7.2 UbD Global Warming Lesson Plan

Click here for the Lesson Plan. Hope you like it!

6.2 ACTIVITY-BASED LESSON ADJUSTED TO COMMON CORE

What academic and content specific vocabulary is introduced in this lesson?

Words are chosen from article. See article for details.

What materials will I present to students:

ARTICLE: Students will read an article where scientists worked together to develop the most plausible solution to a problem. Close reading techniques and annotating will be used. Students will be able to analyze the arguments that support the claims made in the Biochar article using clear reasoning and evidence from the article. Students document the arguments made by the authors of the Biochar article; make meaning of the different solutions they proposed; argue if they agree or disagree with the chosen solution; compare/contrast the different solutions presented.

COMPUTERS: Students will research and present a real-world example which illustrates a dynamic scientific process where scientists/engineers have worked as a team to develop many solutions to a specific problem and then tested to find the most plausible solution. Students demonstrate their understanding of developing solutions; describe their example, justify their explanation, show how they reached their conclusions.

JOURNALS: Students write a letter to the scientists/engineers they studied in the real-world example above, imagining what it would be like to have been there and asking questions about how they arrived at the most plausible solution to their problem. Students consider alternatives, imagine what an historical scientist would do to solve the problem.

COMPUTERS: Students invent their own experiment, propose possible solutions, solve how they will test them and test their most plausible solution.Students present their findings, and assess their experiments through posts in their journal entries.

How will I open the lesson (motivation) and capture student interest?

PRE LEARNING ACTIVITY: Build a tower in fifteen minutes using provided materials (spaghetti, marshmallows, string, tape) that stands freely and measures the tallest in the class.

What additional individual/team/full class activities will I use to help students discover what they need to learn (suggest three)? If these are group activities, how will student groups be organized?

PRE LEARNING ACTIVITY: Small groups of three

ARTICLE: Individual
RESEARCH STAGE 1: Same groups of three

LETTER WRITING: Individual

RESEARCH STAGE 2: Individual

REPORTING: Individual

How will I differentiate instruction with multiple entry points for diverse learners?

Not necessary for pre learning activity. Article will be chunked out for differentiation with lower level readers. This is probably not necessary as my class is an honors class.

What H.O.T. (Higher Order Thinking) questions will I ask to engage students in analysis and discussion?

How did you come to your final design? Did you consider other options? Did you start with the end in mind? Did you use trial and error? Leave time for improvements? How will this help you to solve other problems?

How will I assess student mastery of the skills, concepts and content taught in this lesson?

There are several, varied experiences in this lesson that touch on many different Intelligences. Students have many opportunities to master the skills, concepts and content taught in this series of lessons. The assessments will be informal for some of the experiences and formal for the Letter writing and Research Stage 2, where students will be assessed on their presentation (ppt or other method of their choice) of their own experiments.

How will I bring lesson to closure (summary questions)?

Debriefing will consist of discussion in the original small groups, then brought together with a whole class discussion.

Classroom application/follow up

The application of this series of lessons is that students will use their knowledge and apply it to future STEM research projects.

How do I evaluate this lesson?

Honestly, in retrospect, this lesson was not as dynamic as I had hoped it would be. I found writing a lesson in this format (answering the questions, not UbD) to be counterintuitive for me.

5.2 Understanding by Design: Stage 3 Learning Activities

UbD Stage 3 Learning Activities YouTube

AR.2 Article Review Technology Integration

Using Apps to Integrate Writing into Science Education, Pytash, Annetta, Ferdig, May 2016, ScienceScope Magazine

Writing about science is an essential skill for increasing student’s knowledge base, helping students to formulate ideas around science and research, creating arguments, and sharing results with the community. The NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) have clearly stated goals for science and technology integration “”develop and strengthen writing abilities while using digital tools to produce and publish writing.” The CCSS (Common Core State Standards) also require students to “use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing.”

Using digital apps is timely, as students have access to and understanding of their smartphones, and other digital devices. Apps provide an easy way for students to formulate and plan their ideas, brainstorm for solutions, collaborate with peers, receive feedback from teachers, and the opportunity to learn in different physical spaces. Apps can both prepare students for writing in science and improve the quality of their writing.

Brainstorming or mind-mapping apps can help students to manipulate and move their thoughts on screen. They can play with hierarchy, revise, and organize. Teachers can give feedback prior to writing to help students refine their thoughts.

Apps can also be used for annotating text. Argumentation is a key component to scientific writing. One must be able to analyze and synthesize evidence in order to support their positions. Complex texts are a natural part of science writing and students must be able to identify essential information within the texts. Annotating is a tool that helps to chunk down the text, and gives students tools to find meaning within the text. This includes the main ideas, key vocabulary and concepts. With annotating, students interact with the text on different levels, allowing them to decipher the information and ideas represented within the text.

DIgital tools  allows teacher to upload passages, and students can annotate, Some tools even allow students to annotate videos. Highlighting and commenting, as wella s sharing are some of the digital annotation features.

In the science research class, students learn through writing in their science journals. There are digital journal apps that can serve as science notebooks. The great thing about these is that it gives students the chance to personalize their journals, and then share their writing with others.

A great way to present science writing is through multimodal composition. Information is learned and presented best when it includes a variety of media, including verbal language, as well as visual imagery, visual data and more. Digital storytelling gives students the chance to consider the use of how images, sound and text individually carry a particular meaning (Pytash, Annetta, Ferdig, 2016) and can be used together to convey a new meaning (Kress, 2003).

Properly used, digital tools can be an integral part of the science writing and presentation curriculum, as it offers students the tools they are accustomed to using to learn, integrate, synthesize and share information.