Learning Objectives for Instructional Sequence

• Students will be able to discuss the diversity among humans and the animals in their environment through the use of fingerprints and tracks.
• Students will be able to use technology related to the lesson including software,Thinkin' Science. Edmark, 1997.
• Students will be able to explain the different uses in society for fingerprints and tracks because of their uniqueness.

Science Content Explored:

Fingerprints:

Types of fingerprints: Whorl, loop, and arch -More in depth (loop, pocked loop, double arch, arch, tent arch, and mixed.

What are fingerprints?

• "An impression of the lines on the inner surface of the thumb or fingerprints used as a means of identification."
• Fingerprints are permanent details that are created before you are born. They do not change unless they are scarred, affected by skin disease, or after death.
• No two fingerprints are the same, not even on the same person or on identical twins.

• Fat residue from fingers
• Can be left like a stamp in a substance such as paint or lead as we will see in the activity.
• Amino acids can also be left from the fingers.

Animal Tracks:

Characteristics of Animal Print that distinguish one animal from another:

• Size and shape of print, spacing between prints, how many parts of the print there are, how many prints there are

• Where the animal was going, if the animal was hunting another animal, if the animal was injured, if the animal travels with other animals or in herds

Reason and method for goal selection:

• The reason for diversity being a focus of this lesson is because diversity is a school wide objective for the month. This objective will help to demonstrate uniqueness and individuality among peers.
• The reason technology was incorporated into this lesson and its use an objective is because the ability to use technology is critical for survival in our society. The technology shows how the use of animal tracks relates to diversity among different animal species.
• The reason the uses for fingerprints were made an objective was because it ties in the real world and extends the material beyond the classroom.

Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop understanding of:

• Science and technology in society

Science and Technology

As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop:

• Abilities of technological design
• Understandings about science and technology

Life Science

As a result of their activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop understanding of

• Structure and function in living systems
• Diversity and adaptations of organisms

Resources:

National Science Education Standards: http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/html/
 

Biological Sciences

• Know the similarities and differences of living things:
• Know that some organisms have similar external characteristics (e.g.,anatomical characteristics; appendages, type of covering, bodysegments) and that similarities and differences are related to environmental circumstances.

Inquiry and Design

• Identify and apply the technological design process to solve problems:
• Define all aspects of the problem, necessary information and questions
• Examine the problem, rank all necessary information and all questions that must be answered.
• The diversity objective relates back to the life science standard, which states that students should develop an understanding of diversity and adaptations of organisms.
• The technology objective relates to the science and technology standard, which states that students should have an understanding of science and technology.

Resources:

Proposed Academic Standards for Pennsylvania

http://www.pde.psu.edu/standard/stan.html

Connections to District Standards

• Explain how the transmission of heredity is controlled by chromosomes
• List characteristics of mammals.
• Define and illustrate animal adaptations.

Possible Misconceptions of Instructional Focus:

• Students may not recognize that animals also have fingerprints and can be identified and distinguished from others.
• Students may think that fingerprints change with age or growth but in fact they are not affected unless they are scarred or burned etc.
• Students may not realize that fingerprints can be left in other forms then the stamp method.
• Students probably believe that twins have the same fingerprints but in fact they are not.
• Students may also believe that clones may have the same fingerprints, but since they, like identical twins, do not have the same genes, they do not have the same fingerprints.

Daily Learning Goals

Fingerprints:

• SWBAT identify different types of fingerprints
• SWBAT take their own fingerprint and identify their fingerprint formula
• SWBAT explain what a fingerprint is and how they are left behind on objects
• SWBAT explain the uses for fingerprints in the real world and the reason that these uses are possible.
• SWBAT explain how fingerprints can be related to diversity of people.

• SWBAT explain the similarity between animal tracks and fingerprints.
• SWBAT identify the track that corresponds to common animals covered.
• SWBAT use the software, Thinkin' Science. Edmark, 1997., to participate in activity.
• SWBAT explain how animal tracks are related to diversity of animals.

Relevance of Daily Learning Goals to Unit and National Goals:

The daily goals meet the Unit and National Goals because we simply broke down the objectives level by level and created more specific objectives we set unit and daily goals.