This document provides instructions for a lesson plan that has students create a comic strip using Bitstripsforschools.com to explain how human activities harm habitats and what can be done to protect endangered species. Students will create avatars of themselves and design a comic with panels showing how humans negatively impact the earth currently and how to improve environmental stewardship. The goal is for students to demonstrate higher-order thinking by transferring their ideas into a digital comic format.

1. Be A Habitat Superhero
Lesson by
Shakira Frazier
*image used by permission from www.bitstripsforschools.com

2. Brief
Description
Students become the hero
when they show the reader how
they can stop doing harmful
thins to our habitats in this
comic strip they will create
using bitstripsforschool.com.
The story line will explain
what we can do to protect our
endangered species within the
habitat they create.
*Image used by permission
from bitstripsforschool.com

3. Virtual Classroom
image used by permission by www.bitstripsforschools.com

4. Lesson Plan
 Subject: Science, Technology
 Topic: Environmental Responsibility
 Grade Level: 6th grade
 Created by: Shakira Frazier
*image used by permission from www.bitstripsforschools.com

5. Technology and Resources
 An internet-connected computer, a popular web browser
such as Firefox (version 3.0 or higher), Safari (3.0 or
higher) or Internet Explorer version 6, Adobe Flash
Player plug-in version 10.1 or higher.
*image used by permission from clipart

6. Prior skills, knowledge or
procedures needed
 Teachers must create their classroom after logging into
their email address and personal password. Once they
have gained access, they are to design an avatar of
themselves to begin comic strip. After completion, they
are to add students name to the classroom so they can
login to begin their activity. Prior knowledge of Bitstrips
would include preaccessing the website before inviting
students to start activity.
 Students do not need any prior skills or knowledge to
work with this website. They will be led to a demo on
how a feature works by hovering their pointer over the
item or by use of a video using the Help Tab.
*image used by permission from www.bitstripsforschools.com

7. Instructions
 Students are to create a comic strip explaining how
people do thins that aren’t good for the earth and how
we can do things better. It is suggested that students
brainstorm with each other on paper first, so that when
they begin the comic, it will not be so time consuming.
After they are content with their ideas, they are to log
into their virtual classroom.
 Students will go to www.bitstripsforschool.com and click
class activity.
*image used by permission from www.bitstripsforschools.com

8. Instructions continued…..
 Assuming their avatar has been crated already, they will
be allowed to create their comic immediately. The first 4
panels should show the type of things that humans do to
destroy the earth everyday. The bottom panels should
show their avatar as the hero, explaining how we should
take care of the earth and how to protect our
endangered species within that habitat.
 All of the background tabs are drag and click design so it
is easy to use, and its as simple to add clip art from the
gallery. Once they have completed their comic,
students can save their work and submit it to the
teacher for review for comments and/or feedback.
*image used by permission from www.bitstripsforschools.com

9. Samples of Avatars

10. Sample of Panels

11. Procedure
 Students will navigate through the website to get a
glimpse of what the activity has to offer;
-The Comic Builder tab at the top of the page allows
students to choose the amount of panels they would like for
their comic to have
-The Art tab gives characters character, and the text
bubbles that can be used are various according the avatars
feelings
-The Control tab uses a scroll feature to create color in
the background and on the ground and the filter compares
and contrast different features contained within the panels.
*image used by permission from www.bitstripsforschools.com

12. Procedure continued…..
 At the bottom of the page, are the undo, edit, copy,
paste, delete, draw, lock, add, and remove and save
tabs in which students can use for changes in their
comic.
• If the instructions are not explanatory enough, students
are to refer to the student support if they are having
trouble maneuvering around the website.
• *image used by permission from www.bitstripsforschools.com

13. Advantages
-The advantages of this lesson
is to allow students to create
from a higher order thinking
capacity where they can
recreate an idea from their
brain directly into a comic.
-It promotes inference in which
students have trouble inferring
information from what is given.
*image used by permission
from’
www.bitstripsforschools.com

14. Instructional Strategies
Collaborative learning is effective and essential to the
thinking process. It improves reading literacy, creative
thinking, and motivates students to create avatars in a
positive forum.
Image used by permission by
www.bitstripsforschools.com

15. Closure/Summarizing/Linking
 Teacher-made lessons can be rated and shared with
other teachers through Bitstrips online library. It is an
excellent tool to use for all subjects and curriculums.
 It is a great way to motivate students about learning by
requiring them to organize, plan and create a product
using technology.
Innovation is limitless.

16. Reflection
 This lesson takes a lot of preparation before class and
can be confusing for some students. The hardest part of
this lesson was for them to follow step by step directions
to create panels on their own in a timely manner. The
easiest part was having the students create their own
avatar. Students like to develop images that reflect who
they are in comic form.
 Next time, it might be advantageous for this lesson to
become a flipped classroom where I can assign the
activity for homework and then we can collaborate inside
the classroom because of the disadvantage of the length
of the lesson or maybe some unforseen internet issues.

17. References
 www.bitstripsforschools.com
 Exerps of information, content and images used by
permission from the website:
www.bitstripsforschools.com
 Images used by permission from clipart