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Saturday, September 1, 2012

Lesson Plans: Frogs and Superfish

 Here are three of cross-curricular lessons!
LESSON PLAN ONE: THE THIN GREEN LINE
PBS Nature has some excellent resources that are perfect for cross-curricular activities. They aired a fascinating special on frogs entitled The Thin Green Line that is still available for streaming at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/frogs-the-thin-green-line/video-full-episode/4882/. There are some fabulous resources accompanying the video, include a great infographic. I have included a link to the infographic below. You could display the infographic using your projector. Start by going over the infographic with your students. Then, allow them to work in pairs or groups to answer the questions in the attached document (a sample question is listed below).
Frog Infographic
http://www-tc.pbs.org/wnet/nature/files/2012/08/froginfographic_fnl.png
Features:
A PBS infographic on the anatomy of a frog, comparisons to toads, and the development of the frog
Sample skill question:
According to the infographic, if a frog is 3.5 inches long, can it jump more or less than 62 inches?
Click here to view the full question sheet.

LESSON PLAN TWO: SUPERFISH
PBS Nature also aired a program on billfish that was quite interesting. The entire video is no longer available for streaming, but there are several resources still available along with some video clips. One of the resources is an article on Mercury levels in seafood. It is available here http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/superfish/a-warning-to-seafood-lovers/1008/
This would be an example of an article to use for a cloze reading. First, print the article for your students. Have the students read the article silently. Then, hand out highlighters (or allow your students to get out a pencil) and let the students read through again. During their second reading, the students should highlight information that they think is important or interesting. They can also make notes or comments. After this second reading, you can hold a class discussion on the article or allow students to discuss in groups what they felt was important about the article.
LESSON PLAN THREE: SUPERFISH PART TWO
The Superfish resources also include a great infographic! Use it as you would the frog info-graphic above. (The font seems to be more visible using Explorer rather than Firefox).
Superfish infographic:
Features:
A PBS infographic on billfish including a comparison of various types of billfish and fishing data
Sample skill question:
Using the information on the infographic, explain why the names swordfish and spearfish are accurate for how the fish look but not what they actually do.

Click here to view the full question sheet

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