Anaerobic Respiration

Biology, Grade 9
50 Minutes
Date of Lesson: 12/7/15
Purpose of Lesson:
Students will learn the mechanisms and importance of anaerobic respiration. Subsequently,
students will engage in a review activity designed to help them construct a conceptual framework
of the interactions between photosynthesis and cellular respiration. I felt that this purpose of the
lesson was adequately focused in scope given the duration of the lesson as well as our
sequencing in the larger scope of the unit.
Objectives:

Students will understand the importance of anaerobic respiration and how the various
modes of anaerobic respiration operate.
Students will begin to construct a conceptual framework of photosynthesis, cellular
respiration, and the interactions between the two cycles.

Agenda:

Do Now: Students will briefly note down thoughts on "Why does anaerobic respiration
occur?" and then share out to the class. (5 minutes)
Direct Instruction on Anaerobic Respiration via Powerpoint (15 minutes)
Visual Activity: In small groups, students will be tasked with drawing out both the cycles
of photosynthesis and aerobic respiration, and then illustrating the connections between
the two. Students will also sign up in the same groups to present an aspect of
photosynthesis or respiration to the class as review later in the week. (25 minutes)
Closure: Students will be reminded of the agenda for the week, including the upcoming
due dates for the posters, presentations, and tests. Students will also have the opportunity
to ask questions about anything administrative or content-related. (5 minutes)

The Do Now was a good way to get students primed for thinking about why aerobic respiration
cant occur all the time, and relate those ideas back to the detailed mechanisms of aerobic
respiration. This served as a great primer for the direct instruction on anaerobic respiration.
The direct instruction took about twice as long as I had planned. A large reason for this was that I
realized that my students could go much deeper in-depth than I had originally envisioned.
Another cause for the extended direct instruction was due to an unexpected abundance of student
questions. I always want to prioritize answering student questions, and so I felt that I could
sacrifice time from the visual activity for answering the insightful questions that my students
were posing.
Assessment:

While they are working on the visual activity, students will be informally assessed in a
formative manner on their knowledge of photosynthesis and cellular respiration. I was
able to peer over students shoulders as they were constructing their diagrams of
photosynthesis/respiration, and observe how they were constructing their knowledge of
the relationship between photosynthesis and respiration as well as pose guiding questions
to students as needed.