These lessons are designed for students ages 11 to 14. Any alterations may be made by the teacher. The lesson plans below and the pages associated with them are not exactly what one would call traditional lesson plans. If you were looking for traditional lesson plans, there are several other sites that you can visit. One page with more traditional lesson plans is the Wonder World of Invertebrates Web Quest. The lesson plans on this page are rather simple. However, if you would like to inspire the creative talents of your students, we recommend that you choose our more developed lesson plans. The lesson plans include the following:
a promise that you will let your kids play the game! :)
Introduction to Sponges
1) Have students picture the most simple multi-cellular organism that they can think of. On a sheet of paper, have them write about their imaginary creature and draw it.
2) Share some of the products with the class.
3) Next, pull out a bath tub sponge and tell your class that what you hold before them is the skeleton of the most primitve animal in the world. Introduce them to the concept of sponges. Although they are primitive, sponges can serve as a basis for more advanced biology lessons.
Quest for Knowledge
1) Distribute the Information sheets. Take students to the computer resource lab and have them explore the web site.
2) Review information with the class.
3) Pass out the word search for completion to reinforce key vocabulary words associated with sponges.
Understanding the Information
1) Distribute to students copies of the "Get the Picture?" worksheet. Allow about fifteen minutes to work on this. Its just a basic way to reinforce information.
2) Distribute the Scamper activity. If students are new to the Scamper brainstorm process, they could always work with partners or in small groups.
3) If time allows, play the game on this website.
Evaluation
1) Issue the quiz or have a little bit of pre-quiz review.