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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