What is a field guide?

A field guide is a small, lightweight book used to identify plants, animals, or other objects. It is designed to be used outdoors and usually contains many illustrations, whether drawings or photographs, and limited text. Generally speaking, field guides are used by amateurs, hence the emphasis on visual identification. Retrieved from: http://www.library.illinois.edu/bix/fieldguides/index.html

On the page of your selected microorganism, you need as many of these things as you can find:

• A picture of the microorganism (at least one-you may use more in order to show various characteristics or its development).
• Scientific name.
• Type of organism:  protist (animal-like/protozoa or plant-like), animal: worm, insect larvae, etc...
• Main characteristics (movement, external and internal features)
• Size
• Where you found it in the pond (use your map)
• Biographical regions that it can be found around the world.  Words as well as a map showing their distribution. 
• Habitat.
• How and What it eats.
• Who eats it.
• Does it bite or cause any diseases? 
• Life Cycle. 

Have fun!  I can't wait to see our published field guide!  :)  

What is living in Topcider Pond?

What kinds of organisms are living in Topcider pond in the spring?

We will go to Topcider pond to take samples of the water in different locations.

You wil use the map provided to you in order to keep track of the places that you tested.

Before looking at your water samples, we discussed in class what types of characteristics of organisms we will be looking for.  We also discussed how scientists in the past have classified organisms into various Kingdoms.  So, how will we know something is alive in our water samples?  What specifically will we look for?  Movement? Green coloring like a plant?

Play the video- “Life in a drop of pond water” from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Q57vmIvyM.  Discuss the various ways that you could tell the organisms apart.

As you observe the water samples through the microscope you should draw pictures of each thing like you did your cheek cells and onion cells, in order to be able to classify them with the following websites.  

To continue on with the Performance Task Completion (“Grade 6’s Book of Microscopic Life in Topcider Pond”), you will use this list of websites to help you to identify the things you find in the pond water.  You are also encouraged to use your textbook From Bacteria to Plants, pages 74-83 for more information about specific protists and their classifications.

-Pond Life Identification Kit: http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/index.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/pond/index.html

-The Smallest Page on the Web:

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/wimsmall/smal3.html

-Microbus-Pond Water Critters:

http://www.microscope-microscope.org/applications/pond-critters/pond-critters.htm

-Exhibition of Movies on Protists:

http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/protists/exhibition.htm

-For beginners having difficulty they may use the Virtual Pond Dip:

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/index.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/pond/index.html

You will then use the program Glogster (http://www.glogster.com/) OR Publisher to create a poster of at least one specific organism which we have found in the pond. Glogsters are wonderful because they can be printed out and they are a limited one page poster (text must be short). You may need to look up what specific information should be found in a field guide. There will be sample field guides of various types of organisms in the classroom for you to refer to. You will be free however to make your own design.  A list of ideas will be provided to you by me, such as size, what they eat, where they can be found, their predators, how they move.

        

Then, you will print out your page so I can have them laminated and then compile them into a class book titled “Grade 6’s Book of Microscopic Life in Topcider Pond”.

As a culmination to the lesson, we will have a discussion about the characteristics we find, and will make a venn diagram of microbes you have learned about in this unit as a whole: Bacteria, viruses, and protists. You should point out similarities and differences between these three microbes we have studied. 

They will then take a photo of their venn diagram and post it to their science blog with a reflection of their scientific field experience and what they learned about the classification of organisms, and protists. They will discuss in their science blog post, how these creatures depend on their environment for survival and any further inquiries they have about protists.