Owl Limpets at Cabrillo National Monument
Pre-field Trip Research
The first lesson of this series, the students were introduced to Owl limpets and the study we would be conducting through a jigsaw group reading of the linked story map. Students summarized, answered questions and picked out vocabulary words then shared what they learned with their groups.
Field Trip to Cabrillo National Monument
Students spent the day exploring all parts of this unit of the National Park system. They had a chance to do real population surveys inside the renowned tide-pools. One of the surveys was done with the owl limpets and measured size and density in various places within the tidepools. They used calipers and a circle plot to gather their data.
Analyzing data from the field trip
Once back in the classroom, we started our lab report process by finding a way to analyze the data. We decided using range and mode to compare their field trip data to the 2020 report data was a simplified and accessible to get the students to understand the scientific process.
Lab Report
The next week we went through the various sections of the student's lab reports, scaffolding each section and breaking down what was expected to be included. A self assessment was performed shortly before the students were completed, allowing for revisions. Once finished, and extra work time was provided, students had the opportunity to participate in a peer-review process within the class to both offer advice and see what other students were working on.
Materials
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Standards
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NGSS
Common Core