OER4Schools/Monarch butterfly sequencing activity

This activity requires one of the following files

• File:Monarch Life Cycle.odp for OpenOffice Impress or
• File:Monarch Life Cycle.ppt for MS PowerPoint.
• Alternatively, you can view the pictures here: life cycle of a butterfly and use your own software for arranging them.

Pair work (11 min). Start by downloading the presentation files above (or the pictures individually), and look at them. With a grade buddy, use presentation software to arrange and present them in the right sequence. If you have difficulty arranging the slides, read the background note below.

Whole class (11 min). Brainstorm some topics that you can assess using the activity ‘sequencing’. Note those topics down, so that you can find images later.

Then discuss:

• How many pupils should work together on this activity in the class for appropriate AfL?
• Is it feasible to carry out this activity in the class? Why?
• What steps can be taken to make this activity more feasible?
• What can be the formative feedback if

1. a student is quickly able to sequence accurately
2. a student is partially accurate in sequencing, and
3. a student gets them all wrong?

Background reading

Arranging slides in OpenOffice Impress'

When you open a presentation, you see the first slide displayed in a larger window in the middle of the screen. To the left, you see small pictures of all of the slides in the presentation, like a "film strip". To rearrange the slides, you can simply click on a slide with the mouse, and (while holding down the mouse button), drag it to a different position.

As a homework (see below), chose a topic which you are teaching, and for which this activity is useful. Find some appropriate images, and make your own presentation for your students to re-order. You can find pictures that are open resources (Creative Commons licensed) at http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/.