Lesson Materials

Per Student

• science notebook

Per Class

• Our Initial Ideas: How They Work chart

• Ideas for Investigation chart

• Gotta-Have-It chart

• marker

• book: Symmetry (in slides)

• Our Growing Ideas chart

• Word Catcher cards: balance point, symmetry, asymmetry

Per Group

• Initial Category A Sculpture

  • 3 rectangular blocks

  • 3 wood rulers

  • 3 pairs of identical objects

Prep

Review 

• Lesson Plan

• Slides

• 3rd - Unit 1 Lessons 2-5 Teacher Assessment Tool Following Student Sensemaking

• Assessment

Prepare 

• Have ready a print copy of Symmetry or plan to project the slide deck to read this text aloud

• Create bags or bins for the small group sculpture building. Each bin should include:

  • 3 rectangular blocks (to be used as the support blocks as the base and between tiers)

  • 3 wood rulers (to be used as the support bars of the sculpture; students can build up to 3 tiers)

  • 3 sets of identical objects. There can be different shapes of wood blocks, but each group needs pairs of identical blocks. If possible, for this building activity, make sure the objects are also identical in color so that the sculptures they build are visually symmetrical.

  • To clean up materials after the sculpture building, have students place the items back into the bins. All the items will be used again throughout lessons 3-8.

• Sculpture building works best on hard surfaces, such as desks, but can be noisy if they fall over. Students may work on bare floors or carpeted surfaces, but it might be harder to achieve balance on a carpet. Either way works, but prepare students for additional challenges when working on carpeted spaces. Flat pieces of cardboard could also be used to provide stability and muffle the noise of falling sculptures.

• Prepare the following charts either on chart paper or in a digital chart space:

  • “Our Growing Ideas” chart 

  • Gotta-Have-It chart

  • These charts from Lesson 1:

    1. Our Initial Ideas: How They Work

    2. Ideas for Investigations

• Locate or and print the balance point, symmetry, and asymmetry Word Catcher cards. Be ready to post them during the lesson. 

• In this lesson, students will continue to use the word balance with an everyday meaning of something that stays upright or steady and does not fall over. They will not use the word balance in a scientific context to describe balanced forces until lesson 5. For this lesson, students are focused on developing ideas related to the downward forces acting on the sculpture, but not any opposing balancing forces.

• Please review the general safety protocols for demonstrations and hands-on activities found here: General Safety Guidance for Building Activities.