Cotaught reflection- Amy and Anita

We introduced photosynthesis and respiration with the open-ended statement. "Energy in ecosystems...." We asked students to list as many things as they could think of that would complete the sentence.  Students were then given time to discuss their lists with their partner and eventually we shared out as a class.   We were pleasantly surprised to see that many of them had listed key ideas that we will be discussing further in the unit.  They didn't always have the correct terminology but the ideas were there!  We believe this activity will be useful as we proceed through the unit because we can recall and build on their prior knowledge.