Why is the Pond Green?
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Provided by: Environmental Pathways|Published on: May 6, 2025
Lesson PlansScientist Reviewed
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Scientist Reviewed This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- This curriculum unit from Environmental Pathways allows students to be in the driving seat to create experiments and investigations surrounding algae blooms in Illinois ponds.
- The unit contains driving questions and phenomenons that allows students to take control of their own learning in relation to cause and prevention of algal blooms on local water sources.
- This pathway has been designed for 5th and 6th grade students.
Subjects: Biology
Authors: Environmental Pathways
Region: United States, Illinois
Languages: English
Teaching Materials
Positives
- The teacher guide clearly defines an 11-lesson unit plan exploring several driving questions in relation to algae growth. The lessons list out materials needed, essential questions for that particular lesson and extension activities to further student learning.
- The teacher guide supports teachers in building background knowledge and gives resources to use with students before beginning the curriculum unit.
- Differentiation and language supports such as sentence stems are also included within the lessons to help different levels of learners be successful within the lessons. Along with those supports, safety precautions, tips for catching up absent students, and a multitude of collaborative learning activities are included in the unit plans.
Prerequisites
- In order to prepare algae for the investigation, teachers need to start preparing and gathering materials 4-6 weeks before starting the unit. Teachers should also make sure all student worksheets and handouts (included in the teacher guide) are printed for his/her students before beginning the day's lesson.
- Students will need access to the internet throughout the unit.
- Some extension activities require access to a local pond. Teachers should research if such activities are feasible and check with their school administration on procedures and protocols regarding students safety in such activities.
- Students should be somewhat familiar with different types of maps, using metric ruler, identifying the units of measurement, reading graphs, analyzing data, and writing C-E-R statements.
- Teachers may want to consider how students should record new vocabulary throughout the curriculum unit. The teacher guide suggests looking into the Frayer Model to help organize new vocabulary.
- Some links to extensions or background materials may be broken. Additionally, the links contained in the green text boxes may not be clickable.
- For Lesson 7, the optional Pollution in the Community Reading is no longer available. Additionally, the YouTube video for Lesson 10 is no longer available.
Differentiation & Implementation
- During some of the collaborative learning activities or other activities where students will be responding to each other, the included sentence stems may want to be hung up on an anchor chart or given to certain groups of learners. It may also be wise to discuss appropriate and respectful feedback examples and expectations before engaging in such learning activities.
- Under unit resources (on the main curriculum page), teachers and students have access to even more activities and online simulations related to algae and ecosystems. It may be advisable to carve out extra time within the unit to allow students to explore these resources.
- Lesson 5 gives students access to graphs of average surface temperature of the Great Lakes. Students can research a local body of water and create his/her own graph representing the average surface temperature of that local body of water.
- The lesson Algal Blooms on Lake Superior can be used as an extension lesson on watersheds and students can watch a news segment looking at algal blooms on Lake Superior.
This unit allows students to learn about Algal bloom in ponds and the implications for many living things that live there, including fish, birds, and other plants that contribute to the food chain, including the seasonal changes in the pond due to algal bloom. This unit has students brainstorm an actionable roadmap to prevent algal bloom in Illinois ponds. This activity has been rigorously reviewed and is recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
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