After discussing and gaining useful information from my cooperating teacher, I learnt the Life Science students are starting a unit on Ecology. The first Chapter in this unit deals with living things and the environment, populations, interactions among living things, and communities. The students previously discussed some of these topics in their 7th grade science classroom, however these topics are not yet mastered and need to be refreshed as well as grown upon with the students. Inside and outside of the classroom it is important for students to have a clear understanding on ecology, how living things interact with their environment, populations, and communites. This information will help the students to better understand the world around them and allows the students to become engaged in real world issues that extend past the typical science classroom. 

After analyzing the student's performance on their pretest, I concluded the students needed a couple of lessons on Ecology to solidify previous information, to further their understanding of the material, and to build on their current knowledge of the material. For this, I have decided I will conduct multiple lessons regarding ecology and perform some ecology labs. Working hands on with the material through a lab experiment will help the students to see and work with the information rather than just sitting and listening to a presentation. There are a couple of different standards that apply to the Ecology lessons and are listed below: 

4.7.7.A Understand levels of ecosystem organization (e.g., individuals, populations, species).

4.5.10.D. Research practices that impact biodiversity in specific ecosystems. • Analyze the relationship between habitat changes to plant and animal population fluctuations.

4.6.7.A Identify and explain the characteristics of biotic and abiotic. • Describe and explain the adaptations of plants and animals to their environment. • Demonstrate the dependency of living components in the ecosystem on the nonliving components. • Understand limiting factors and predict their effects on an organism.

All of these standards will be met through quizzes, exams, lectures, lab experiments, and group/independant work.

The needs of the students were identified by examining student performance data on their pretest, other assignments, observing the students in the classroom, IEPs, and 504 plans. By looking through previous assignment's and my cooperating teacher's grade book, I was able to get a rough idea on how the 8th grade students typically perform on assignments. Having access to students' IEPs and 504 plans additionally allowed me to make accommodations or adjustments on my material to better suit the needs of the  students. Since my target population was the entire 8th grade class (70 students), I wanted to ensure that I was reaching the students as a whole as well as individually. 

The target population of this Student Learning Objective project is the entire 8th grade life science class. There are roughly 70 students in this grade and there are four sections/classes of life science. I chose all of the students as my target population because they are a smaller grade than normal and I wanted to see all the life science students benefit from these instructions. Additionally, all students should learn and know more about ecology so they can understand what is happening outside of the classroom. 

However, after completing the pre-assessment and the post-assessment, I discovered that only 59 of the 70 students completed both assessments. Therefore my new sample size for this Student Learning Objective project is 59 out of the 70 eigth grade life science students, which is roughly 3 out of 4 classes.

My intended achievement goal for the 8th grade life science students after completion of the lessons is for the class average grade to be 70% or higher on my post assessment quiz on Ecology. After analyizing the students' pretest scores, I have determined that the class average on the pre-test was a 57%. I intend for my instruction to show a growth of at least 10-20%. This would mean that a majority of the 8th grade life science students need to score at least a 67-77% or higher on the post-assessment quiz on Ecology.