Same Yet Different (Lesson Plan 1)

Same Yet Different
Grade Level: 1st Grade

Goal: to understand that there are differences among the same kinds of plants and animals.
National Educational Standards
Science

Standard 4.
Understands the principles of heredity and related concepts


Materials Needed
· Paper
· Pencil

Other Materials:
live plants, classroom pets, photos of two (or more) of the same kind of plants and animals, magazines and newspapers that include pictures that show individual differences in members of a type of plants and animals (for example, different kinds of dogs, bears, snakes, roses), access to Internet, worksheets with a plain face shape drawn on them

Other Resources
internet

Objectives
Know that differences exist among individuals of the same kind of plant or animal


Procedures
-Ask the students to raise their hands in response to the following questions:
1. How many of you are people?2. How many of you are children?3. How many of you live in (your country, state, or city/town)?
-discuss similarities and differences raised by the questions (we are all people, we all live in the state, but we are not all blond or tall or freckled or dark skinned)
-discuss the difference between choice and inherited traits (like how where we live is based on choice, but freckles are inherited)
-provide access to magazines and Internet websites which provide pictures of living things and ask students to do 3 things:
1. Find 3 examples of individual differences in the same kind of plants and/or animals (e.g., dogs, snakes, roses).2. Cut out the pictures (or print them from the Internet) and paste them on a paper to turn in as their lab report. 3. Circle or label the differences between the plants or animals.
-finish up by allowing students to discuss some of the differences they found in their individual plants and animals


Assessment/Verification
-ask questions in class to assess understanding of choice vs. inherited traits
-discussion and questions about what makes members of the same family or species different and the same
-lab report (demonstrate an understanding of the lesson)
-final discussion of differences and similarities between individual plants/animals


Reinforcement/ Expansion Activities
-students will work in groups of 3. Each group will receive a picture of a person. Students will work together determine what kind of features are choice (ie hairstyle) and which are inherited (blue eyes)
-working individually, students will create “personal heredity map”, drawing their inherited features onto a plain face
-gifted students can be given a wider variety of pictures (ie, a set of pictures including a tree, a flower, grass, a bush, and algae) and could then write about what makes these plants both similar and different

Adaptations
-a cognitive training approach could be taken with students with learning disabilities. The steps for the lab report could be modeled and talked through aloud with the student, then the student could begin the task while the teacher provides verbal directions and guidance.
-students with mental retardation could be given pictures of two similar things that show one notable difference (like two girls who look the same but have different hair color, or two flowers that look the same but have different colored petals) and can be encouraged to pick out what is different
-students with mental retardation could also be given 2 sets of paired pictures and be encouraged to group them. For example 2 cat cards (with one black cat and one white cat) and 2 tree cards (with one tree in winter and one in summer) can be laid out, and the student can be encouraged to group them.


Bibliography: http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/activityDetail.asp?activityID=208