Bryant 1. Kristen Bryant EDUC 521 Lesson Date: Nov. 21 or Nov. 22 Grade: 6. Science Lesson Plan

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1 Bryant 1 Kristen Bryant EDUC 521 Lesson Date: Nov. 21 or Nov. 22 Grade: 6 Science Lesson Plan Goals/Objectives: Students will develop an understanding of electrical currents by experimenting with different ways to arrange a battery, two insulated copper wires, and a light bulb to light the bulb. They will also be able to differentiate between open & closed circuits and insulators & conductors. Standards/Assessment Anchors: Assessment Anchors: S6.C.2: Forms, Sources, Conversion, and Transfer of Energy S6.C.2.1.3: Compare various energy sources (i.e., oil, coal, natural gas, solar, wind, and moving water) and describe how these energy sources are transformed into useful forms of energy. PA Academic Standards for Science and Technology and Engineering Education B2. Describe energy as a property of objects associated with heat, light, electricity, magnetism, mechanical motion, and sound. Materials and Preparation: Pencils, paper, two D-cell batteries, four insulated copper wires, two small light bulbs, worksheets to record observations, mini quiz, prizes for students who successfully light their bulbs (candy bars) Classroom Arrangement and Management Issues: This lesson will take place in an empty classroom during the students Music Prep period. Following lunch, I will retrieve the students from the music classroom (with prior permission from the teacher) in the basement. In the hallway before we walk upstairs, I will remind them of hallway rules and will bring them to the empty classroom on the second floor. The desks will be arranged in two small groups of two and three desks. I chose this organization of the classroom because I believe it will promote group work and allow for collaborative investigation and experimentation of the topic. The materials will be placed on a single desk in the front of the room where I will be standing, and students will not be permitted to gather materials until after I have clearly explained all of the norms and procedures for the period. Students will be told to sit in pre-determined partner groups based on their behaviors. From the beginning, students will be told that they must work together to identify the correct circuits; we will not call out but will raise our hands to contribute to discussion; we will be respectful to each other by not speaking while others are speaking. If behavior issues surface, they will be quickly squashed because the student perpetrator will be told to leave the classroom and return to their regular classroom without finishing the activity. Next, one student from each partner group will come to the front where I will hand them the supplies; they will be asked to wait until instructed to start playing with the objects. During and after the activity, I plan to encourage rich discussion and allow NancyLee Bergey 11/15/11 8:21 AM Comment: You aren t really doing this, are you? NancyLee Bergey 11/15/11 8:23 AM Comment: I know that the content standards don t fit very well here. (This one and the first one are fine, but they do not talk about closed circuits, etc.) But I am sure you can find some great process standards to fit. Please add a couple. NancyLee Bergey 12/4/11 4:26 PM Comment: Usually better as a list you can literally (and easily) check them off as you collect them from the lesson. Kristen Bryant 12/4/11 4:27 PM Comment: I agree, is a bit easier. NancyLee Bergey 11/15/11 8:24 AM Comment: Always ALWAYS have extras! NancyLee Bergey 11/15/11 8:25 AM Comment: Lighting the bulb is pretty exciting. You really will not need candy bars. NancyLee Bergey 11/15/11 8:26 AM Comment: Where are the conductors and insulators? NancyLee Bergey 11/15/11 8:27 AM Comment: Whew! Serious language!

2 Bryant 2 students to participate by coming to the board to draw certain circuits. One student who will be involved in the group has a regular TSS worker who remains with the student at all times, and he will be in the classroom during this activity. Ms. Landfair recommended this student s participation in this small group activity, and I chose him because of his improving behavior in the classroom and his seeming interest in working with his hands and drawing. Plan: 1. The Hook (10-15 min.) The teacher will open by asking students what a closed circuit is. o Use your knowledge of root words What does circ- mean? o Students will have time to think and answer the question; answers will be recorded on the board by the teacher. o The teacher will finally explain that a closed circuit is a complete (or closed) path through which electricity can flow She will explain that this is what students will be studying today. She will introduce the goal of the activity getting a light bulb to light using wires and batteries and explain the rules. She will also pass out worksheets for students to describe their observations. o You will work in pairs to create four types of closed circuits (where the light bulb lights). You will draw diagrams of these closed circuits and be sure you have one person in your group write a sentence (or 2) about how you got these circuits to work. What did they have in common? When you re done, put your paper on your desk with the materials. Fold your hands on your laps, and I ll know. You will have 8 minutes when I say go, and the winning team gets a prize. (Working circuits will all have contacts at both the bottom and the side of the metal base of the light bulb.) o The rules: groups need to have all members participating. No screaming (use our inside voices), be gentle with these materials, once we begin discussing our results, be respectful of each other. Does everyone understand? Are there any questions before we begin? o One person from each group will get the materials and once seated with the materials on the desk, the teacher will allow students to begin. o GO!! 2. Body of the Lesson (30 min.) After 8 minutes, students will be finished and the teacher will facilitate a short discussion about the opening exercise. First she will ask students to flip over their papers where the vocabulary words for this lesson will be written. Students will be asked to pay attention during the lesson and write down definitions as the words are explained. At the end, there will be a mini quiz that I ll give to make sure everyone was paying attention to this important information. o How did electricity flow through your light bulbs? What did all of your closed circuits have in common? What is an electric current? o The teacher will explain that an electric current is a flow of microscopic [teacher will ask students, what does this mean?] particles called electrons going through wires and electronic components. It s electricity! o She will ask what was needed to make the complete or closed electrical circuit. NancyLee Bergey 11/15/11 8:28 AM Comment: Wonderful! I have seen the TSS worker but do not know which student he assists. Kristen Bryant 12/4/11 4:28 PM Comment: I ended up not taking this student because of his behavioral problems that day. NancyLee Bergey 11/15/11 8:29 AM Comment: Notice that this is NOT what I did. I did not do any of the teacher talk until circuits had been made. NancyLee Bergey 11/15/11 8:32 AM Comment: I think it may be hard for the students to conceive of 4 ways even if they have one. In fact, I think I can only think of 3 with the materials you provide. Does having the bottom of the light bulb attached to + and the bottom of the light bulb attached to count as two different circuits? Kristen Bryant 12/4/11 4:29 PM Comment: I agree, I guess I did not consider that this would be so difficult in such a short period of time. NancyLee Bergey 11/15/11 8:43 AM Comment: Since the students don t use the materials again unless there is extra time at the end, I would strongly recommend removing them from their desks at this point. Otherwise they will play with them while you are trying to get them to concentrate. NancyLee Bergey 11/15/11 8:33 AM Comment: Actually smaller than that subatomic.

3 Bryant 3 Students will brainstorm, then after one minute the teacher will explain that a source of electricity, a conductor (something that conducts, or allows the electricity to pass), and an output device (something that completes the circuit and produces the electricity that you can see) are needed for a complete closed circuit. What was the source of electricity, the conductor, and the output device in this activity? (battery, wires, light bulb, respectively) What do you think the wires were made out of that allowed them to conduct electricity? (copper) o The teacher will tell students that these materials worked together to form a closed circuit and be sure students understand the sequence of electrical flow (from the source, through the conductor, to the output device) using three student volunteers as examples. o She will allow one student from each group (the one who did not get the materials) to come to the board to draw a diagram of one of the closed circuits they created and explain the flow of electricity using arrows The teacher will explain that this is also a series circuit, which has only one pathway for an electrical current to flow. The teacher will write the vocabulary term on the board, and students will repeat. The teacher will pose another question: So, we talked about closed circuits, what do we think an open circuit is? Can someone explain? I ll give you a few seconds to think about that. o Students will volunteer to answer and the teacher will listen. o She will explain that an open circuit is an incomplete electrical flow that will not light the light bulb. There s some place where the electrical path is broken and can t get to the output device to make it light. The teacher will ask students to remember what a conductor does. A student will answer. o Well, in an open circuit, one reason why there might be a broken path is because there s an insulator where a conductor should be. The teacher will write the word on the board and ask students if they can come up with a good definition of an insulator based on their understanding of what a conductor is. Volunteers will answer. The teacher will explain that an insulator is a material that does not allow electricity to pass. o The teacher will brainstorm with students what items they believe might be conductors and what items or materials might be insulators? (conductors: copper, metal, aluminum, silver, gold; insulators: plastic, wool, fabric, cardboard, wood, etc.) A student can be the scribe. If there is time, they can test items around the room. 3. Closure (5-10 min.) The teacher will briefly review what students learned. o A closed circuit is a complete or closed path through which electricity (or a flow of electrons) can flow, and an open circuit is not complete and doesn t allow the flow of electricity. NancyLee Bergey 11/15/11 8:37 AM Comment: Actually, no. If you just connect a wire to one side of the battery and the other that is actually a closed circuit. The electricity flows (and the wire heats up!) We made an operational definition in class that we would call it a closed circuit when the bulb was lit. If I had had buzzers we would have expanded our operational definition to include them. But then we would not see the output, right?

4 Bryant 4 o A source of electricity, a conductor, and an output device are needed to complete a circuit. An insulator does not conduct or allow electricity to pass. o Now take everything off of your desk. Here are pieces of paper. This is a oneminute pop quiz, and you should answer all questions. 1. Write 3 things you learned today that you didn t know at the beginning of the lesson. 2. Write at least one question you have related to what you learned today. 3. There will be 3 fill-in the blanks that students will answer as I read sentences. The teacher will assign tasks for students to clean up the room efficiently. Once students have completed their task (or tasks) they will line up. One student from each group will collect all activity materials (batteries, wires, light bulbs) and place in a bag; one (or two) student(s) will erase the board (depending on erasers available); another student will collect all of the worksheets and hand to me. Another student will collect the quizzes and hand to me. Students will line up and prepare to go back to their regular classroom. Assessment of Goals/Objectives: Students will demonstrate that they have learned via classroom discussion throughout the lesson. The students quiz answers will also indicate that they have learned. This evidence will help me to assess my progress toward the stated goals and objectives by showing that students retained some of the information that was shared during the lesson. Anticipating Student Responses and My Possible Responses: Students may be unable to concentrate after lunch and some may be very hyper. o I will be sure to clearly and explicitly explain all rules from the beginning and that if students insist on breaking rules, they will simply be eliminated from the activity. Students may have difficulty creating their own closed circuits in the beginning activity. o I will reduce the number of closed circuits they will need to make or supply them with a worksheet with many different arrangements of the materials and have them identify which of the given arrangements will create a closed circuit. The lesson may take a shorter amount of time than expected because students could have a prior understanding of the material. o I will have extra challenge questions and/or subject material to cover if need be. Depending on how much time is left, I can add additional questions to the quiz at the end. Accommodations: Students will be paired in pre-determined groups to reduce behavior issues and allow students who may be struggling to be assisted by higher-ability students. Students who may need greater challenges will have extra questions they can answer during observations and will also help students who may have trouble with the tasks. Resources: ricity.pdf

5 Bryant Wow! Lots of sources. Any from NSTA? Class should probably be listed in resources, too. Kristen- It is interesting that you have pretty much reduced using the materials to a hook and used talking about vocabulary as the body of the lesson. I believe that following activities with a summary of what has been learned is important, but I try to make the work with the materials the body of the lesson. I am fine with you doing it this way, but hope that you will reflect on this difference in your analysis. Kristen Bryant 12/4/11 4:31 PM Comment: I ended up making the materials portion of the lesson longer. I realized that studetns do not get much of an opportunity to investigate with these science materials, so any extra time would be beneficial for them.