Take a few drops of water from a pond . Spread on a glass slide and observe through a microscope
Answers
Answer:Development
In this activity, students will take a closer look at the living organisms that exist in a freshwater habitat. Begin by reviewing and listing on the board or on chart paper some of the living things that students encountered in their observations at the pond.
Lab Work
Divide the class into groups of two or three, and distribute the student sheet, Pond Water: A Closer Look. Then set up the microscopes and distribute droppers, slides, hand lenses, and pond water samples to each group. Have students follow the step-by-step instructions carefully during their investigation, which will allow them to observe the pond water for living organisms first using a hand lens, and then a microscope at 30x and 100x magnification. During their investigations, students will be required to think about and answer the questions on the student sheet.
Using their science journals or notebooks, allow students to sketch and discuss what they observe. Tell students to include as many details as they can in their sketches so that they can try to identify the organisms later on.
Observations
After the lab, discuss with students their answers to the questions on the student sheet and let them share their observations and sketches with members of other groups.
Then have students use the Virtual Pond Dip student esheet to visit A Virtual Pond Dip. As students explore this page, you may want to talk to them about the organisms in the jar. You could also let students click on a couple of organisms to learn more about them. Doing this activity should help students make the correlation between the lab work they've done and the next activity.
Next, students should use the student esheet to visit the Pond Life Identification Kit. Allow students to spend about 10 minutes reading about some of the microorganisms that might be found in a pond. See if they can find any of the actual organisms they saw under the microscope and ask them to go back and label their drawings with the actual names of the organisms. Let students compare their drawings and their observations. Encourage them to take notes about how the organisms function, survive, and other interesting information.
Still using the student esheet, students should visit the Virtual Pond Dip on the Sparsholt School's Centre for Environmental Education site. Here they can read more about the organisms that they have observed, as well as the contributions that they make within an ecosystem.
To aid and reinforce their understanding of the material, draw a large version of a pond on the board. You can use this drawing to jot down additional information that students retrieve about the roles and functions of organisms that live within the pond.
Explanation: