Megan Rust

Indiana Wesleyan University

Elementary Education Lesson Plan Template
Science Inquiry Lesson
2007 ACEI Standards
Evaluating Physical Characteristics

READINESS
I. Goals/Objectives/Standard(s)
A. Goal: Through inquiry learning, students will make discoveries about themselves and about animals through
studying physical characteristics.

B. Objectives
1. Students will examine pictures of animals and people to discover their physical characteristics.
2. Students will use evidence from research to support their decisions.

C. Standard(s):
a. 3.LS.1 Analyze evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of
these traits exists in a group of similar organisms
b. SEPS.3 Constructing and performing investigations
c. SEPS.4 Analyzing and interpreting data

II. Management
a. Time: 29-33 minutes
i. Anticipatory Set: 8 minutes
ii. Mini-Lesson: 7 minutes
iii. Activity Part 1: 10-12 minutes
iv. Activity Part 2: 4 minutes
b. Materials:
i. PowerPoint with Pictures (See attached slides)
c. Behavior:
i. Students are expected to engage in whole group and small group discussion throughout the
lesson.
ii. Students are expected to be respectful of the speaker during discussion times.
iii. Students will engage in high-level critical thinking during the lesson.
d. Space:
i. Students will be in their seats for the majority of the lesson, but are able to move up closer to
examine the pictures when prompted by the teacher.

III. Anticipatory Set

 “Listen to my entire question before answering – What is your favorite animal? Instead of telling the name of the
animal try to describe it for us. Hopefully your clues about the animal will be descriptive enough that the rest of
the class can figure out which animal you are describing.”
o Allow as many students to share as are willing
 “As I was listening to your wonderful animal descriptions, I realized something, and I wonder if you realized it to.
What would be usually describe about the animal?”
o Guide toward “physical characteristics” or “what the animal looks like”
 “That’s right! We often describe animals according to their physical characteristics.”

IV. Purpose Statement: “Physical characteristics are some of the major elements that makes one animal different
from another type of animal, and we are going to explore that a little bit more today.”

PLAN FOR INSTRUCTION

Use major concepts, principles, theories, and research to construct learning opportunities that support students’ development,
acquisition of knowledge, and motivation.
(ACEI 1.0)
V. Adaptation to Diverse Students-- Demonstrate your understanding of the development and approaches to
learning unique to the students in this class as you describe the specific instructional opportunities provided in
this lesson.

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a. Students will have the support of working with a partner.

b. Learning is through a highly discussion-based format and is supported with visuals. This is a nice break from
reading for students who struggle with reading comprehension.
(ACEI 3.2)

VI. Lesson Presentation (Input/Output)

 Mini Lesson: Exploring Physical characteristics
o “Can someone tell me what a physical characteristic is?”
 Allow multiple students to respond until the class has a deep understanding.
o “Let’s try to make a definition of a physical characteristics together using some of the responses that
your peers gave.”
 Create definition with students.
o “I know that several of our classmates love dolphins. Look at the screen at the picture of a dolphin.
What do you see? For those of you in the back of the room, feel free to move closer to look at the
dolphin. Everyone, take two minutes just to look at the dolphin. You can write down physical
characteristics that you notice or just think about them in your head, whatever you prefer.”
 Allow students time to think. Give little to no support as the students are challenged to think
critically and look closely.
o “Everyone, return to your seats, and share with a partner beside you which physical characteristics you
saw. See if your partner recognized any that you had not found on your own. Share with one another
for a minute and then we will write down a list of physical characteristics as a class.”
 Allow students time to share with a partner, then with the class, and write down list of
characteristics on the white board.
 Inquiry Activity Part 1
o “Wow there were so many different physical characteristics mentioned. We will come back to this later
and do a little bit more discovery with the dolphin. Now I am going to give you a picture that is of me
and my older sit when we were about your age. You will work with your partner and find some
characteristics. You are going to try to figure out what my parents might look like. My sister and I both
have physical characteristics from my parents, and some of them are the same, but some are different.
So, discuss with a partner and explore the pictures to see if you can picture what my mom and dad
look like.”
 Allow students 5-10 minutes, depending on how long the majority of students are engaged in
the discussion.
o “Now that you have been able to share with a partner, lets have some people share with the class
what physical characteristics you think my parents might have.”
 Allow students to share
 While students share, place a sticky note on each student’s desks
o “Great! You all did an excellent job looking closely at the pictures for clues to what my parents might
look like. I am going to put three pictures on the screen. One of these pictures is of my two parents,
the other two are not. Write on the sticky note if you think the correct picture is picture one, two, or
three and then place the sticky by the picture on the screen.”
 Direct students toward screen and clarify idea if necessary.
o “Even though one of these pictures is the picture of my actual parents, based on this picture of my
sister and I, I can see why you would have chosen any one of these three pictures. Picture number . . .
two is the picture of my parents.”
 Inquiry Activity Part 2
o “Now let’s go back to the original dolphin we were looking at. There are several different species of
dolphins that have slightly different physical characteristics. Given these three pictures on the screen
work with a partner again to determine which one might be the dolphins parent. You will have just two
minutes to make your decision and write it on a sticky note to place on the screen.”
 Allow students to work and select the dolphin of their choosing.
o “Tell me why you chose the dolphin that you did.”
 Allow a student who selected each of the different dolphins to share why they chose the one
they did.
(ACEI 2.2)
(ACEI 3.3)

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VII. Check for understanding. How do you know students have learned? What strategies will you implement if all
students have not met lesson outcomes? Employ one or more strategies to determine student learning.
a. See inquiry activity part 2 – this is a more advanced activity to check the students’ understanding from the
rest of the lesson.
b. If students are struggling with part of the activity, the teach will engage the students in a whole group
discussion about physical characteristics again and help the students find a few characteristics, and then
lead the students to work with a partner to find them.

VIII. Review learning outcomes / Closure

a. “What is a physical characteristic?”
b. “Why do you think it is important for us to be able to recognize physical characteristics of animals?”

PLAN FOR ASSESSMENT

Develop a plan for assessing the degree to which your students have mastered the learning outcomes from this lesson. Your
plan should include formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and strengthen instruction that will promote
continuous intellectual, social, emotional, and physical development of each student.
(ACEI 4.0)
 Assessment takes place throughout the lesson through asking and answering questions.
 The teacher will listen to her students as they collaborate and work in pairs.

REFLECTION AND POST-LESSON ANALYSIS

1. How many students achieved the lesson objective(s)? For those who did not, why not?
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses?
3. How should I alter this lesson?
4. How would I pace it differently?
5. Were all students actively participating? If not, why not?
6. What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
o Bloom’s Taxonomy
o Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
7. Was the dolphin an appropriate animal for the students to look at? Should a less loved animal, but one with more
definite differences be used next time this lesson is taught?
8. How could you use the students’ pictures or their families’ pictures? In my classroom, what is the family situation
for each of my students?
9. Was it appropriate to look at physical characteristics of both animals and humans?

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Slide 1 –
Denise the Dolphin
Slide 2

Physical Characteristics
3rd Grade Science Inquiry Lesson

Slide 3 –
Slide 4 Miss Rust and
Her Sister
Who’s Miss
Rust’s
#1 Parents? #2

Slide 5 –
Denise the Dolphin
Slide 6 #1
Who’s my parent?

#2 #3

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Slide 7
Atlantic Spotted Dolphin