Learning Goals

Learning Goals:

1. Students can describe and understand what it means when an object is in motion, and how to push, pull, redirect, start, and stop certain objects.

2. Students can demonstrate their knowledge and understanding through hands-on experiments and activities based off of pushing, pulling, redirecting, starting and stopping.

When I began developing this unit I went to the Next Generation Science standards to look for which standards I would like to be covering. The kindergarten NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) for physical science is broken down into six main sections. I chose to focus on five out of these six and combine two of the sections into one activity and lesson. After conversing with my mentor teacher on what to choose for the unit we decided that implementing five rather than six would be more beneficial for the students in the class. My mentor and I also discussed how using NGSS would be most appropriate for the class considering their prior knowledge and learning experiences in science as well as their skill level. The results from my pre assessment confirmed that the learning goals and objectives are appropriate for this group of students.

First I looked at standard PS2.A: Forces and motion and then the sub-standards K-PS2-1, and K-PS2-2. This standard states “Pushing or pulling on an object can change the speed or direction of its motion and can start or stop it.” From this I developed Learning Goal 1 which is, students can describe and understand what it means when an object is in motion, and how to push, pull, redirect, start, and stop certain objects. I chose this learning goal because these students have not had much experience or formal instruction on physical science prior to this. I felt that by starting out with being able to explain and show what it means for an object to be in motion, push, pull, change speed and direction, start, and stop would be the best first step. I also realized that students have to demonstrate a clear understanding of physical science before they dive deeper into more hands-on activities.

In order to meet learning goal one, I used Marzano's Taxonomy useful verbs to include several levels of expectations within each objective. For example students can identify, show, illustrate, and sort in objectives 1, 2, 3, and 4. The sequence of objectives with the levels of verbs is appropriate for these kindergarten students.

Second, I looked at standards PS3.C: Relationship Between Energy and Forces which states “A bigger push or pull makes things speed up or slow down more quickly.” With the secondary standard being K-S2-1, and PS2.B: Types of interactions which states “when objects touch or collide, they push on one another and change motion” which also has the secondary standard K-PS2-1. I chose these standards to align with Learning Goal 2: Students can demonstrate their knowledge and understanding through hands-on experiments and activities based off of pushing, pulling, redirecting, starting and stopping. I chose this learning goal because it takes knowledge and skills developed in Learning Goal 1 to the next step. Now students have to apply their knowledge of what it means when an object is in motion, and how to push, pull, redirect, start, and stop certain objects and how to explain it, now they also have to show through hands-on activities that they know. Using verbs from Bloom's Taxonomy Action Verbs students can explain, identify, and predict. These verbs are being used throughout objectives 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Students are now reaching into a deeper synthesis and evaluation levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. This pushes students to think more critically and reflect on their previous knowledge and learning experiences to explain their reasoning.

As for providing the students’ reflection, each student completed a self assessment to reflect on their abilities to meet each objective in each of the lessons. Students think back on their abilities after every lesson by having three different bins each bin assigned a thumb symbol that they used in their pre assessment. The student will hand in any worksheet they completed here under where they felt they stood throughout the lesson based on the presented objective. If the students did not complete a worksheet they will be given a piece of paper where they will write their name and place that in the bin so the teacher has an understanding of where they stand and the students work on self reflecting. The teacher will record the students' work through taking pictures if there is no worksheet for the lesson. This is to see if they have met each one of the objectives provided for each specific lesson. Students will then score themselves after the overall unit on three different level scales that align to the pre assessment they completed and the self assessment they have been doing after every activity these include, “I can explain what it means when…” or, “I can explain OR show what it means when…” and “I can explain AND show what it means when…” At the end of the unit students completed a survey to reflect on the overall unit and how they did, but also how the teacher did supporting them throughout the lesson and if the teacher did a good job leading the students to their learning goals.