Jeff Breiten
Welcome to 6-1 Science
Your Host: Mr Breiten
This is my 31 st year teaching science, and I really enjoy the topic and the children! I have BS and MS degree from the University of Iowa. I have seen the tools for instruction change drastically since the 80s, but realize the foundation of education in a middle school is still human interaction.
CLASS MATERIALS:
1.Chrome book
2.Assignment notebook
3.IQWST booklet
4. Pencil/pen
This is a project-based physical science unit that explores energy transfer (from one object to another, or one place to another within an object); energy transformation (from one type of energy to another); and what it means for energy to be conserved, as students investigate common phenomena. In order to contextualize energy concepts in real-world experiences, students engage in several scientific practices including asking questions, designing and carrying out investigations, analyzing data, developing models and constructing explanations of phenomena such as why a basketball bounces or a pendulum swings but then stops. The use of video enables students to make observations not possible with the naked eye, such as seeing the deformation of a ball as it bounces. (Videos can be accessed on the IQWST Portal. Note: You will need to log in and navigate to specific lessons.)
Driving Question: Why Do Some Things Stop While Others Keep Going?
Core science ideas, crosscutting concepts, and scientific practices are integrated in each lesson and sequenced to support students in answering the Driving Question by unit’s end. Students complete several investigations, often cycling back to the initial activity, as they delve into the science content, gaining a deeper understanding of how energy is involved in everything in the world as it is transformed and transferred. During this unit, students develop two types of models to represent energy transformations (conversion from one type of energy to another) and energy transfer (from one object to another) between systems, using their model to explain various phenomena they observe. [See IQWST Overview for more about use of the DQB.]
Learning Set 1
The first learning set, composed of four lessons, focuses on major learning goals: (a) there are different types of energy, and (b) energy can be transformed from one type to another. After students view a teacher demonstration of a radiometer and they watch the Newton vs. Goldberg video, they examine devices that operate for an unexpectedly long time, raising natural questions about how they work. Students’ original questions are recorded on the DQB and tracked until they can be answered as students learn the associated content. Students then explore falling objects, a pendulum, a bouncing ball, playground equipment, and springs to learn about kinetic, gravitational, and elastic energy, and multiple ways in which energy is transformed from one type to another. Students construct Energy Conversion Diagrams as models they can use to represent and to explain these energy conversions (transformations).
Learning Set 2
The three lessons in this learning set help students construct an explanation that answers the first part of the Driving Question: Why Do Some Things Stop? Students experience thermal and sound energy as they address the idea that energy can be transferred between systems. Students develop Energy Transfer Diagrams as models to represent and explain energy gained or “lost” in a system. In general, things stop when energy is transformed to a type (such as thermal energy) that does not support the continuation of activity. A ball stops bouncing because its energy is transformed and transferred to its surroundings, and a pendulum stops swinging because its energy is transferred to the surrounding air.
Learning Set 3
Learning Set 3 focuses on the second half of the Driving Question: Why Do Some Things Keep Going? The four lessons introduce chemical, electrical, and light energy, and their transformation into other types of energy. Chemical and light energy are easily transformed into electrical energy, which is the most “transportable.” Students summarize and apply all that was learned to the devices observed in Lesson 1.