LESSON PLAN ANALYSIS

Anna Kingsbury
CHM 201
December 4, 2014
Lesson Plan Analysis: Formation of a Precipitate
The lesson plan that I chose to evaluate is called Formation of a Precipitate:
What Happens When Soap is Added to Hard Water? which I found on the ACS
Inquiry in Action website. In this lesson, students explore the chemical reaction that
takes place when they add soap to hard water, and how that compares to what
happens when soap is added to distilled water. Students also conclude that soap
scum is a completely different material than soap when they blow bubbles into each
and discover that they behave differently. This lesson is accompanied with three
worksheets for the students to do, one for during the activity What Happens
When Soap is Added to Hard Water?, and two follow up worksheets Whats
Going on Here? and Think About It.
I found at least three NGSS physical science standards to be present in this lesson
plan.
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The first standard was 2-PS1-1 which was Plan and conduct an investigation
to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable
properties. This lesson covered this standard because students did an
experiment to see soap scum form in hard water, and tested its observable
properties by seeing how much it bubbled when air was blown into it
compared with soap. Through this, they classified soap and the precipitate

soap scum as two different materials.

The second was 2-PS1-2 which said Analyze data obtained from testing
different materials to determine which materials have the properties that are

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best suited for an intended purpose. This was covered as students had to
draw and describe what they saw happen during the experiment, and then
reflected on this to determine that soap scum was only formed when soap
was mixed into hard water, and not when it was put into distilled water. The
students also determined through this that soap scum was a different
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material than soap itself and would therefore not work as soap.
The last standard that I found present in this lesson was 5-PS1-4 which was
Conduct an investigation to determine whether the mixing of two or more
substances results in new substances. This lesson plan covered this
standard very well because the entire activity was centered around the
mixing of soap molecules and the minerals in hard water to have a chemical
reaction to create soap scum.

I also found three different NGSS science and engineering practices in this lesson.
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The first practice that I found was Planning and Carrying Out Investigations,
which says Planning and carrying out investigations to answer questions or
test solutions to problems in K2 builds on prior experiences and progresses
to simple investigations, based on fair tests, which provide data to support
explanations or design solutions. Plan and conduct an investigation
collaboratively to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence to answer a
question. Students did this when they tested what would happen when soap
particles were placed in hard water as opposed to pure water and answered
this question by concluded that the soap would react with the minerals in
hard water to form a new substance called soap scum. Students conducted
this activity collaboratively in groups with their classmates during the activity
and work with each other and the entire class to come to this conclusion.

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The next practice is titled Analyzing and Interpreting Data and it says
Analyzing data in K2 builds on prior experiences and progresses to
collecting, recording, and sharing observations. Analyze data from tests of an
object or tool to determine if it works as intended. The lesson shows this in
the fact that students had to observe what they were seeing as the reaction
was taking place and had to record pictures of it on their activity sheet. They
also were prompted to share their observations with the class multiple times
throughout the experiment through a class discussion. Through this, the

students analyzed the product of soap scum as a precipitate.

The last practice that I found in this lesson was called Constructing
Explanations and Designing Solutions and stated Constructing explanations
and designing solutions in K2 builds on prior experiences and progresses to
the use of evidence and ideas in constructing evidence-based accounts of
natural phenomena and designing solutions. Make observations (firsthand or
from media) to construct an evidence-based account for natural
phenomena. This practice was evident in the lesson because the formation
of soap scum is a natural phenomenon and this activity allowed students to
explore the concept and why it might occur. The Think About It work sheet
also allowed students to discover other naturally occurring chemical reactions
such as photosynthesis and how it takes place.

Following are the ratings of each element of the Formation of a Precipitate

lesson when I evaluated it against the ISCI Lesson Plan Rubric, along with my
reasoning for the rating or score that each element of the lesson received and
how I would raise that elements score if it is not distinguished.

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Objectives: This would be given a rating of unacceptable because I

could not locate any objectives for this lesson. In order to raise the level to
distinguished I would start by adding objectives such as A student will
be able to identify that hard water is water with minerals dissolved in it;
A student will be able to determine that soap reacts with the minerals in
hard water to create soap scum; A student will be able to determine that
soap scum is a different substance than soap by describing the physical
differences observed between them; and A student will be able to
identify that adding soap to hard water to create soap scum is a chemical
change because they can observe that it is combining two substances to

make a new one.

Misconceptions/common student difficulties: This would be given a rating
of unacceptable as well because I could not find these in the lesson plan
either. In order to raise this section to a level of distinguished I would
look up possible misconceptions that students might have about chemical
reactions or the differences between soap and soap scum on reliable
websites (and then reference them), describe how the lesson could fix
these misconceptions by explaining these concepts to students in a
different or better way, and providing available sources if students

continue to have misconceptions or misunderstandings.

Materials and setup: I would give this section a score of distinguished
because this activity provides a complete list of all materials needed and
gives very detailed descriptions both on what should be done prior to the
activity, such as the teacher dividing out the Epsom salt and cutting up

the soap, and exactly what the students should do during each step.
Safety: The safety section would receive a rating of proficient because it
is addressed that both the teacher and students must wear properly fitting

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safety goggles, but does not address why, nor does it state that it is not a
very unsafe activity or that the materials need to be disposed of in any
certain way. In order to raise this to distinguished, I would add in why
goggles must be worn (perhaps so that soap does not get in students
eyes) and describe how materials could be disposed of - such as just
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pouring them down the drain when finished.

Requisite knowledge: This element of the lesson would have a rating of
distinguished because it is explained to students that hard water
consists of minerals dissolved in water, and that when soap is added to
hard water a precipitate of soap scum forms. This information is both
given on the students activity handout and is given as a step for the
teacher to explain to students before beginning the activity. This section of
information may be small, but it is all the information that the students
may need to know before doing the activity, as the rest they will learn

throughout the lesson.

Engage: I would give this a score of proficient because the activity and
follow up questions only accomplish most of the criteria. The activity itself
generates interest and curiosity in students by having them do the
experiments and to actually see the soap scum form and how it behaves
differently than soap. The follow up question sheets (titled Whats Going
On? and Think About It.) ask the students questions that are relevant to
the experiment and help to further their knowledge. The lesson also
assesses students current knowledge through the questions themselves,
as the teacher can then see if students are answering the questions
correctly and therefore understanding the content. This activity, however,

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is missing the piece about exposing misconceptions, and the lesson could
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be brought up to the distinguished score by adding this in.

Explore: This section would be given a score of distinguished because
the entire activity follows all of the requirements of being clear and
complete, student focused, hands on, and inquiry based. It also has the
students make observations on how soap molecules react in distilled
water and hard water, collect data based upon how these reactions look,
and discuss why this might happen both in the activity and in the follow
up worksheets. The Whats Going On? and Think About It. worksheets
also do a good job of providing questions to the students to help them to

think more in depth about the activity and guide this thinking.
Explain: The section titled explain would receive a distinguished rating.
The activity describes clearly how the teacher will facilitate discussion
among students from the results of the experiment both through the
activity worksheet and the follow up worksheets. It also completely
describes questions that the teacher may ask the students as they are
doing the experiment to facilitate the students analysis of the activity
based upon the evidence. Some of these example questions are Ask
students if they notice any differences in the way soap combines with
water compared with hard water. and Would you consider adding soap
to hard water a chemical change? Why or why not? The follow up
worksheets also provide detailed explanations of chemical reactions and
what they consist of using age appropriate language and diagrams that

students of that grade level could comprehend.

Elaborate: This element of the lesson would receive a rating of
distinguished because the activity is described very clearly and seems
to be very effective in furthering the learning of students when it comes to

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chemical reactions. The activity not only shows students that soap scum
forms when soap comes into contact with hard water, but goes a step
further and allows students to explore the fact that soap scum behaves
differently than soap itself. It also allows for students to apply these
learned concepts to new situations by introducing the idea of chemical
reaction in other situations around them such as the discussion of the
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idea of photosynthesis in the Think About It worksheet.

Evaluate: I would give the this section a score of distinguished because
there are some varied assessments throughout the activity, such as
teachers asking students to describe what they are observing or asking
them to retell what they learned during the follow up worksheets. In this
way, students may evaluate their own work by comparing their thoughts
to those of the other students they are working with. Many of these types
of assessments are clearly worked into the activity by telling the teacher
when they should ask certain questions to the students. There are also
clear answer keys provided to use to evaluate the students answers on
their worksheets, and there are examples of things that students might

say when they are prompted about the activity.

Scientific background: This would receive a rating of distinguished
because this lesson does indeed provide an accurate scientific explanation
of chemical reactions and why this causes soap molecules to form a
precipitate when it comes into contact with hard water. There are also
diagrams on the particulate level of a reaction taking place to further
understanding of students, most of this is found in the Whats Going On

Here? worksheet but explanations are also found in the other worksheets.
References: This element of this activity would receive a rating of
unacceptable because I could not locate a references section of the

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lesson, which made it impossible to locate the original sources. In order to

bring this section of the lesson up to the distinguished level, a
references section would need to be added that is complete and in APA
format so that teachers could reflect back on the original sources to gain
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more insight or information on the activity.

Style: The style section of this lesson is distinguished because while I

was reading it I found little to no grammatical, syntax, or spelling errors.

Alignment: This would receive a score of proficient because the
objectives section is completely missing. Other than that, the flow of the
lesson works well with this alignment because it engages the students by
having them do the experiment to see soap precipitate as soap scum in
hard water, they then explore other concepts around this idea such as
soap scum behaving differently than soap itself, and then chemical
reactions are explained to students in the follow up work sheets to show
students why this occurs. These work sheets also elaborate on the idea of
chemical reactions by explaining other areas that chemical reactions may
be exemplified in, they do to assess the learning of students by the
questions that the students must answer, and they address the scientific
explanations of the occurrences of the experiment.

To conclude, I felt that this lesson did an excellent job overall in educating
students about chemical reactions and relating their discoveries to phenomena that
they might encounter in everyday life. The activity seemed to be engaging and one
that students would be excited to do and would easily be able to accomplish the
expected results. I thought that the worksheets that went along with the lesson did
an excellent job of tying together and reinforcing all the concepts based around
chemical reactions that were introduced in the activity. I also thought that the fact

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that the experiment was split into two parts would be very beneficial to students, as
they can first see that soap scum forms only when mixed with the hard water, and
then they can see that it is indeed a different substance than soap when they
compare the bubbling of each. I thought that this lesson would have benefited a
great deal if it had included an objective section so that the teacher might have a
better understanding of what their students are supposed to learn by doing this
activity, and therefore get a better idea on how successful the activity was. I also
believe the fact that there is no section about common misconceptions from the
students greatly holds back the lesson, because if this section were to be built in
along with how teachers could address these misconceptions, the teacher could
better assist their students that may be having troubles with the main concepts of
the activity. Overall, however, I found this lesson to be very well thought out and put
together, and I believe that it would be a very effective and beneficial lesson to use
while educating students about chemical reactions.
References:
NGSS Lead States (2013). Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By
States. Retrieved from
http://www.nextgenscience.org/2ps1-matter-interactions
http://www.nextgenscience.org/5ps1-matter-interactions
American Chemical Society (2014). Inquiry in Action: Formation of a Precipitate.
Retrieved from
id=30

http://www.inquiryinaction.org/classroomactivities/activity.php?