Micro 1:

Cookie Cabal - Week 1, Monday

Goals
Students will understand how controlling variables, initial questions, and biases can
impact the scientific process
Objectives
Students will design and carry out an experiment to determine which is the best out of
three cookies
Students will be presented with an overview of the unit, including the goals, challenge
board, and overarching project
Group size
Students will initially be working independently (group size of one [1])
Will have short discussions in groups of three (3)
May pair up or continue working independently after discussion
Materials
Three (3) different batches of cookies (find out before making if students have any
allergies)
Cookies per batch: minimum of 1/4th the number of students
Lesson Outline
Cookie Cabal application form (5 minutes)
Application to join the Cookie Cabal organization
Questions
What qualities do you think make for the best chocolate chip cookie?
How many different answers do you think the class will have, and how
many do you think may be true? Why?
Unit Overview (10 minutes)
Introduce challenge (5 minutes)
Brief lecture+question taking
Independent designing (10 minutes)
On handout, students outline experiment to determine the best cookie
Group discussion (10 minutes)
In groups of 3, they share their initial design and discuss pros and cons
Students make modifications as needed
Students may pair up if they believe it would make their experiment stronger
Edit designs (5 minutes)
Class discussion (10 minutes)
Poll class for results
Short discussion about the differences, what caused them, and the role of the
base qualities/questions used
Everyone gets a cookie

Exit ticket (5 minutes)

In these experiments, we were looking at peoples opinions on something, rather
than creating and observing a very controlled environment. Do you believe this
difference would make results we get any more or less true? Why?
If you could perform this experiment on a large scale, what would you change
about your design?

Micro 2
Exploring the Fundamentals: Week 1, Tuesday

Goals
Students will begin to conceptualize what the words evidence, subjective, objective, fact,
truth, hypothesis, and theory mean in science
Objectives
Students will use everyday objects to explore some basic concepts of science
Group size
Pairs
Materials per group
Random classroom objects (no need to prepare special objects)
Lesson Outline
Anticipation Guide (5 minutes)
At the front of the class is a globe/map of the Earth with no political markers, with
the north pole facing down
Each question is followed by True/False, and a box to put in percentage of how
sure you are
It is a truth that this map is upside-down
A piece of evidence to support this is the f act that Antarctica is on the top
This fact is objective (not influenced by opinions and/or emotions), rather
than a subjective (influenced by opinions and/or emotions).
I could make hypothesis about the orientation (which way is up) of the
Earth without first gathering some e
vidence
This hypothesis could potentially become a t heory, should it be proven
true
Introduction (<5 minutes)
Talk about agenda + what will be done today
Challenge (15-20 minutes)

In pairs, find an object in the classroom and write what you believe to be a
subjective fact, an objective fact, a truth, a hypothesis related to this object, and a
theory related to this object
BUT, make one of these a Lie (e.g. write an objective fact in the subjective fact
slot), with the goal to trick the rest of the class
Pairs will then do rotations to each desk, and guess which one they think is the
Lie
Discussion of challenge (20 minutes)
Go around to three groups, state each statement.
Class raises hands after each statement if they think it is the lie
The group then states lie + has to defend why that was a lie and the rest were
truths
Give points out for groups tricked, correct lies guessed, and good arguments for
why a person called a not-lie a lie
Writing definitions (10 minutes)
Come up with class definitions for Facts, Truths, Hypothesis, Theory, and
Evidence, Subjective, and Objective if we have time
Exit ticket (5-10 minutes)
How would you respond to someone who said that is just a theory when talking
about a scientific theory?
Begin reading for tomorrow, which Mr. Carroll will hand out towards the end of
class. NOTE: Do not discuss this reading with other students, as receive a
different packet than most of the others!

Teacher Notes
Ultimate definition goals (note: the definitions that follow are for the teachers reference
as ideal definitions, not for presentation to or memorization by students):
Evidence is test results and/or observations that may either help support or help
refute a scientific idea. In general, raw data are considered evidence only once
they have been interpreted in a way that reflects on the accuracy of a scientific
idea.
Facts are statements that we know to be true through direct observation.
However, can only be completely confident about relatively simple statements,
which can then be combined to explain more complicated phenomena. Scientists
should keep an open mind, and be aware that new evidence or hypotheses may
uproot previously accepted explanations or facts
Truth: Though belonging more the realm of philosophy and metaphysics, truth
in science refers to ultimate, real facts of what/how the universe, or some part of
it, is. The goal of science is to understand these truths as accurately and
precisely as possible. Our body of knowledge is ever growing and evolving,

disproven claims being thrown out and new possibilities considered as new
evidence comes to light.
Subjective: Influenced by biases, opinions, and/or emotions.
Objective: Not influenced by biases, opinions, and/or emotions
Hypothesis: A hypothesis is a proposed explanation of how something works or
why something is, based off of some form of evidence.
Theory: A theory is a broad explanation of phenomena, often combining many
hypotheses. Theories are our best current explanations, as supported by the
currently available data.

Micro 3
Origins of Life: Confronting Misconceptions of Science - Week 1, Monday
Source/Credit
This lesson is adapted from The Origins of Life: The Search for an Explanation by Jenifer Nesen
(Needham High School) and Janet Kresl Moffat (Weston High School), presented at Mast
Conference on 11/10/1994.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6xMON4lIXZHOVowWWgxNGVPcDA/view?usp=sharing
I also took part in the original lesson during Sue Gentiles Foundations of Science Education
course.
Goals
Students will begin to conceptualize the differences between beliefs, faith, and proof,
and their relations to science
Objectives
Students will confront their understanding of what is science and not science through
analysis of various origin stories
Group size
7 groups of 2-3 students, based on class size
Materials per group
One (1) sheet of poster paper (big, ~1.5 x ~2.5 sheets of paper, not sure what it is
called)
Markers
Printout of relevant section (one of the Gurus seven tales)
Lesson Outline

Introduction to activity+class reading (5 minutes)

Active storytelling
Dress up as the Guru
Start class off with introducing yourself, your life on top of a big
mountain, and the travelers who seek out your wisdom, many of whom
ask what is the meaning of life, and transition into todays lesson
Group sections (reviewing their assigned tale, sketching poster, discussing who
presents) (10 minutes)
Story telling and answering which is science/not-science, and how/whether each
involves faith, belief, and proof (40 minutes)
Each group has 2 minutes to tell story
Students write whether they think it is science/not science and why
Poll students and short discussion (~2 min each) on why
Exit ticket (5 minutes)
Why do you think evidence and proof are considered more than faith when using
science to answer questions?
What kinds of questions, if any, do you believe faith can answer that science
cannot?

Micro 4
What makes something scientific? - Week 1, Thursday
(Im so sorry Ive been blanking on what to do with this lesson all weekend)

Goals
Students will understand what makes an experiment or explanation scientific
Objectives
Students will analyze yesterdays experiment in order to answer the question what
makes something scientific?
Group size

Materials
Lesson Outline
Do Now (5 minutes)

Finish yesterdays discussion (if necessary) (10 minutes)

Lecture (10 minutes)

(10 min)Question 1: What parts of your experiments do you think were scientific?
Discuss in pairs for 2 minutes, then bring back to whole class

Students say one part at a time and why, invite others to ask
questions/discuss
List parts on board that kids think were scientific and why
Press if there are any parts you think may be missing
(10 min)Question 2: What parts do you think were not scientific?
Discuss in pairs for 2 minutes, then bring back to whole class
Students say one part at a time and why, invite others to ask
questions/discuss
List parts on board and why
(10 min)Question 3: Are there any pieces of what you think makes a study or
explanation scientific that did not happen yesterday?
Discuss in pairs for 2 minutes, then bring back to whole class
Students say one part at a time and why, invite others to ask
questions/discuss
List parts on board and why
Challenge (25 minutes)
Challenge students to come up with an answer to the question: what makes
something scientific?
If the final answer mostly (not sure what metric to use) matches what the
teachers answer is, the class gets ~a prize~
(10 minutes) Groups of 2-3 (depending on class size), give markers+big paper to
write definition
Hang them up when done
Discuss differences between each
Ask them to combine elements from all things up here into one answer
Compare to teachers
Come to agreement on what the class working answer will be
Exit ticket (>5 minutes)
What are 2-3 questions that you think you yourself investigate scientifically,
without special equipment?

Additional Notes
A general checklist for what makes research scientific (last one is researchers behaving
scientifically, i.e. scientific integrity, communicating, exposing ideas to testing, etc)

Not necessarily a complete list, and not all scientific research need meet all
criteria

Micro 5
The Project - Week 1, Friday

Goals
Students will know what question will be investigating, as well as an initial plan for how to
do so
Objectives
Students will brainstorm everyday questions to investigate, and draft an experimental
design to examine it
Group size
2 or 1(if there are kids who really want to work alone)
Materials
None
Lesson Outline
Do Now (5 minutes)
Detailed lecture overview of the project (10 minutes)
Expectations given verbally and on handout
If a quantitative experiment:
Must be able to be done in the classroom
One trial should be estimated to take 30-40 minutes

Detail what your question is, what variable(s) you are looking at, what
variables you will control for, how opinion/bias might impact your
experiment
If doing a qualitative social project (which were gone over the previous day)
Must be done in class, or designed in class + carried out outside of class
(see Mr. Carroll for permission)
Be robust enough for design of survey/interviews/etc., questioning, and
analysis to last for the entire week
Class brainstorm (10 minutes)
Class brainstorms possible specific questions or big themes (from which groups
can decide on questions) to investigate
Teacher or volunteer(s) write on board
Groups can be made from people who are interested in same things
Draft initial proposal (30 minutes)
With partner, draft your initial proposal
What question you are investigating
Why you are interested in answering it
What benefit(s) this project may have (satiating curiosity is a valid benefit)
What your hypothesis or expected result is + reasoning behind it
What variable(s)/aspects youre looking at + how you will control for
others (this applies to both qualitative and quantitative)
What extra support/equipment you may need (within reason)
If you finish before it is time for the exit ticket, share with another finished group
to get feedback
Hand in to Mr. Carroll
Exit ticket (5 minutes)