BedminsterTownshipSchool District

Grade 2 Science Curriculum

The alignment of the Grade 2 Science curriculum is in compliance with the State Board adopted 2009 New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for implementation September 1, 2012.

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Content Area: Science
Course Title: Grade 2 Science / Grade Level: 2
Changes / 16 lessons
Balance & Motion / 9-12 sessions (lessons)
Insects
Date Created: / August 2010; Created by S. Driscoll
Board Approved on: / November 18, 2010
Unit Overview
Content Area: Grade 2-Science
Unit Title:Balance & Motion
Target Course/Grade Level: Balance & Motion - 2
Unit Summary
Balance: Students discover numerous ways to balance two-dimensional shapes made out of tagboard. They use a piece of pliable wire and counterweights (clothespins) to make a pencil balance on its point. They make mobiles from paper clips, rubber bands, straws, and index cards to apply their understanding of balance, stability, and counterweighting.
Spinners: Students make tops from plastic disks and straws, and spin them, exploring the variables that influence the spinning of a top. They use these same disks with string to make zoomers to observe a different kind of spinning motion. They make twirlers (flying spinners), first using straws and paper wings, and then using folded paper and paper clips.
Rollers: Students investigate rolling objects— wheels, cups, and spheres. They make cardboard ramps and investigate wheels of different sizes on axles, and they roll paper cups of two sizes. Students use flexible marble runways to make marbles do tricks. The grand finale involves the whole class cooperating to make one large runway through which a marble can roll nonstop.
Primary interdisciplinary connections: language arts literacy, art, math
21st century themes: Global Awareness
Unit Rationale: Students explore stable (balanced) and unstable systems, using counterweighting to change the center of mass of the systems. They explore two classes of motion-spinning and rolling-first through trial and error, and later through systematic explorations. Students begin to develop a sense of variables, which they control to produce desired outcomes.
Learning Targets
Standards
5.1 Science Practices: All students will understand that science is both a body of knowledge and an evidence-based, model-building enterprise that continually extends, refines, and revises knowledge. The four Science Practices strands encompass the knowledge and reasoning skills that students must acquire to be proficient in science.
A. Understand Scientific Explanations:Students understand core concepts and principles of science and use measurement and observation tools to assist in categorizing, representing, and interpreting the natural and designed world.
B. Generate Scientific Evidence Through Active Investigations:Students master the conceptual, mathematical, physical, and computational tools that need to be applied when constructing and evaluating claims.
C. Reflect on Scientific Knowledge:Scientific knowledge builds on itself over time.
D. Participate Productively in Science:The growth of scientific knowledge involves critique and communication, which aresocial practices that are governed by a core set of values and norms.
5.2 Physical Science: All students will understand that physical science principles, including fundamental ideas about matter, energy, and motion, are powerful conceptual tools for making sense of phenomena in physical, living, and Earth systems science.
A. Properties of Matter:All objects and substances in the natural world are composed of matter. Matter has two fundamental properties: matter takes up space, and matter has inertia.
E. Forces and Motion:It takes energy to change the motion of objects. The energy change is understood in terms of forces.
Content Statements
5.1.4.A.2: Connections developed between fundamental concepts are used to explain, interpret, build, and refine explanations, models, and theories.
5.1.4.A.3: Outcomes of investigations are used to build and refine questions, models, and explanations.
5.1.4.B.1: Building and refining models and explanations requires generation and evaluation of evidence.
5.1.4.B.2: Tools and technology are used to gather, analyze, and communicate results.
5.1.4.B.3: Evidence is used to construct and defend arguments.
5.1.4.B.4: Reasoning is used to support scientific conclusions.
5.1.4.C.2: Revisions of predictions and explanations occur when new arguments emerge that account more completely for available evidence.
5.1.4.C.3: Scientific knowledge is a particular kind of knowledge with its own sources, justifications, and uncertainties.
5.1.4.D.1: Science has unique norms for participation. These include adopting a critical stance, demonstrating a willingness to ask questions and seek help, and developing a sense of trust and skepticism.
5.1.4.D.2: In order to determine which arguments and explanations are most persuasive, communities of learners work collaboratively to pose, refine, and evaluate questions, investigations, models, and theories (e.g., scientific argumentation and representation).
5.1.4.D.3: Instruments of measurement can be used to safely gather accurate information for making scientific comparisons of objects and events.
5.2.2.A.1: Living and nonliving things are made of parts and can be described in terms of the materials of which they are made and their physical properties.
5.2.4.A.3: Objects and substances have properties, such as weight and volume, that can be measured using appropriate tools. Unknown substances can sometimes be identified by their properties.
5.2.2.E.1: Objects can move in many different ways (fast and slow, in a straight line, in a circular path, zigzag, and back and forth).
5.2.2.E.2: A force is a push or a pull. Pushing or pulling can move an object. The speed an object moves is related to how strongly it is pushed or pulled. When an object does not move in response to a push or a pull, it is because another push or pull (friction) is being applied by the environment.
5.2.4.E.1: Motion can be described as a change in position over a period of time.
5.2.4.E.2: There is always a force involved when something starts moving or changes its speed or direction of motion. A greater force can make an object move faster and farther.
CPI # / Cumulative Progress Indicator (CPI)
5.1.4.A.2 / Use outcomes of investigations to build and refine questions, models, and explanations.
5.1.4.A.3 / Use scientific facts, measurements, observations, and patterns in nature to build and critique scientific arguments.
5.1.4.B.1 / Design and follow simple plans using systematic observations to explore questions and predictions.
5.1.4.B.2 / Measure, gather, evaluate, and share evidence using tools and technologies.
5.1.4.B.3 / Formulate explanations from evidence.
5.1.4.B.4 / Communicate and justify explanations with reasonable and logical arguments.
5.1.4.C.2 / Revise predictions or explanations on the basis of learning new information.
5.1.4.C.3 / Present evidence to interpret and/or predict cause-and-effect outcomes of investigations.
5.1.4.D.1 / Actively participate in discussions about student data, questions, and understandings.
5.1.4.D.2 / Work collaboratively to pose, refine, and evaluate questions, investigations, models, and theories.
5.1.4.D.3 / Demonstrate how to safely use tools, instruments, and supplies.
5.2.2.A.1 / Sort and describe objects based on the materials of which they are made and their physical properties.
5.2.4.A.3 / Determine the weight and volume of common objects using appropriate tools.
5.2.2.E.1 / Investigate and model the various ways that inanimate objects can move.
5.2.2.E.2 / Predict an object’s relative speed, path, or how far it will travel using various forces and surfaces.
5.2.4.E.1 / Demonstrate through modeling that motion is a change in position over a period of time.
5.2.4.E.2 / Identify the force that starts something moving or changes its speed or direction of motion.
Unit Essential Questions
  • Howcan objects move?
  • How can the motion or position of objects be described?
  • How can the motion or position of an object be changed?
/ Unit Enduring Understandings
  • Many different objects and shapes move in different ways.
  • A stable position is one that an object or system returns to after being put into motion
  • A mobile is a system of balanced beams and masses The amount and location of mass affects how objects and systems roll
  • The amount and position of mass affects how an object or system rotates
  • An object’s position or motion can be changed by pushing or pulling.

Unit Learning Targets
Students will ...
  • Develop a growing curiosity and interest in the motion of objects.
  • Investigate materials constructively during free exploration and in a guided discovery mode.
  • Solve problems through trial and error.
  • Develop persistence in tackling a problem.
  • Explore concepts of balance, counterweight, and stability.
  • Observe systems that are unstable and modify them to reach equilibrium.
  • Discover different ways to produce rotational motion.
  • Construct and observe toys that spin.
  • Explore and describe some of the variables that influence the spinning of objects.
  • Observe and compare rolling systems with different-sized wheels.
  • Explore and describe the motion of rolling spheres.
  • Acquire the vocabulary associated with balance and motion.

Evidence of Learning
Summative Assessment
End of the Module Assessment:
Copies of the Summative Assessment are included in the Assessment Duplication Masters section of the binder. Be sure to read page 7 and 8 of the Assessment section for directions on the assessment and acceptable answers.
Portfolios:
Information about portfolio assessment is also available in the assessment section of the binder on pages 10 and 11.
Equipment needed: Balance & Motion kit, Teacher’s Guide, assessment duplication masters, reading resources, student portfolios,
Teacher Resources:
Formative Assessments:
Teacher Observation
Include anecdotal notes and student interviews (see sheet no. 1 in the Assessment Duplication Masters section).
Student Journals
To assess content understanding (see the Getting Ready section in the Investigations to see what to look for in journal entries, the journal pages are included in the Investigation Duplication Masters section of the binder and include items like an observation record or calendars)
Student Sheets
Sometimes there are sheets that are not included in the student journal these sheets are completed during the investigation and will provide information on student learning (suggestions on how to score sheets is provided in the Getting Ready section of the Investigations).
Assessment Checklist
A checklist is included to record information on assessments. The first checklist provides a space to record scores on journal pages ( , +, or -) and the second checklist provides a space to record progress throughout the Science module (see page 5 in the Assessment section for best times to score these goals).
Lesson Plans
Activity / Part / No. of Sessions / Organization
Balance / Part 1: Trick Crayfish
Part 2: Triangle & Arch
Part 3: The Pencil Trick
Part 4: Mobiles / 1 session
1-2 sessions
1 session
1-2 sessions / whole class
whole class
whole class
whole class or group of 6-10
Spinners / Part 1: Tops
Part 2: Zoomers
Part 3: Twirlers / 2 sessions
2 sessions
2 sessions / whole class
whole class or group of 6-10
whole class
Rollers / Part 1: Rolling Wheels
Part 2: Rolling Cups
Part 3: Rolling Spheres / 1 session
1-2 sessions
1-2 sessions / whole class
whole class
whole class
Activity / Part / Overview
Balance / Part 1: Trick Crayfish / Students balance a tagboard cutout of a crayfish on their fingertips. After finding the balance point, students are challenged to balance the crayfish on its edge, its tail, and its “nose,” using clothespins and counterweights.
Part 2: Triangle & Arch / Students balance tagboard geometric shapes in a variety of ways on the end of a Popsicle stick, again using clothespins as counterweights. They try to find as many ways as possible to establish stable positions so that a push on the object will make it wobble but not fall.
Part 3: The Pencil Trick / Students use a piece of soft wire and clothespins to balance a pencil on its point in a stable position.
Part 4: Mobiles / Students make mobiles to reinforce the concepts of balance, counterbalance, and stability.
Balance vocabulary: arch, balance, balance point, counterbalance, counterweight, crayfish, mobile, object, position, stable, system, triangle, unstable, weight
Spinners / Part 1: Tops / Students make tops from plastic disks and straws, and spin them. After finding the arrangement of parts that produces the best top, they make tops from other materials.
Part 2: Zoomers / Students use the same disks and a length of string to make zoomers.
Part 3: Twirlers / Students make twirlers (flying spinners) that rotate by air resistance, first modifying soda straws with wings, and then making twirly birds from paper and paper clips.
Spinners vocabulary: disk, motion, rotate, spin, swirl, top, twirl, twist, whirl
Rollers / Part 1: Rolling Wheels / Students set up cardboard ramps down which they roll plastic disks. They put the disks on slim white straws to make wheel and axle systems. They try all kinds of configurations of wheel size, axle length, and axle position to get the rolling systems to perform a variety of tricks.
Part 2: Rolling Cups / Students roll paper cups down ramps. They observe the way cups roll and use the predictable curved rolling path to meet challenges. They put cups together to make them roll straight and then weight them in various ways to see how weight affects rolling.
Part 3: Rolling Spheres / Students roll marbles in cups and down runways to observe spheres as rollers. They work with the flexible runways to make the rolling marbles do tricks. As a culminating experience, students work together as a class to connect the runway sections to make one long runway through which a marble can roll nonstop.
Rollers vocabulary: axle, disk, loop, motion, ramp, roll, runway, slope, sphere, spiral, wheel
Teacher Notes:
Curriculum Development Resources
Click the links below to access additional resources used to design this unit:
FOSS Resources

Interactive Activities/Games

Suggested Books/Websites

Additional Projects

LESSON REFLECTION

Reflect on the lesson you have developed and rate the degree to which the lesson Strongly, Moderately or Weakly meets the criteria below.

Lesson Activities: / Strongly / Moderately / Weakly
Are challenging and require higher order thinking and problem solving skills
Allow for student choice
Provide scaffolding for acquiring targeted knowledge/skills
Integrate global perspectives
Integrate 21st century skills
Provide opportunities for interdisciplinary connection and transfer of knowledge and skills
Foster student use of technology as a tool to develop critical thinking, creativity and innovation skills
Are varied to address different student learning styles and preferences
Are differentiated based on student needs
Are student-centered with teacher acting as a facilitator and co-learner during the teaching and learning process
Provide means for students to demonstrate knowledge and skills and progress in meeting learning goals and objectives
Provide opportunities for student reflection and self-assessment
Provide data to inform and adjust instruction to better meet the varying needs of learners

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