5th Grade Food Chain Project

2017-2018

The purpose of this unit was for students to connect their understanding of the food chain to their own lives, to understand how to write a program that will share an animation of their food chain, to understand what a conductor is, and how they can create their own input device that will run their program.

2018-2019

This project had a slightly different twist. They needed to create a food chain that showed what would happen if a virus was to affect their food chain. Click the link to see the updated lesson.

Kick Off

I was inspired by this SOS Strategies lesson and decided to put my own twist on it. I had the students write everything that they know about the "Food Chain" in their image that they chose. These images were taken from a website, but I can't remember where. When I do I will cite them. I PROMISE!

When they were done I did a "Speed Dating" lesson. The students made two straight lines. They would talk to the person in front of them about what was on their food. When they were done talking the other person would share what they wrote. When the music came on they would rotate. We rotated about 5 times. After they went to their seats and wrote down any new words or concepts that they had heard from their peers. This activity helped me understand what the students already knew about the Food Chain before beginning the project.

Research

Students wrote what food they were interested in doing on an index card. They were matched with a partner who had the same food or a similar food choice.

They went on google and had to research the food chain of the food that they chose. It was a basic food chain that they had to understand. We talked about all the different ways you could take notes. They were able to choose a way that worked for them, but they knew that they either had to hand them to me or share them with me.

You may be surprised that we did the Makey Makey before starting the programming. I felt it was important that they know how it works to help them with the take home part of this project.

The first lesson we did with the Makey Makey was to talk about what it is and how it works.

We used an Amazing Toy Energy Stick to understand what a complete circuit is.

We did a conductor/insulator scavengerhunt with the Makey Makey.

I shared examples of past students take home projects.

Once, their storyboard is given the OK. They are able to go onto Scratch and program their Food Chain collaboratively with their partner.

Presentation

Final Product

Reflection

It is important that we reflect when we can.

The students discussed different problems that they had and how they went about solving it. During the reflection time the students listened to the different problems that came up to learn a new skill they could have used or to solve a problem that they had.

At the end of the project we reflected on the process. We talked about what worked and what didn't and why. I listened to what they said and plan on revising the lessons for next year based on their feedback.

Click on the link for some examples of the Food Chain projects.