Geringer 18
Topics in Space
Planets, Planetary Movement, and Exploration
Matt Geringer
EDUC 4070
Professor Koehnecke
Table of Contents
Unit Rationale 3
Description of Learners 4
Unit Objectives 5
Vocabulary 6
Pre-Reading Strategy 7
During Reading Strategy 8
Post Reading Strategy 9
Multiple Intelligences 10
Unit Organization 11
Assessment 14
Rubrics 15
Unit Analysis 17
Resources 18
Unit Rationale
Space is a topic often enjoyed by children because of its mystery and unimaginable size. This natural attraction to the mystery of space makes it a great unit to introduce at the beginning of the year when trying to get the students into the swing of learning.
Although science is often pushed to the side in elementary school in favor of teaching history, math, reading, and writing, it is important that students learn about the natural world around them and how it interacts and causes changes in their lives. In this unit we will look into the movement of planets and moons and how they affect the planets they orbit. We will also take a deep look into the exploration of space. Learning about the advances in space exploration may be of great importance in coming years when as we deplete the resources that our planet has to offer, we may be forced to begin to move away, and as far as we know, we have nowhere suitable to go.
In this lesson I will be using multiple sources for information, ranging from the normal classroom Textbook, Current News Articles, as well as Movies to teach about space. The goal is to be able to combine information from all of these sources into a final paper about space.
Description of Learners
The students in my classroom will be in the 7th grade, ranging in age from 11-13 years old. A wide range of reading levels will be part of the classroom, with the more advanced students reading at a 9th grade reading level and the lower end reading in the 4th grade level, which is common in schools today. Their background knowledge of topics in space and its exploration will vary greatly depending on their prior interest and education.
Science is a topic that relies heavily on the vocabulary for the topic you are discussing. For my diverse learners that have a problem figuring out the vocabulary, I will attempt to offer them special help, asking them if they had learned anything similar in the past and asking them where and how they got prior knowledge about the subject. If a student has no prior knowledge, I will spend extra one on one time with the student to begin from the very beginning, hoping to give them prior knowledge to attach the new information to.
Students in my classrooms who need extra help or a change in their activities will be provided one. The object is not to make the work so difficult that it frustrates a student. Some students will be able to do difficult assignments and still learn the information, while other students will struggle through easy ones. Modifications will be made in relation to a child’s IEP, as well as on my judgment.
Unit Objectives
Class Objectives:
· Students will be able to identify the names of all eight (nine) planets in our solar system
· Students will be able to describe movement of objects in space.
· Students will gain understanding on new advances in space exploration as well as the history.
· Students will learn to use multiple sources and summarize information into papers and paragraphs.
· Students will develop their prior knowledge of space through movies, articles, and textbooks.
Show-Me Standards Objectives incorporated into Unit:
GOAL 1: Students in Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to gather, analyze and apply information and ideas.
Students will demonstrate within and integrate across all content areas the ability to:
1.1 Develop questions and ideas to initiate and refine research
1.4 Use technological tools and other resources to locate, select, and organize information
1.8 Organize data, information, and ideas into useful forms (including charts, graphs, and outlines) for analysis and presentation.
GOAL 2: Students in Missouri public schools will acquire knowledge and skills to communicate effectively within and beyond the classroom.
2.4 Present perceptions and ideas regarding works of the arts, humanities, and sciences
GOAL 3: Students in Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to recognize and solve problems.
Students will demonstrate within and integrate across all content areas the ability to:
3.8 Assess costs, benefits, and other consequences of proposed solutions.
Vocabulary
Important Vocabulary
- Axis
- Orbit
- Tide
- Martian*
- Galaxy
- Probe
- Mir
- Shuttle
Activity 1: Word Maps
Students will write each vocabulary word in the center of a diagram given to the student. Using background knowledge and the reading, they will fill in the boxes labeled What is it? What is it like? Examples? What isn’t it like? This activity gives students synonyms, antonyms, and a definition of the word.
See Attached Example
Activity 2: Possible Sentences
Students will be given a list of 4 words, Axis, Orbit, Tide and Galaxy. They will be asked to write a short paragraph which contains these words in the context in which they believe the words will have their correct meaning. This is to be used as a pre-reading activity to get the students thinking about the words. Students will be asked to read their paragraphs, and as a class we will decide if the context was correct, and if it was not, we will assign the words their correct meaning.
Activity 3: Knowledge Rating Scale
Students will be given a chart with the words listed on the left hand side. Next to each word will be a space to check if they know the word, one if they can define it, and one if they have no idea. This is a pre-reading activity that will allow me to find out how many of the children have background knowledge over the vocabulary we are presenting.
Pre-Reading Strategy
Possible Sentences:
Place 4 words on the board
Axis Orbit Tide Galaxy
Students will now be asked to write a short paragraph containing those words in the context the students think is correct.
Possible Sentences:
The earth spins on its axis.
The sun is the center of our galaxy.
The tide is when the waves come in on the beach.
Sentence Review:
Students will compare their sentences with their partners to decide if they got a workable definition to the terms. Students will now be allowed to use their books to get the correct definition if neither partner agrees that they have the correct one. After they decide that they have a good definition, the partners will present their definitions together.
Outcome: Students will work together to come up with correct definitions to words starting with their own background knowledge and then adding new knowledge from the book.
During Reading
Science Lab
Students will do the experiment outlined on pages C98 and C99 in their textbook after reading about the big bang theory. In this lab they will be doing a hand on activity to demonstrate how the earth is expanding using a balloon.
Steps:
-Make a chart to write down information about the dots written on the balloon.
-Draw a red dot on the balloon then 3 dots in other places on the balloon.
-Number these dots 1, 2, and 3. Measure the distances from the red dot to the other dots.
-Blow the balloon half way up and clamp it with your fingers. Have your partner measure how far away the dots on the balloon are from the red dot.
-Blow the balloon fully up and repeat the same steps.
-Record all of the data on the table to use for analyzing.
Have students interpret the data:
-If the earth is represented by the red dot, and the balloon is the boundaries of the universe, what are the numbered dots?
-Which dot moved farthest away?
The objective is for students to see that the universe is constantly expanding and that other galaxies are moving away from our own.
Post Reading
Synthesis Lesson Plan (See Attached)
Multiple Intelligences
Verbal/Linguistic: These students will enjoy the class discussions on the vocabulary and sharing their findings and new definitions with the class.
Logical/Mathematical: These students will do well with measuring during the lab. Their logical thinking will make it easier to analyze the data that they collect in the lab experiment.
Visual/Spatial: These learners will be very interested in the video as well as the visual representation we do in the lab using the balloon to show expansion. It is a better way than simply describing the fact that the universe is expanding.
Bodily/Kinesthetic:
Musical/Rhythmic:
Interpersonal Learners: Students will enjoy the discussions we do in class about the vocabulary and timeline projects. They may also enjoy presenting the RAFT activity.
Intrapersonal Learners: Students will enjoy the final writing assignment as well as the RAFT assignment because they will be allowed to share their inner feelings personally through their writing.
Naturalist: Space exploration may be interesting to a person who enjoys the world around them. The whole lesson would be very interesting because the world around them is interesting to them.
Unit Organization
Unit Calendar: 7-day Unit
Day 1: Introduction to Space
Students will be introduced to the unit on space by doing a ‘KWL’ activity on what they know about how planets move, the names of the planets, their order, and about explorations man has done in space. After the students have done the ‘known’ part of their activity, students will be introduced to their vocabulary, and asked to identify which words are familiar and which ones are familiar and they know the definition to.
Students will then be assigned an exit slip with the question, “What causes the change from day to night as well as the changing of the seasons?” This question will be addressed in the lesson on the following day.
Day 2: Planetary Motion
We will begin by reviewing the exit slips from the previous class period. We will talk about our first 3 vocabulary words Axis, Orbit, and Tide. Students will then be given a few questions to think about while reading the text in class; “What causes the days and nights here on earth?” “A trip around the sun causes all four seasons on earth, what is this trip called?” “When we go to the ocean, we experience ‘tides’, what are these and what is the cause of this rise and fall of the oceans?” After the students complete the reading, we will do the word map vocabulary activity for that days vocabulary terms.
Day 3: Universal Expansion: Lab Day
In today’s lesson we will learn about the Big Bang Theory as well as how scientists have come up with the fact that the galaxy is expanding. After I read a short passage about the expanding universe out loud from our textbooks, we will have a class discussion on read shift, and because of the way light behaves for objects moving away and towards something that all objects moving away have their light output shifted towards red.
For the lab, we will be doing the lab suggested in the textbook Science by Scott Foresman on pages c98 and c99. This lab uses a balloon and 5 dots to measure expansion away from the home dot. Although this does not demonstrate the red shift, it is a way to show visually what expansion in our galaxy actually looks like, albeit on an extremely small scale.
Students will read the section on Space Exploration in the textbook as homework assignment for the next day. They will answer a sheet of questions as they go along in their reading.
Day 4: Beginning Exploration
Students will have read the chapter on Exploration for homework. When they come into class I will go to each student and see how they did on answering the list of questions. These questions will contain the vocabulary words for the day, Probe and Mir, so they will have already had them defined in their questioning.
We will then look into the timeline on page and recreate our own time line on the board in which we will also have a group discussion about what else was happening in the world at the time and what implications the advances and discoveries had. Along with the timeline we draw on the board, students will also be given their own time line to fill in.
Day 5: Modern Day Exploration
Today’s lesson would be about new exploration of our solar system. Using articles from Yahoo! Science and Time for Kids, the students would be able to pick one of three articles, one about the space station, one about Mars, and one about the discovery of a planet quite like our own. Before the students read, they will be asked to come up with 3 to 5 questions that come to mind when reading the title and the first paragraph of the articles. They will use a 2 column chart to write their questions on the left hand side, and after and during reading they will use the right hand side to answer these questions. I will walk around the class and be sure that the students are asking more than yes/no and questions with answers found directly in the text. If I find the students are not making up evaluative questions, I may designate 1 of my own questions for each of the articles.