Science – Chemistry Exemplar

Big Ideas / Skills & Standards / Student & Family Knowledge / Assessment (Formative & Summative) / Instructional Components / Resources & Materials
What are the enduring understandings/ essential questions to be addressed? / What important skills/standards will students learn, practice, or apply? / How will you draw on students’ ideas, interests and experiences to connect students to the big ideas? / What is meaningful evidence that students have understood the big ideas and reached proficiency on the skills/standards? / What instructional practices and strategies will support students to meet the standards and grasp the big ideas? / What resources will best convey the big ideas and concepts to support skill attainment?
  1. How are the basic ideas about Atomic Structure linked to the organization of the Periodic Table?
  1. How does the Periodic Table represent basic concepts about the elements?
  1. What makes the Periodic Table useful to studying Chemistry?
  1. How can we use the Periodic Table to predict elements' behaviors and the chemical compounds that they form and the chemical reactions they are involved in?
  1. How can we link the concepts of physical and chemical characteristics, and physical and chemical changes of elements and chemical compounds to our everyday lives?
/ CA STANDARDS:
1a. Students know the structures of atoms
1b. Students know how the Periodic Table is organized/ State the difference between physical and chemical properties
OBJECTIVES:
TSWAT:
  • understand and explain how the Periodic table is organized and how to use it for basic information about element's atomic structures (calculating numbers of protons, neutrons, electrons, draw atomic and electron models)
  • illustrate the electron configurations of the first twenty elements by drawing and making 3-D Bohr models
  • identify and contemplate the trends in the organization of the Periodic table into groups and periods and differentiate among the seven major groups of elements
  • differentiate among physical and chemical properties that are related to the major groups of elements and common everyday compounds
  • analyze and predict how physical and chemical properties of compounds are related to the physical and chemical changes
/ LESSON 1: The pre-test helps identify students' prior knowledge. The short discussion/brainstorming session puts all student's ideas together to identify misconceptions or missing links in basic concepts about Chemistry in general and specifically concepts about the Atomic Structure and the Periodic table
LESSON 2: The modeling activity helps student contemplate how million of substances can be formed from the 109 elements on the Periodic Table (specifically the first 18 elements). This helps students see that basic knowledge of chemistry is universal to every country and society and to everyday lives (the uses of lithium in cell phones, silicon chips in your computers, carbon in diamonds, food, and bodies, etc)
LESSON 3: Group activity where students learn to recognize patterns in the organization of things, including the use of the family concept to organize the Periodic Table ( students can easily see families represent people or things with the same characteristics)
LESSON 4: The demo helps students realize how basic chemistry concepts such as physical and chemical changes are tied to their everyday lives
( everyday examples are abundant)
LESSON 5: Investigative lab activity where students apply their prior knowledge of common substances in their everyday lives (oil, water, candles, baking soda, vinegar, sugar, etc) to do simple tests and categorize the changes into two major categories ( physical and chemical) / FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT:
LESSON 1: Collecting pre-tests helps me to see how much time and planning I need to put into reviewing known concepts, and to present new concepts. The discussion also lets me know how much clarification I need to do for student's misconceptions and steer students in the right directions ( for example, chemistry is not the study of attraction between two persons, but this can be used as an analogy for chemical bonds)
LESSON 2: Warm-up questions almost everyday assess pre-knowledge, review materials of the day before, and lead into today's lesson.
The activity lets me observe, pose and answer questions to pair of students at a time, and correct anything unclear. This also helps me determine how well students cooperate in activity, which sets standards for forming groups in further lab activity.
LESSON 3: Group posters are collected and short group presentation are closely watched to assess how well students work cooperatively in groups, and how often this kind of jigsaw activity should be used.
LESSON 4: Index card activity helps to identify whether students understand the concepts and are able to connect and give real examples from their lives. This helps me decide if I have spent enough time on these concepts before moving on to the practical lab activity
LESSON 5: The lab activity provides an opportunity to see: how well students follow lab procedures, safety rules, working cooperatively, and collecting productive and correct data for lab reports. Collecting lab reports will help assess students' understanding, the effectiveness of their lab work, and for me to see if any modification in lab procedures, materials, safety rules are needed for future lab work.
LESSON 6: SUMMATIVE EXAM
Helps to assess students cumulatively before moving on to new topics / LESSON 1: ATOMIC STRUCTURE AND PERIODIC TABLE BASICS
  1. Pre-test (5-10 short questions) to see how much students already know about basic concepts in Atomic Structure and basic Chemistry
  2. Short class discussion/ brainstorming session on students' ideas of what Chemistry is all about
  3. Short PowerPoint lecture about Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table basics
  4. Students do exercises on Periodic Table basics (calculate the numbers of protons, neutrons, electrons, draw electron shells configuration)
LESSON 2: BOHR MODEL (ELECTRON SHELL MODEL) ACTIVITY
  1. Warm-up question: one question to review electron shell model
  2. Students work in pairs to illustrate and create 3-D models of Bohr electron models - each pair makes models of two elements from the first 18 elements on the Periodic Table
LESSON 3: PERIODIC TABLE JIGSAW GROUP ACTIVITY
  1. Warm-up question
  2. Students are divided into 7-8 groups to make quick posters of information about their assigned Periodic Table family/group
  3. Groups present information to the class. Everyone takes notes using a graphic organizer ( table form)
LESSON 4: PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND PHYSICAL CHANGES VS. CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND CHEMICAL CHANGES
  1. Warm-up question on Periodic Table groups
  2. Student-participated Demo on Physical and Chemical changes: mixing oil, water, and corn syrup; light a match; burning or cutting a piece of paper; etc.
  3. Mini-lecture on the topics of the day
  4. Activity: students write down on index cards at least four examples from everyday lives about physical and chemical characteristics vs. physical and chemical changes. Teacher calls on a number of students to tell their example to the class. This leads to a short class discussion to clarify and reinforce the topic
  5. Homework: enrichment reading on practical examples of physical and chemical changes. Students then write a one-page story on examples in their lives
LESSON FIVE: LAB STATION ACTIVITY ABOUT PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CHANGES
  1. Warm-up question on Physical and Chemical changes.
  2. Students get in groups of four to rotate through eight lab stations to observe, do simple experiments (using everyday examples and materials such as mixing sugar in water, mixing baking soda with vinegar, lighting and observing a burning candle, etc) and identify physical and chemical changes
LESSON SIX: EXAM /
  • Overhead and transparencies
  • Laptop computer and projector
  • Prepared PowerPoint lectures/notes/pictures
  • Integrated Science textbooks
  • Lab handouts
  • Worksheets for in-class and at home exercises
  • Enrichment reading handouts and directions for writing homework
  • Materials for 3-D modeling activity: pipe cleaners ,different colored beads, strings, etc
  • Index cards
  • Lab stations activity set-up
  • Lab safety materials (goggles)
  • Study guide for summative exam
  • Various websites for references: for example:
www. sciencespot.com
www. chem4kids.com

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Following Wiggins' models, I have developed a list of essential questions for an Integrated Science Unit on the Periodic Table. The questions not only serve as an introduction to the topics, but also as thought provoking, analyzing ways to present the lessons.

Because the presentations of the Atomic Structure concepts in a beginning Chemistry Unit can appear at first a very abstract and hard-to-grasp concept, I plan to present each small concept (and particularly the vocabulary) with an everyday example, and a simple rationale for the need to learn and know the concepts. For example, students may have been exposed to the basic concepts of neutrons, protons, and electrons in middle schools, but few may have realized their importance in everyday lives, such as the uses of protons and neutrons in nuclear reactions in nuclear power plants. To achieve this ease into the abstract topics, the essential questions and student's prior knowledge are very important means for me to keep students engaged and hooked onto the topics.

The objectives are the specific knowledge and skills that I will train students for and expect students to achieve everyday. By following the objectives, the students are trained first for basic tasks and skills such as note taking, making data tables, making simple concept maps, and following lab procedures. Along with this, students will also be trained in higher-order thinking and application skills such as making complex concept maps, seeing patterns and classification schemes, illustrate and create 3-D models, doing and analyzing simple investigative experiments, and evaluating lab data for reasonable conclusions.

To achieve all these objectives, I have tried to design my instructional strategies to be varied, and mainly hands-on, minds-on, inquiry-based, and student-centered, which are the ultimate purposes of today's science education. Everyday, besides traditional methods of short lecture and note sessions, I have tried to add demos and activities where I will call on students to participate. The demo serves to whet students' appetite on the topics, and to get them hooked. Students will also do illustrations of the Atomic Models and make 3-D models from practical materials such as pipe cleaners, and beads. This will help students to see the topics as less abstract than just doing exercises by pen and paper. The Periodic Table is organized into seven major groups of elements. So instead of having students listening to long traditional lectures from the teacher, I will have students working in seven to eight groups to present the concepts to the class by doing simple posters. The lab activity is the hand-on part of science class where students apply analytical skills to see how the topics about Physical and Chemical changes are familiar topics that surround them everyday but they may not have realized so.

Every step of my instructional method is tied to formative assessment. From the warm-up questions everyday that serve not only class management purposes, but also as a mean for me to elicit students' prior knowledge, to review previous days' materials, or to introduce today's topic. I even sometimes use warm-up questions in pop-quiz to see how much attention students pay to class work and discussion. In general, everyday I plan to circulate the class constantly while students do class work to provide individualized instructions plus to assess students' involvement and interest in class work and the topics we are studying. Misconceptions are easy to clarify this way, and corrections could be made timely, even though it may be hard to reach 32 students in any class period. This mainly serves to help me modifying my lesson plans and planning for future steps. I could decide whether I should slow down and reteach some concepts or go ahead and move on to new topics. There is not a week go by that my weekly plan is not changed in some ways. The part for teacher's notes is always filled with ideas for modifying future plans.

I believe my objectives, instructional designs, materials, and assessment for this Chemistry Unit align with the purposes of utility, durability, and transferability, because I could always reuse these lesson plans every year (with some necessary and practical modifications). Even the lab materials are practical, easy to find, easy to use, and I usually put them away in boxes or ziploc bags marked with the topics and reuse them when needed. I have incorporated many learning styles, including traditional, visual, kinesthetic, hand-on, and cooperative group work. Students participate in my lessons will learn the basic concepts in the Chemistry Unit and the connections to their everyday lives as well. For this, I usually give writing assignment plus enrichment reading as homework, where students write about examples in their lives that they have witnessed about physical and chemical changes. My purpose is for students to see that science is not full of abstract concepts only " crazy scientists" could understand. Students should understand that science is around them all the time, in many different ways. All the assessment of students' everyday work in many different ways will help me plan how to present and lead into upcoming topics of chemical bonding and chemical reactions, which are the main ideas in Chemistry.

I think that I have tried to connect my essential questions, objectives, student knowledge, assessment, instructions, and materials in the most reasonable ways to get students through a meaningful week of learning basic Chemistry.

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