What went well: Students were genuinely engaged creating their ecosystems, although I observed that many of them were not making the connection between the concepts they had just learned about ecosystems and this project. However, I considered this project to be inquiry based and that the hands-on learning component would demonstrate an actual application of concepts and clarify misconceptions. Furthermore, I viewed this as a way to later find "teachable moments" with students as we would discuss what went wrong. Students were also interested in creating an actual study between different ecosystem the factors and took responsibility and ownership for their work. This is the first time I had seen many of them genuinely interested in their work.

What was uncomfortable: I felt that students did not have enough background preparation in order to be able to succeed with this project. In an effort to create an inquiry-based learning experience, I wanted students to generate their own questions. Because of my fears related to the fact that I had turned them onto a project that would be impossible to complete, I preceded the project with two short lectures on different cycles in the environment. I felt that these lessons ended up being hasty and that students did not make a connection between what was discussed and their projects.

Another issue I ran into was that students came to class unprepared for building their ecosystems. Groups were relying on a certain person to bring in a certain part and when this person did not follow through, then the entire group was impacted. Furthermore, timing became an issue because of this. Some groups were behind while others were completely finished with building the project.

The most uncomfortable situation that arose however was that some groups began to take others’ materials. As a teacher, I felt that I did not have control of the situation and that students’ projects were not safe throughout the duration of the day. I began to designate areas for student projects in the classroom by periods, but felt that this issue could have been facilitated in a better way by foreseeing this situation.

What to change: In the future, I would primarily change facilitating the project with more control and timing. I did not anticipate that students would not be prepared for building their ecosystems. I responded to this by giving them textbook assignments to complete during class. However, in the future, I can plan ahead and allow students to create their projects and supplement them with background knowledge as they go along. This way, the materials I present will be much more interactive and this will stagger the building process to include the students who were not prepared. Additionally, I would do better planning for designating different areas for students’ projects in the room and calling other areas "off limits." This would prevent some of the problems I encountered. Furthermore, as the project evolves and students take notes on their ecosystems’ progress on a daily basis, I would include soil testing and water testing on a weekly basis so that students can better assess what is going on with their projects. In order to have students come to a better understanding of what happened to their ecosystem, I will have students compare their final results. These two changes will help students write their final results and conclude on why their ecosystem succeeded or failed.

Student Participation: Although all students needed to participate, students who were prepared with their materials participated most. These were students that had completed their planning the Friday before and brought their supplies on Monday. Students that did not have their supplies (or had absences either of those days) were not able to complete their tasks on time. These students were assigned text-book work to complete during the class period while other students build their projects. The lesson was extended in order to accommodate students that needed more time building their ecosystems. Engish language learners (ELL) were very engaged in participating in the hands-on portion of this lesson although directions needed to be clarified more than once. Many ELL students did not have the conceptual understanding of creating two ecosystems in order to compare their differences over a long term period until I drew two visual representations of bottles on the board.

The first time I taught this lesson, I assumed that all students would be ready to build their ecosystem. I did not review the items that they need nor did I list these items on the board. What followed was chaos, because some students did not bring the items they needed and could not proceed with their projects. In following lessons, I started the lesson by drawing the ecosystems on the board and prompting students to list what they needed to have brought to be prepared for the day. Groups that had all of their items had the "go ahead" on their projects; groups that were not prepared needed to complete an assignment and submit it at the end of the period. Thus I was able to assess whether students were prepared immediately and could be assured that students were remaining on task while I was working with individual groups. If there were able to list all of the necessary items, they could work on their projects.

Analysis:

Based on this lesson, I have come to the conclusion that better student assessment and planning is needed to orchestrate inquiry-based group projects. In order to retain the student inquiry-based learning, I was reluctant to give students too much information on the ecosystem development. However, I found that some ESL students were not fully aware that they would be building two ecosystems in order to conduct a study. Although we created hypotheses on the lab study the previous day, I feel that an additional assessment would be necessary to gage for student understanding of tasks. This would also help in having students come prepared for building their projects. Furthermore, I could create an incentive for students to bring all of their supplies by administering a quiz for the students who are unprepared. In the future, I will be more aware of the scenarios that can occur during group-work situations and I will create options for students ahead of time. Furthermore, water testing and data comparing components that I will add to the lesson in the future will give students a better opportunity to reflect on the stability of their ecosystem structure and function based on their design and reinforce their learning.