Exploring Invertebrates

1. Begin the lesson by allowing students to observe the earthworms in the containers and have them think about questions they might have. 

2. Present students with the following three questions:

What would happen if we put the earthworms in a container with dry and wet soil? Which would it choose to gravitate to?
 
What would happen if we touched the earthworm? How would it react?
 
What would happen if we gave the earthworms different types of food? Which would the earthworms eat?
 
3. As a class, choose at least one of these questions to test and write the question on chart paper. Then, have students predict what they think will happen. Students should then share their predictions aloud with a partner and then write it in their science journals. Students can draw a picture to go along with their predictions as well. 

4. The teacher will then help students out with the test. Depending on the question that was chosen by the class, this could be done quickly, or it may take some time. For instance, if the class chooses the question about touching the earthworm, this would be done right then. If the students choose the question about food, this could take several days just depending. You want this lesson to be student-driven so that the experiment is more meaningful to the students and something they want to find out more about. 

5. Once the test is completed, discuss the results with students. Students should share out what they observed. Then, have students go back into their science journals and compare the results to the predictions they made previous to the experiment.

I chose earthworms for this lesson, but any other invertebrate such as snails or ‘roly-poly’s’ would work for this experiment. This lesson should be one-hundred percent student-driven, and the question chosen for the experiment should be chosen by the students. This will allow it to be more meaningful to the students. For the science journals, it is important to help students record the question chosen, predictions, and the results as they move through the experiment. Students can draw what they see happen during the experiment in their science journals.
 

The students will be assessed through the questioning that takes place during the lesson. They will also be assessed through their participation in the experiment, and the work they display in their science journals.