"What's Bugging You?"

What's Bugging You?

By: Sherri Brown

5E Learning Cycle approach: Insect Classification 

This week I read the article "What's Bugging You?" by Sherri Brown. Yes, bugs were mentioned in the article, but the article went deeper into issues that students sometimes struggle with, and often teachers have a difficult time explaining to their students. The concept the article focused on was helping students develop classification and observation skills. In the article, the teacher began the lesson by providing her students with a pre-assessment on what is considered a bug and what is considered an insect. In the pre-assessment students were asked to circle insects and explain their reasoning why it was an insect. After the pre-assessment, the students were prepared and taught what an insect was using the 5E learning cycle instructional model: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate (discussed in another blog). 

To Engage:  Teacher asked students what type of animal they think is most common. After hearing the students' responses, she provides them with facts about insects and how they are the most common form. From there, students were asked to classify characteristics of insects. Lastly, students are told they will act like entomologist for the day and will be going outside to collect "bug" data. Safety rules are reviewed before going outside. 

To Explore: Data is collected during this time. Here students work in groups of 3 or 4 and use a leaf-litter sifter to search for bugs. Before sending students off on their own, the teacher modeled what should be done. Students observed 5 different times to practice good scientific methodology. A classification sheet was used when collecting data. If a classification to a bug is unable to be made, then filed guides are later used to try and determine the bug. Many tools are used while exploring: the leaf-litter sifter, hand lenses,  and drawings of organisms. Comparative skills are also encouraged during this time if no classification is available. 

To Explain: The explain phase occurs in the classroom after the exploration is over. Students are encouraged to use grade-level resources (field guides and websites). Students are asked to record what they learned about insects and what they did not know in their notebooks. Here, students begin to realize what bugs are insects and which ones are not. After about 20 minutes of researching students share their findings with a peer. From here an arthropod is taught to the class. The different parts are identified and students draw and label each part. 

To Elaborate:  After the parts are learned, the students make a model (independently or in a group) of an arthropod using cardboard, toilet-paper tubes, paper-towel tubes, scrap pieces of cloth, pipe cleaners, twist ties, and buttons. At the very end, students wrote an explanation of how all these parts help the arthropod use its' features. 

To Evaluate: Through the whole first few phases, formative evaluation is occurring. It starts with the pre-assessment assessing students' knowledge, previous knowledge of classification of vertebrates  must be present for the engagement phase, during the exploration phase the teacher is able to use the classification sheet and drawings in the notebook to look for understanding of arthropods, during the explain phase the teacher is able to gather information during group discussions of insect characteristics. Lastly, during the elaboration phase, the teacher is able to determine if the students are independently able to determine three characteristics of an insect/ arthropod. 

This article explains that this research project can be furthered for the students. For instance, it recommends collaborating with other schools on the projects and comparing results or creating a class arthropod book with different characteristics over the course of the year.