Science and Geography

at Diamond Valley Lake

Lesson Plan

Marisela CavazosThird Grade

Geography Included

• Number of Leaders: One classroom teacher and parents that volunteer

• Grade(s) of Student Participants for which the Lesson is designed: Grade 3

• Number of Sessions: One Session

• Length of Session: Session 1: 4 hours

• How Geog is used: Geography is used in this lesson plan by having students experience with hands-on with fossils and where animals, plants, and other things come from and their locations.

Science State Standard

• Life Sciences: • 3. Adaptations in physical structure or behavior may improve

an organism’s chance for survival. As a basis for understanding this concept:

• a. Students know plants and animals have structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction.

• d. Students know when the environment changes, some plants and animals survive and reproduce; others die or move to new locations.

• e. Students know that some kinds of organisms that once lived on Earth have completely disappeared and that some of those resembled others that are alive today.

National Geography Standards

• 7. The Physical Processes That Shape the Patterns of

Earth’s Surface

• 17. How to Apply Geography to Interpret the Past

Pre-assessment:

• First the teacher will start the class with discussing

what kinds of different animals live in this world and

talk about where some of these animals originated

from and how not all animals live in the United

states. The teacher will have talked about fossils to

the class and how fossils tell time (how long ago a

certain animal was alive).

Preparation and Materials Needed:

• Notebook

• Pencil

• Lunch

• Money if wanted

Central Activity:

▫ Instructions: The teacher will take out the entire class on a field trip after

having a few lessons on geography and animals and evolution. This

field trip is to the Diamond Valley Lake in Hemet. This place has many

different things to see and learn about. They will have hands on with

making a fossil, water cycle, many different animals, where they come

from and many other things. This field trip will allow students to learn

about the world’s past and how it was affected, who lived on this world

during those times and what happened to these animals that are now

extinct.

▫ As students are being toured around they will be asked to choose one

section or a few sections of the Diamond Valley Lake to draw out a map

of it.

Closure:

• Teacher then will stop the class and recap what

everyone learned. The teacher will ask each student

to say one thing that they learned from the entire

center. Everyone will get back on the bus and go

home.

ASSESSMENT

• Student Evaluation: I will have a rubric to grade their work. I will grade to see how much they learned from the field trip to make sure the trip was worth it.

• Application/Reflection/Self-Lesson Evaluation: I plan to evaluate the effectiveness of my work based on my how my students respond to the activity. If students have do not understand a component of the lesson this will enable me to modify future lessons or just find ways to explain it better.

Follow-Up

• The follow-up in the next class will be that students

will write a paragraph of what they learned and what

were their favorite things. Then they will draw out a

map as best as possible of what the Diamond Valley

Lake looked like even if it is just one section of it.