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Overview:

This resource provides a lesson plan and material for a 20-minute lesson. The target audience for this resource is for learners aged between 10 and 13 years. This pack provides instructions for arranging a lesson using light microscopes to inspect and identify microorganisms that live in pond water. This lesson can be incorporated into the school’s curriculum surrounding the Biological Systems and Materials units for a Late Level 2/Early Level 3 class.

Background:

The resource was created as a part of a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) outreach and widening participation initiative. It has been created for use as an Open Educational Resource (OER) by OER Service, the Information Services Group at the University. As an OER, teachers are welcome to make any changes to their resources according to their needs.

Objectives and Success Criteria:

I can use a light microscope to look at microorganisms that are too small to see normally

I can identify a range of microorganisms that live in pond water

I can understand why these microorganisms are important in ponds, but why we don’t want them in our drinking water, and how we can remove them

Experiences and Outcomes:

SCN 2-13a: I have contributed to investigations into the role of microorganisms in producing and breaking down some materials.

Benchmarks: Describes how some micro-organisms break down food causing it to be inedible or harmful if digested, and how others exist in the gut to break down food to aid digestion.

SCN 2-18a: I have investigated different water samples from the environment and explored methods that can be used to clean and conserve water and I am aware of the properties and uses of water.

This Pack Includes:

• display_materials_1.pptx

  • This presentation contains all of the microorganisms the students are likely to find with their names and fun facts along with a microscope tutorial and labelled microscope diagram

• display_materials_2.pptx

  • Large pictures of each of the microorganisms, a diagram of the parts of a microscope (green indicates parts the students can touch and red indicates parts they can’t), and instructions for how to use the microscope (green sections only)

• worksheet.pptx

  • To be given to the students (one each) containing a picture and name of each microorganism

• wordsearch.pptx

  • A themed word search for the students to take home (or carry out during the activity if they have completed the worksheet or aren’t engaging with the activity)​

**'Microorganisms – Invisible Pond Creatures’ was developed by Alice Buckner and Ayushi Arora, and all content in this package is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license unless otherwise stated.  **