow on projector of images of different stages of
forest succession.
3. We will use our phones and an online image account on Ushahidi
to collect evidence of the stages of ecological succession in different
wilderness areas. |
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B. Development-
1. Show students how Ushahidi works
2. Have students take out phones and ensure that every student can
type on a "notepad" and take/send photos.
3. Explain that phones have more than just social value, that we can
use them to document learning in school activities and create photo
albums together online that we can later use in our lab activity. |
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C. Practice-
1. Teacher introduces key vocabulary in identifying forest succession.
2. After taking a van to the woods, students take photos of components
of trees in a wilderness area (leaves, branching patterns, bark, etc.)
using their camera phone and send them to the class' Ushahidi account.
In addition to taking and sending the photos, students type notes
on their cell phones "notepads"� of identifying traits of types
of trees. |
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D. Independent Practice-
3. Students repeat "Practice" step 2 at two additional areas (one
a clearing and one a much older forest).
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E. Accommodations (Differentiated Instruction)-
| - To ensure that students with differing learning styles or are
not as comfortable with technologies are following the assignment,
I will check in with them a few times during the lab. I will allow
them to use their own notebooks if that makes them more comfortable,
since everyone will be on different comfort levels with their phones. |
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F. Checking for understanding-
4. Gathering back in the classroom, the instructor pulls the photos
taken by students on a projector. Working together, students and the
instructor use the Internet and tree identifying books to identify
the types of living plants and animals in each of the three areas.
5. Together, the class identifies which stage in succession each of
the areas was in. |
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G. Closure-
6. Discuss other observations (such as evidence of human impact)
that they had made on their phones.
7. Phones can be used for more than just socialization. They are tools
for learning. Together, the platform built by the members of the class
on Ushahidi will represent different stages of forest succession that
they work together to identify. |
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