Goal: Students will develop a deeper understanding of interdependence within ecosystems by examining how plants and animals interrelate in a saltwater marsh.
Objectives: Given pictures and written information of saltwater marsh plants and animals, each student will do the following:
1. Identify and describe important facts regarding saltwater marsh plants and animals.
2. Integrate information from all three areas of the salt marsh (tidal changes, plants, and animals) and incorporate new vocabulary words (salt marsh, tide, cordgrass, marsh hay, burrow, gills) by writing a paragraph with at least five integrated facts.
Task:
A. List the steps of either Student Teams—Achievement Divisions (STAD) or Jigsaw necessary to facilitate a cooperative learning activity where students work together to reach the instructional objectives. Although you do not need to understand ecology or salt marshes to complete this task, you do need to incorporate elements of the objectives in the appropriate cooperative learning step descriptions, rationales, and performance assessment explanations.
B. For each step, provide a brief:
1. Description
2. Rationale
C. Explain how, as the teacher, you would assess/evaluate:
1. Individual performance
2. Group performance
D. If you choose to use outside sources, include all in-text citations and references in APA format.
