Week 2

Entry Event

The entry event is an event that catches the interest of your students about a specific topic. This could be in the form of a video, a lively discussion, a guest speaker, a field trip, or a compelling scenario.

The driving question is a clear open ended and intriguing question that gives a sense of what the project is all about. It should be connected to an instructional goal and helps drive exploration.

Lesson Plan #1- Entry Event- How are you going to (1) grab their attention and make them want to learn about this topic area, and (2) teach them basic subject matter content about the topic.

There are many type of 'hook' lessons. Examples include:

• Messing About: With limited directions, give the students a limited kit of materials, and let them just mess about with them, and get familiar with their properties. See video example of this at the college with MIT 2.00b: Intro to Toy Design

• Discrepant Events: Counter-intuitive questions and demonstrations- See "Lessons from Thin Air"

• Phenomena- see NGSS Phenomena https://www.ngssphenomena.com/

• Literature: Read the students a selection from children's literature or non-fiction that discusses a problem of the lead character. See Novel Engineering

• Video: Show a short video about a child who has a problem that needs to be solved- see From Dream to Design https://youtu.be/c-mwXGqtoLQ

• Real Client: Bring in a real client that has a technical issue that needs to be solved- see 'What is Human-Centered Design' https://youtu.be/musmgKEPY2o

• The Hook- Part II: One-Period Project: As Part II of the Hook, walk students through a one-hour version of a design or research project that models the process for the 'real' project.

Create a Google Doc that contains your hook lesson plan, and save in in your STEM unit folder. Upload the document to Blackboard, and attach it to Assignment #1 in your Google Classroom STEM unit as per the Google Classroom example.

The lesson plan should include:

• Lesson Title

• Learning Outcomes

• Materials/Technology/Software

• Content Links

• Vocabulary Words

• Time frame

• Steps for Whole Group Instruction and differentiation

• Assessment

• One Period Mini Design Project, such as: Create holiday-themed paper dolls

Sample Entry Event Lesson Plan

Title of lesson: How do the people of Sudan get their water?

Brief Overview/Goal: I want students to understand the challenges of getting clean water in other parts of the world, particularly Sudan.

Estimated time for lesson (could be multiple periods): One class period

Massachusetts Frameworks that relate to the lesson: 7.SL.1 (MA). Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and clearly expressing their own.

7.G. 6 (MA). Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, volume, and surface area of two- and three-dimensional objects composed of triangles, quadrilaterals, polygons, cubes, and right prisms."

7.RL.1 (MA). Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what a text states explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, quoting or paraphrasing as appropriate.

References: See Handouts

Materials and Resources: One gallon of clean water, one gallon of contaminated water, jerry can, article on the challenges of finding clean water in Sudan, fact sheet about water on planet earth

Instructional objectives/Learning Goals: Students should make a text to self and text to world connection. Gaining background knowledge on the setting of a story as well as gaining knowledge about real world conflicts that the characters in the book will encounter.

Language Objectives/Targeted Academic language: text to self, text to world

Anticipated student preconceptions/misconceptions: Students might have trouble contextualizing the challenges of transporting water long distances.

Instructional tips for teacher/possible problems to anticipate: Using water can be problematic, have extra towels on hand.

Instructional activities: Hands on: Have students interact with materials depicted in the text.

• Two Jerry Cans; one empty, one filled with water. Have the students walk down the hallway with the empty can and then walk the hallway with the full can.

• Progressively dirtier water: Have a student go fill a bottle with Melrose water from a faucet. One by one bring out water that is dirtier and dirtier asking students to report on what they see, think and wonder for each of the water samples.

Closure:

Assessment:

Exit ticket: Report on how much harder it was to travel with the full can of water.

Active reporting: see, think, wonder when reviewing water samples

Meeting Diverse Needs/ Differentiation: Deliberate groupings, optional activity (students can observe rather than participate)

Implementing 21st Century Skills: Collaboration/Communication/Critical Thinking:

Working in pairs, answer the question “How do the people of Sudan get their water?” Students will need to communicate ways they believe water can be transported long distances. There will be defined roles such as the person carrying the water, the person directing them where to go and the person assisting them in arranging a most comfortable way to transport water using only a jerry can and their body. Standard SL.7.1A: Come to discussions prepared, having read or researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion.

Handouts/links: “Clean Water Runs Dry”: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1qsFUWnNCiPJuMeCgAG_jA1bNBZJusRzI

Discrepant Events

A Discrepant Event (DE) is one that causes an unexpected contradiction in students’ prior knowledge and experience of a scientific event in support of conceptual understanding (Wetzel, 2008). Students use problem-solving and critical-thinking skills in order to explain the phenomenon. Inquiry-based instruction that uses such strategies as discrepant events has the potential for developing scientifically literate students (Beerer & Bodzin, 2004).

-My Digital Chalkboard

Examples of Discrepant Events:

https://sciencing.com/list-discrepant-event-science-activities-8018044.html

NSTA Discrepant Event Activities

https://learningcenter.nsta.org/share.aspx?id=Ug6XucyQFX

Teaching Basic Content

Before students can ask informed questions, they need to know basic information about the topic or skill.

This can be done in many ways:

• Teacher instruction with note-taking

• Textbook reading with note-taking or review questions

• Videos with note-taking or embedded questions:

• Possible sources include traditional textbooks, online simulations as well as internet sources:

Ambitious Science Teaching Video Series https://ambitiousscienceteaching.org/video-series/

Annenberg/CPB https://www.learner.org/subject/science/

Bill Nye the Science Guy https://billnye.com/the-science-guy

Brainpop https://www.brainpop.com/

Crash Course https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse/playlists

Crash Course-Kids https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcoursekids

Exploratorium Science Teaching Videos https://www.exploratorium.edu/video/subjects

Carolina Biological Teacher Resources https://www.carolina.com/teacher-resources/Video/phenomena-video-gallery/tr48120.tr

Khan Academy https://www.khanacademy.org/

PBS Learning Media https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/

Nearpod SlideShows https://nearpod.com/

Students should always be doing something- listening passively to a lecture does not count!

Edpuzzle(https://edpuzzle.com/) which integrates with Google Classroom, enables you to add review questions to any video- See Skills Training tutorials at left.

Create an assignment in Google Classroom, specifying content students should review and comment on.

Creating a Unit Summary

A unit summary or 'blocking plan' is a summary of the unit, and includes the major milestones of the unit or course.

For each milestone, the unit plan summarizes the relevant frameworks, essential question, lesson introduction(mini-lesson), activating strategies, Lesson details, differentiation, and assessment.