Lesson Plan for Henrico 21 Awards
Teacher Name: Rachael Toy & John W. Golding
Collaborators: ITRT & Librarians
Lesson Title: Amazing Atoms and Exciting Elements for YOU!
Target Grade/Subject: 8th Grade Physical Science
Length: 2-3 weeks using partial blocks or a total of 5 blocks
Summary: How often are we asked to collaborate with others to produce a small part of a bigger project? How often do we ask this of our students? How can we empower students to work in teams to find, evaluate, and creatively share information? In this project based lesson we started with an identified need for the 6th graders at Byrd Middle School. They were having a hard time understanding Atoms and the Periodic Table of Elements and their teachers needed a new and exciting resource that they could use to reteach this information. Who better than the all mighty 8th grade Physical Science student? Read on to find out how we empowered our students to help accomplish a real-world task and share information with a global audience all while supporting the development of students confidence levels and ability to effectively work with their peers using 21st century tools to create an original work.
VA SOLs: PS.2 e, PS.3 a, b, and PS. 4 a, b
Objectives:
o Students will investigate atoms, including their basic parts and structure.
o Students will investigate trends in the periodic table as they relate to families, groups and metals, nonmetals and metalloids.
o Students will have a better understanding of the chemical and physical properties of individual elements based on the groups/ families on the periodic table.
o Students will investigate the progression of atomic discoveries by comparing the atomic models of Dalton, Rutherford, Thomson, and Bohr with the modern “electron cloud” model
Essential Questions:
· How has the model of the atom developed through contributions from Dalton, Thomson, Rutherford and Bohr?
· What does the modern model of the atom look like?
· What are the similarities and differences between a group and period on the Periodic Table of Elements?
· Compare and Contrast the metals, nonmetals and metalloids from the Periodic Table of Elements.
· What basic information can you obtain about an atom from the Periodic Table of Elements?
· Investigate one of the following elements: Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, or Aluminum.
· Investigate one of the following groups of the Periodic Table: Alkali, Alkali Earth, Transition metals (including the iron triad), Halogens, or Noble Gasses.
· Student generated questions will be included in this project (see more information in lesson development)
Evaluation:
Rubrics will be used to guide and evaluate student work. Rubrics contain elements as defined by student as well as input from the teacher (from SOLs) and target audience (6th grade Science teachers/students). There are a total of 2 rubrics that correspond with a major lesson component. Rubrics are included at the end of the lesson plan.
Technology Resources:
· Laptop Computer
· Internet Access
· School Space (class discussion board, drop box, and team file sharing)
· Nooks (The Librarians downloaded resources for students to explore and utilize as an alternative format. Several features included the “find” and “text size adjustment” that allowed for quick access to information.
· Library Database(s) for Research
· Web 2.0 Presentation Resources (student selected): Glogster, Prezi, Voki, etc.
· Variety of Presentation Software (group selected based on identified need); Movie Maker, Audacity, ActivInspire, Photoshop, etc.
Other Resources:
· Print resources for research (from library) - We included this traditional element to be used in conjunction with online research to support students understanding of information they find, how to evaluate it, and use it how what they find online compares/contrasts with information in a book (is it accurate, does it match what they found online, reliable source, up-to-date information, etc.)
Lesson Development:
Introduction:
1. Introduce the project to students by identifying the real-world problem at hand. “Welcome to class. Today is a big day for you guys to demonstrate your skills and share your knowledge about Atoms and Elements with our 6th graders. I was eating lunch the other day and in talking with the 6th grade Science teachers we discovered that the students are really having a hard time with this topic. As I sat and listened I immediately thought of you and how you guys could possibly help them out. As we all know, the 6th graders really look up to you and I know you could create something to help them that they would really enjoy. What do you guys think? How can we help them out?” (allow students to brainstorm/share ideas about globally communicating information with others beyond the classroom). Note: You could change this scenario to meet the needs of your school and/or identified area of need.
2. Use the ideas from students and start discussions about how students can work in teams to create an original product that can be streamlined together to help the 6th graders. What content will they need to include? Where can they find an outline for this information? What do teachers use (SOLs)? Support students understanding of using standards and frameworks to focus daily work and generate a list from these discussions (class webpage, blog, discussion board, etc.). In the future implementation of this project we may include a video chat component with the teacher/students at this stage.
3. After this discussion invite students to consider how they will monitor the work being done by their classmates/teams and ideas about setting deadlines for the project. Is this needed? Why or why not? Have students generate their own understanding for the need.
4. Once students determine what they want to create, how they will work together to create it, and the specifications of the project the teacher may want to show some samples of class Glogsters that highlight a variety of multimedia streamlined together to create one product that can be used to share information.
Part I: Form Collaborative Teams and Identify Class Roles
For this portion of the lesson the teacher should serve as “project manager” and oversee the creation of teams. In an effort to further remove the teacher from the process and really let this be an authentic task for students X number of students (allow your students to determine or at least have input on number and justify reasoning’s why – we used two) will be selected to be the project coordinators for the class project and will be responsible for overseeing the work of teams and collecting all of the resources to create the final class product (something the teacher would have traditionally done).
1. Start this part of the lesson by inviting students to once again consider the elements of the project and how they can design the structure for what they will do (all student driven – empower the students!). Suggested discussion starter - “Okay guys, last class we talked about the identified need of our 6th graders and how we could use your knowledge and expertise to help share information within our Byrd community and beyond. We explored the topics at hand and how we can use general interests, information, and state standards to guide and focus our work. Now it’s time to further define our roles (remember, I am just here to assist you guys are in charge of organizing this project).”
2. First we identified a need for project coordinators. How many do we think we need for a class of 32 students? (Allow students some time to discuss, generate ideas, and determine a reasonable number – scaffold the discussion if needed). Continue the discussion by inviting students to consider the qualifications of their class leaders and why these characteristics are important. Generate a list from the discussion (use a wiki, blog, Google Doc, etc. to increase efficiency and access to information).
Some suggested/possible recommendations:
i. Good communication skills
ii. Ability to work well with others
iii. Ability to help peer review/edit work
iv. Technical Support
v. Responsible
3. Once the class list is generated provide students time to determine how they want classmates to apply for the position (time for this varies depending upon need, but we recommend at least allowing for student input).
4. Provide students time to post their “application” (we choose to do one paragraph that describes why they think they are up for the job (“sales pitch”), but your students could come up with a different idea.
5. Once the application is completed allow students in the class to read through the applications and select the class project coordinators. Student names were not attached so they process was completed anonymously and not selected based on popularity (this could be modified according to your need). Note: A variety of technology could be used to quickly tabulate votes – online survey, student response software, etc.).
6. Once the coordinators are selected allow the students to work together to determine how they will create their teams and divide the content among their peers. The teacher may need to help keep their work focused and support the forming of teams. This will vary depending on the attitudes, abilities, and skill level of the specific group.
Part II: Team Topic Selection and Research
In this portion of the lesson students will work in their teams to generate essential questions (based on identified topics of need) in combination with essential questions from the SOLs for this content (teacher will remind students of the state set standards that help focus the work of teachers and identify content all students are responsible for knowing – again, real-world connection).
1. Students form/get in teams and start to work on their identified topic & 1 essential question (provided by project coordinator, based on SOL).
2. Each team will be responsible for creating 7 researchable (leading) questions that will breakdown the essential question into manageable pieces. This will allow the students to explore what they think are important points of the essential questions.
3. After teams create the questions they must meet with the project coordinators and project manager (teacher) and the teacher to add or redirect to make sure important content is included. Students should be held accountable for the information the find, the synthesis of that information, and citing the sources. All information should be used ethically and students should consider the elements of research and using what they find online to articulate new learning. Remind students that they are modeling for the 6th grade students and research is a major component of their work. Our students identified and used Easybib and Bibme to cite there sources, but there are additional options available.
4. Once the questions are approved teams will continue to work on their assigned topic and use the rubric to peer evaluate their research (content). The project coordinators should be a big part of the peer review and have a good understanding of the chosen tool that will be used to pull all of the projects together (in our case Glogster) as well as the expectations of the rest of the class by the end of this portion. One strategy we used to manage questions was to require teams to book appointments with the project manager and coordinators in advance and during “office hours”. If office hours were not available at a time of need teams were expected to continue on the project and problem solve until they could see one of the coordinators and/or manager (We wanted to allow for times when we weren’t available to force students to have to work together to problem solve without teacher/leader resources. We again wanted to empower and challenge the students to draw the best conclusion they could using the resources available to them).
5. Once students complete their portion, have self-evaluated their work, and received a peer evaluation they should use the feedback to edit their work as needed before moving on to the next phase – product creation.
Student Directions- See Below
Student Rubric- See Below
Project Coordinator Rubric part 1- See Below
Part III: Team Product Creation
At this point in the project teams will have gathered all of the information they need to create their portion of the class website. At this stage students will have already generated ideas for product choices and they will be combined with additional suggestions from their peers, teachers, and 6th grade students.
1. Teams will create their product.
a. Musical parody
b. Newscast/podcast
c. Digital popup book using Zooburst (you will need to create a class account)
d. Digital Museum using Museum Box (you will need to create a class account)
e. Flipchart Presentation (ActivInspire Software or similar software needed)
f. Additional options as suggested by students (to be approved by project manager and class coordinators to ensure the appropriateness for overall goal).
2. During this process, you will want focus on the students’ ideas coming to life rather than the use of specific software. Ask probing questions that will allow them to problem solve on how to make their creation a reality. Also, the project coordinators should be ready with a layout and be in constant contact with each group so they know what products to expect and decide how to involve the class in the final product.