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Primary and Secondary Succession Picture Notes

Today we did an activity on primary and secondary succession.  This activity reminded me that taking pages or even a page of written notes is not necessarily the best way to transmit information to a middle-schooler .  I can honestly say that I didn’t have one student off task today because I spot checked all of their notes.  I wouldn’t be able to say the same thing if we had just written the text.

This activity took the almost the entire 45 minutes, but I felt like it was a really good one.  Up on the SMART board I used a document that lead us through the notes while the students filled out two printables.  The first printable was over primary succession and was split into 6 boxes.  You may not be able to see the notes that they wrote in each box so I will list them below.

Stage 1 – Bare rock is exposed and came from a volcano or exposed rock from a melted glacier

Stage 2 – Lichen and moss arrive – pioneer species

Stage 3 – Rocks break down and grasses arrive

Stage 4 – Small shrubs and herbivores arrive

Stage 5 – Large shrubs, young trees, and predators arrive

Stage 6 –  Mature trees and large predators and herbivores arrive

Prior to moving on to secondary succession I checked for understanding and everyone did a great job of comprehending the information.  The second insert into the journal was about secondary succession.  I talked a little bit about the recent forest fires in our area before introducing the concept.  Below are the stages that I used for secondary succession.

Stage 1 – A natural event removed vegetation and exposes bare soil (fire, flood, farming)

Stage 2 – Only nutrient-rich soil is present

Stage 3 – Flowers and grasses begin to arrive

Stage 4 – Small shrubs and herbivores arrive

Stage 5 – Large shrubs, young trees, and predators arrive

Stage 6 –  Mature trees and large predators and herbivores arrive

The INB template would be pretty easy to replicate if you look at image below.  I think this student ran out of time on the last square 🙂.

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