Inquiry Lesson Plan Template (with Four Ways of Thinking connection)

Teacher:
Content & Title:
Grade Level:
Leah Lindberry
Sustainability
7th
Importance of Solar
Energy
Standards:
MS-ESS3- Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a
3.
human impact on the environment.
Objectives (Explicit & Measurable):
SWBAT apply principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the
environment by creating a persuasive letter stating the importance of solar energy.
Evidence of Mastery (Measurable Assessment: formative and summative):
Formative: Discussion students will show their mastery by discussing the basics of solar energy in
a small group
Summative: Letter students will write a letter to a local company about the importance of using
solar energy. It will incorporate research and prior knowledge they have.
Sub-objectives, SWBAT (steps that lead to completion of objective; sequence from simple to more
complex):
SWBAT define solar energy
SWBAT discuss the benefits and drawbacks of solar energy
SWBAT list the specific costs of switching to solar energy
Lesson Summary and Justification: (summary gives detailed information about what students are
doing. Justification why is this lesson being taught)
The students will research and write a persuasive letter to a corporation about the benefits of solar energy and
how the benefits outweigh the potential costs.
The reason for this lesson is because the students will have to face a world with an energy crisis, and they
need to be prepared to counter it with different energy solutions, such as solar energy.
Background Knowledge: (What do students need to know prior to completing this lesson)
Students will need to know what renewable energy is and how solar energy is a renewable energy.
Students will need to know what fossil fuels are and how they are not a sustainable energy source.
Students will need to know how to write a letter.
Misconception: (what possible misleading thoughts might students have?)
There are no drawbacks to using solar energy.
Places that receive constant direct sunlight are the only places that can benefit from solar energy.
Process Skills: (what skills are you introducing or reinforcing)
Communication Students will be discussing their ideas in groups and communicating their ideas through a
letter
Interpreting Students will interpret data on the cost of solar panels and the amount of energy being
produced.
Four Ways of Thinking connection: (Provide a complete explanation of how your lesson plan connects
to futures, system, strategic, or values thinking. Define the way of thinking you selected and used in
this lesson plan. Remember, this should be included meaningfully in the lesson plan.)
Strategic Thinking It involves taking everything into consideration when trying to achieve a goal. The
students will be using strategic thinking by taking the current cost and benefits of switching to solar energy
in account when they are writing their letter.

Safety: (what safety rules and items need to be addressed?)

Use academic language when writing their letter
Cite all sources that they are using
Inquiry Questions: (testable in the here and now.)
1. (to explore) How much would a school save by switching to solar energy?
2. (to elaborate) How would you convince a business owner to switch to solar energy?
Key vocabulary: (list and define)
Materials: (list item and possible quantity)
1. Persuasive Letter: a letter that convinces someone of 1. One computer per student
a claim that is supported by evidence.
2. Solar Energy: Energy that is gathered by solar
panels, which absorbs the suns energy
Engage - In this section you should activate prior knowledge, hook student attention, pose a question
(IQ#1) based on your lesson objective that students will seek to answer in Explore.
Teacher Will: (hook)
Students Will:
I will start the lesson with a pair and share and
have the students discuss one or two things that
they remember from the days before. I will give
them thirty seconds.
I will play a persuasive video on why people
should switch to solar energy.
I will ask the students what elements they noticed
in the video.
I will ask them if they thought the video was
effective in encouraging schools to switch over
to solar energy.

Students will discuss anything that they

learned from the prior days during the unit.
They will do this in small groups.

Students will watch the video.

Students will raise their hand to discuss

what elements they noticed in the video.
Students will give their opinion on if they
thought the video was effective and why
they thought so.

I will write on the board that schools typically use

around 10,000 KW per year.
I will pose the following question to the class to
launch the explore: How much would a school
save by switching to solar energy? and move
the students into groups of four
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
I will use wait time.
Explore - In this section students should take the lead and actively use materials to discover information
that will help them answer the question posed in Engage. Teachers may choose to give steps to follow,
especially for younger students, but the goal is for students to discover some or all of the sub-objectives of
the lesson.
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #1)
Students Will: (list all steps)
I will walk around the classroom and answer
Students will work in groups of 4
any clarification questions.
Students will start by researching how
much schools pay for energy based on how
much they use per year.
Students will then conduct their own
research online and use their notes from
previous days to estimate how many solar
panels are needed to produce the same
amount of energy that the school normally
uses.
Students will estimate how much it would

cost for the school to install the solar

panels.
Students will estimate how much the
schools energy bill will be once the solar
panels are installed.
Students will compare the yearly cost
before and after solar panels are added.
Students will calculate how many years the
school must have the solar panels in order
for them to be paid off.
Students will do final calculations on how
much the school is saving per year and
what year they start making a significant
profit.
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
Cooperative learning groups
Explain In this section students share what they discovered, teacher connects student discoveries to
correct content terms/explanations, students articulate/demonstrate a clear and correct understanding of the
lesson sub-objectives by answering the question from Engage before moving on.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:
I will call the class together to have a whole
Students will come together as a whole
class discussion.
class.
I will ask the students to discuss how much is
Students will share their results that they
being saved per year if the school were to
calculated and discuss how they got those
switch to solar energy.
results.
Using your data, how might you try to
Students will discuss how they can use
convince our school to switch to solar energy?
their data to try to convince their school to
I will have them discuss this is small groups.
switch to solar energy.
I will have each group share out what they
Students will share out what they discussed
discussed.
in small groups.
If the students have not already discussed the
environmental benefits, I will mention that
switching to solar energy is also beneficial to
the environment.
Students will share out some benefits if the
Now that we have discussed how we might
whole city switched to solar energy.
persuade our school to switch to solar, what
would be the benefits if our whole city switched
to solar energy?
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
I will use wait time
Elaborate In this section students take the basic learning gained from Explore and clarified in Explain
and apply it to a new circumstance or explore a particular aspect of this learning at a deeper level. Students
should be using higher order thinking in this stage. A common practice in this section is to ask a What If?
question. IQ #2
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #2)
Students Will:
I will ask the students, how would you
Students will pick a local business in the
convince a business owner to switch to solar
area and research approximately how much
energy? I will ask them to pick a local business
energy they use and how much they spend
and write a persuasive letter trying to convince
on energy.
them to switch to solar.
Students can use the same results from the
I will ask them to work in the same small
Explore to figure out how many solar
groups to answer this question.
panels are needed to make the same

I will mention that for an effective persuasive

letter they will need to mention the drawbacks.
However, they will need to show that the
benefits significantly outweigh the drawbacks.

amount of energy and how much the total

installation will cost.
Students will need to estimate the savings
per year and how many years for the cost
and savings to even out.
Students will take all of this information to
write a letter to a local business owner.
The letter will include the specific costs of
the installation and switch and the benefits
both financial and environmental.
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
Cooperative Learning Groups
Evaluate In this section every student demonstrates mastery of the lesson objective (though perhaps not
mastery of the elaborate content). Because this also serves as a closing, students should also have a chance
to summarize the big concepts they learned outside of the assessment.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:
I will ask that each group reads their letter in
One student per group will read the letter
class and explains why their letter is
aloud to the class.
effective.
The whole groups will discuss why their
letter was effective.
I will ask the class to discuss what are the
Students will discuss the benefits to using any
benefits to using any renewable energy.
renewable energy.

I will ask students to discuss in small groups

what other ways can they encourage
businesses and families to have a smaller
environmental impact.

Students will discuss in small groups what

other ways can they encourage businesses
and families to have a smaller environmental
impact.

Closure: (revisit objective, IQs and make real world connections)

I will ask the students to summarize why learning about renewable energy is important. I will also ask them
what actions can they take raise awareness of fossil fuel use and the benefits of renewable energy.
**Best Practices List the Best Teaching Practices you will use to enhance the learning outcomes. In
each section where prompted, list the best practice, how the practices will be used and the purpose.