Understanding Our Place in Space A Science Unit for 5th Grade

Lindsay Wiseman Spring 2014

Unit Objective: The students will generate a fictional planet by synthesizing their understanding of the cause of seasonal changes, the phases of the Moon, the effects of gravity, our solar system, and planets.

Skills Day 1 Locating information Visualizing Summarizing Day 2 Locating information Matching images to labels Identifying patterns Day 3 Locating Information Comparing Day 4 Self-management Conversions Multiplying decimals Day 5 Locating information Finding main ideas Presenting facts Comparing Day 6 Locating information Persuasive Speech Practical application Day 7 Self-management Day 8 Presenting information Day 9 Recalling Day 10 Following written directions

Concepts Repeating Cycles and Patterns Seasons Moon Phases Gravitational Force Orbiting Bodies in the Solar System Planets Day 1

Facts Day 1

Vocabulary

Earth is tilted on an axis. The directness of the suns heat causes seasonal changes. A places position on the Earth determines its seasons. Day 2 The Moon reflects the Suns light. The revolution of the Moon changes how much is visible from Earth. Day 3 Anything with mass has gravity. Weight changes depending on gravity. Mass proportionally determines an objects pull. The moon has 1/6 of Earths gravitational pull. Day 5 Gravity holds bodies in orbit. Asteroids, comets, and meteors are distinctly different. Day 6 The planets have differing characteristics.

season axis revolution rotation orbit solstice equinox Day 2 phase satellite gibbous crescent period eclipse Day 3 gravity mass weight Day 5 asteroid comet meteor Day 6 inner planet outer planet

Graphic Organizer With Conceptual Bridges

The students will explain the cause of differing seasons as the tilt of the Earth on its axis.

Revolving Moon The students will analyze patterns in the phases of the Moon.

Revolving Earth

The students will compare the effects of gravitational force on Earth, on the Moon, and on planets in Revolution's our solar Cause system.

Revolving Bodies The students will compare two of the following three bodies: asteroids, comets, and meteors.

Revolution's Effects
The students will hypothesize about the surface conditions on another planet. Revolving Planets The students will generate a fictional planet by synthesizing their understanding of the cause of seasonal changes, the phases of the Moon, the effects of gravity, our solar system, and planets.

ALEX Science Grade 5 6.) Compare effects of gravitational force on Earth, on the moon, and within space.

Alabama Science Assessment: COS Standards, Grade 5 Compare effects of gravitational force on Earth, on the Moon, and within space.

Instruction
Prior to this unit, fifth grade students have only been exposed to components of the solar system. Their prior knowledge about space from school will be compartmentalized and lack connections. Thus, a major goal of this unit is to expand understanding while connecting Earth to its neighbors in the solar system to the galaxy beyond. In fifth grade, responsibility for learning is in transition from the teacher to the students. Thus, tools like study guides and vocabulary charts will provide scaffolded opportunities for students to record information and review it before being assessed. The teacher created the study guides such that each one follows in direct sequence to the previous lesson. They include questions requiring not only mere recall of content, but also openended analysis and connections between new and old information to encourage memory through accommodation of existing schemata. The vocabulary table was designed to be consistent with material from the study guides so that the two documents can be used to summarize the lengthy textbook chapters being taught. In addition to study guides and tables to be turned in after all lessons are taught, the teacher will monitor and maintain student engagement through constant questioning. Questions of varying levels are included in almost every section of every lesson to be used for ongoing formative assessment and to keep students involved and actively thinking. Questions are intended to assist students in making connections between content and concepts so that information can continue to be relevant when new information is introduced. During each lesson, students will have opportunities to dig deeper and more personally into content through their practice. From modeling the movement of solar bodies to comparing real measurements to their counterparts in space, students will have opportunities to visualize outer space and connect it to what they experience on Earths surface. The unit will move from students concrete experiences to more abstract concepts as the scale of content expands from Earth to outer bodies. A pre-assessment intended to remind students of their prior knowledge and an introduction to the concept of rotation and cycles will introduce the unit. It will end with a culminating activity in which students must apply their learning to create a new planet with believable characteristics. Review will be achieved through a trivia game peaking engagement through competition. The summative assessment will immediately follow the review in order to fully take advantage of the opportunity.

Assessment
Assessments are included throughout the unit in both formal and informal ways. The simplest embedded assessments take place through questioning from the teacher at differing levels. The most intensive but regular are exit slips described in the assessment portion of each lesson and designed to assess daily objectives. For the unit to truly be as effective as possible, the teacher should be informally assessing at all times by observing student work, asking direct questions, and evaluating engagement. Each lesson objective is directly linked to specific questions on the summative assessment to be administered at the end of the two weeks. However, the objectives will also be formatively assessed through exit slips each day modeled after popular social media websites. Other formative assessments that occur during the practice sections of lessonsdemonstrations and brochures, for example- are more for the teachers observation than for official checkpoints. They can be used to monitor levels of understanding rather than objectively whether understanding is there. Daily exit slips allow students to be creative and express their learning according to multiple intelligences. Students with artistic strength can draw responses while more linguistic students can write in paragraph form. By expressing learning in ways they feel comfortable, the students will be more likely to connect with the content in meaningful and memorable ways. The repetition of the same assessment format will allow students to focus on what information they want to express rather than what assignment they are doing. With new documents come new directions and new confusions for students. By utilizing the same paper with personalized and differing prompts, the students will become comfortable and fluent with the assessment tool. Included in this section are blank exit slips or Status Update Sheets and completed keys with brief summaries that should be derived from student responses. The summative assessment includes questions ranging from simple vocabulary to higher level critical thinking. It was written such that students should do more than simply recall information. Rather, they must make connections with it and draw conclusions from it. They will be prepared for this analytical assessment with higher level questioning throughout the lessons and culminating activity.

Lesson Objective The students will explain the cause of differing seasons as the tilt of the Earth on its axis. The students will analyze patterns in the phases of the Moon.

Formative Assessment Group demonstrations and explanations Status Update Exit Slip Lessons main idea Questions Status Update Exit Slip Two patterns in the cycle of moon phases Gravity Experiment Packets Status Update Exit Slip Connection between mass, gravity, and weight Status Update Exit Slip Venn diagram comparing asteroids, comets, or meteors Travel brochures about planets Status Update Exit Slip Three differences between planet and Earth Questioning throughout unit Completed study guides and vocabulary tables

Summative Assessment Chapter 10: MC Question 1 Inquiry Question 1 Critical Thinking Ques. 1 Chapter 10: MC Question 2 Inquiry Question 2

The students will compare the effects of gravitational force on Earth, on the Moon, and on planets in our solar system.

Chapter 10: MC Questions 3, 4 Critical Thinking Question 2

The students will compare two of the following three bodies: asteroids, comets, and meteors. The students will hypothesize about the surface conditions on another planet.

Chapter 11: Vocab Questions 3, 5, 6 Compare/Contrast

Chapter 11: Vocab Questions 2, 4 Compare/Contrast

The students will generate a fictional planet by synthesizing their understanding of the cause of seasonal changes, the phases of the Moon, the effects of gravity, our solar system, and planets.

Planet Project Culminating Activity to be graded using a rubric based on questionnaire answers and presentations

Students
The goal of differentiation in this unit is not to increase the work of high achievers and dumb down that of strugglers. Rather, embedded differentiation is to vary the levels of thinking about the same content. Throughout each lesson plan are plenty of questions intended to get students thinking critically at high levels about the information being taught. Because many questions will be answered mentally, struggling students will probably not think about them in the same ways. But that differentiation of thought is why the questions are available for exploration. Different types of learners are expected and appreciated in an effective classroom. In each lesson in this unit, there are opportunities for visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners to engage with the content in ways they are comfortable and strong. From graphic organizers to sharing with others to moving around the room, varied activities will appeal to each type of learner. Additionally, students will have opportunities to work independently and in groups so they can practice individual responsibility and group collaboration. In most examples of partner work, students will be allowed to choose partners. These are short-term pairings and will encourage heterogeneous grouping. During the practice section of the third lesson, Great Gravity, students spend the majority of an hour completing an experiment with assigned partners. These pairings will be homogenous based on achievement level so each student will be able to contribute sufficiently. All given examples and explanations were written carefully to avoid cultural bias. The content itself contains no inherent bias as it literally affects all of Earth. Content will be taught from an ever-widening perspective, which will model the widening perspective students should adopt in all of their considerations of the world around them. The unit is intended to relate large, abstract concepts to the daily experiences relevant to students. Hopefully, these relations will provide students with easy cues for understanding. Both formative and summative assessments were written to give differing learners opportunities to clearly communicate learning. The daily exit slips can be answered using words, sentences, or drawings. The summative assessment includes varying types of questions to increase the likelihood that each student can effectively express his or her learning.

Technology
Todays students are being raised by technology. If it is not included in education, the classroom becomes out of date. Teachers should make an effort to model ethical and productive use of technology and teach students explicitly how to do the same. Technology is mostly modeled in this unit in the form of videos and animations played on a Promethean Board. In this way, the teacher can show students how technology increases the perspectives they can have on a concept. The teacher should have these prepared before teaching in order to be most effective and time-efficient. During the fourth lesson, students have the opportunity to put their own hands on technology during a jigsaw. Students will research using specified websites in small groups. The teacher will establish norms for group collaboration beforehand and students will be monitored closely to ensure they remain on appropriate websites for the activity. The technology aspect of this unit will appeal to a wide range of students. The demographic of students for whom the unit was written is currently engaged in the world of video games. The graphic intensity of online animations, especially when projected onto a Promethean Board, will excite students about the content at hand and assist in their understanding of abstract concepts. It will help with visualization and complete the accommodation of existing schemata about space.

Cross Curricular Standards

Connecting content across curricula builds student learning by allowing learners to explore content from multiple perspectives. When students learn this way with specific content, it will become habitual to consider every angle of information studied independently. Additionally, it prevents students from compartmentalizing each subject. It models the idea that they are all connected and dependent upon one another. Optional cross-curricular activities in this unit are focused on mastering other subjects; standards using information relevant to science. This method is intended to reinforce science content while teaching other skills. Most of the activities could take place during the times of day devoted to either science or the other subject being addressed. The music and art activities, however, are more specific to their artistic standards. They would be most effective during students dedicated music and art time respectively. The math, reading, and writing activities are based on Common Core Standards. The math activity actually takes place in a smaller sense during this units lesson on gravity during the practice section. A version of the writing activity also takes place during the lesson about planets. The vocabulary table provided in this unit could be used as a format for the reading activity. This activity is especially relevant to the expository texts students read and study in fifth grade. The social studies activity is based on the Alabama Course of Study as found on the Alabama Learning Exchange website listing. It would be best suited for social studies time as it is more focused on early American history than the solar system though it touches both.

Culminating Activity
The students will meet the unit objective by completing the culminating activity. They will use the knowledge they gained throughout the lessons to create a new, fictional planet, adhering to a questionnaire of information to be addressed about their invented planets. The students will have one day to work independently on their original planets, beginning by determining factual information and ending by creating a physical design. The following day, each student will present his or her planet to the class by reading his or her completed questionnaire. When all presentations are complete, the planets will be displayed in the hallway outside the classroom around a teacher-created sun to represent a class solar system. Planets, questionnaires, and presentations will all be taken into consideration in grading according to a rubric.

Unit Objective: The students will generate a fictional planet by synthesizing their understanding of the cause of seasonal changes, the phases of the Moon, the effects of gravity, our solar system, and planets.

Rationale for Unit

In communicating with my cooperating teacher about the best unit for me to teach, she recommended science because there was more freedom about both content and materials. When the subject had been determined, I studied the course of study and students textbooks to decide the most appropriate material for me to teach. I chose to expand upon the standard about gravity and write about space, because it is a topic I find interesting and I knew I could transmit my enthusiasm to the students. Often, a teachers attitude toward a subject is apparent in his or her teaching and preparation and students adopt the attitude as their own. After I chose a standard, I determined the most inclusive and relevant concept by seeking commonalities between the various topics I wanted to cover. I noticed patterns of cyclical rotation among each section I planned to teach and decided to emphasize them as my framing concept. Many scientific topics include predictable cycles, so I believe the concept will assist students in making connections between content long-term. Before planning my lessons, I perused previous standards to get an idea of what students would already know about the topic. I wanted to make certain I was aware of prior knowledge so I could write a unit cohesive to students experiences in scientific education. In general, the content goes from being more concrete to abstract throughout the unit. It begins with seasons, a topic students are very familiar with, and the movement of the Earth and then scales outward to Earths moon and the rest of the solar system. As students become more comfortable with the materials and routine I will teach according to, they will be less initially familiar with the content. In this way, they will be stretched procedurally and then academically. Explicit teaching of content will be framed by more independent discovery of concepts. Study guides are scaffolded to assist students in making connections independently so they will continue to do so when the scaffolds are removed. It is always a goal in my teaching that students are pushed toward higher levels of thinking. Similarly to the contents movement from concrete to abstract, the way students are to think about the content should become less straightforward and more analytical as the unit progresses. Though the final assessment includes questions from each level of Blooms Taxonomy, students should be automatically connecting content to previous topics in the unit and even prior knowledge by the end of the two weeks. Students will be formatively assessed each day based on small tasks, questioning, and observation to monitor their analytical progress, and I will adjust my instruction as needed such that students are neither lost nor bored. A certain level of challenge is required to keep students engaged, however, they should not be pushed so hard that they are set up to fail.

Resources and Materials

While some resources, such as study guides and the vocabulary table, are consistent throughout every lesson, this unit also requires some resources customized to individual lessons. The majority of the resources are scaffolded handouts based on chapters from the Houghton Mifflin Earth Science Textbook adopted by the school. The purpose of these resources is to teach students how to discriminate which information is important in an extensive expository text. All content-based resources are specifically intended to support the objectives being taught. Other tools and materials, like a whiteboard and markers or paper and pencils, are more objectively supportive of interactive teaching in general rather than of specific content. All materials should be gathered and prepared beforehand for the teaching to be as effective as possible. Technology will be required for this unit most frequently in the form of a Promethean Board to bring content to life. YouTube videos and online animations will also bring a visual element to the abstract movements being discussed. The additional resources included after the Daily Materials Chart, though not required for the lessons as is, can be employed for differentiation or extension. Early finishers could complete extra activities or students who need more instruction could use some additional resources to reinforce their learning.

Daily Materials Chart

Lesson 1 Whiteboard and Marker Notebook Paper Houghton Mifflin Earth Science Textbook Vocabulary Table Fill-in Notes Timer Video Animation o http://w ww.yout ube.co m/watc h?v=vDg UmTq4a 2Q Flashlight Globe Season and Hemisphere Prompts Status Update Sheets Lesson 2 Houghton Mifflin Earth Science Textbook Fill-in Notes Vocabulary Table Promethean Board Moon Phases Calendar o http://ww w.observe rs.org/mo on/phases /calendar Moon Phase Memory Cards Status Update Sheets Lesson 3 Houghton Mifflin Earth Science Textbook Anchor Chart for KWL Vocabulary Table Fill-in Notes White Board and Marker Promethean Board Gravity Introduction Video o http://ww w.youtub e.com/wa tch?v=CU exAhUcx_ 8 Gravity Experiment Packet Status Update Sheet Lesson 4 Houghton Mifflin Earth Science Textbook Whiteboard and Markers Vocabulary Table Fill-in Notes Triple Venn Diagram Template Asteroid Website o http://www.kid sastronomy.co m/asteroid.htm Meteor Website o http://sciencef orkids.kidipede. com/physics/s pace/meteor.h tm Comet Website o http://www.pla netsforkids.org/ page.php?seo =what_is_a_co met Status Update Sheets Promethean Board Two Computers Solar System GIF http://media-cacheec0.pinimg.com/origi nals/07/43/d5/0743d5 71f175ebc1977cbdfc7 c5eeced.jpg Lesson 5 Houghton Mifflin Earth Science Textbook Whiteboard and Markers Vocabulary Table Fill-in Notes Colored Pencils Brochure Paper Status Update Sheets

References
Content:
Badders, William, Carnine Ph.D., Douglas, Feliciani, James, Jeanpierre, Ph.D., Bobby, Sumners, Ph.D., Carolyn, Valentino, Catherine. Earth Science (Unit D) 2007. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Technological Tools:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDgUmTq4a2Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUexAhUcx_8 http://www.observers.org/moon/phases/calendar http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/07/43/ http://www.kidsastronomy.com/asteroid.htm http://scienceforkids.kidipede.com/physics/space/meteor.htm http://www.planetsforkids.org/page.php?seo=what_is_a_comet http://media-cacheec0.pinimg.com/originals/07/43/d5/0743d571f175ebc1977cbdfc7c5ee ced.j