Lucas Cook Inquiry Unit UbD Template: Simple Machines Stage 1 Desired Results Established Goals: 6th Grade at Capital City has done simple machines as part of the energy force and motion unit. Students will understand mechanical advantage and how to use simple machines. My goal is for the students to put together a Rube Goldberg style machine. This will demonstrate their knowledge of simple machines and mechanical advantage. (Relevant Standards) Understandings: Students will understand that Simple machines are all around them. Simple machines are used to change work, or to make work easier. Mechanical Advantage makes it easier to do work. Essential Questions: What are the simple machines? Why do we use simple machines? How can I use a lever to life a teacher with one hand? How can I use pulleys to life a teacher (or principal) with one hand?
Students will know How to apply their understanding on simple machines to various situations to make work easier. How to combine several simple machines to create a Rube Goldberg contraption. How simple machines make work easier Students will be able to Demonstrate their knowledge of SImple machines by building a contraption. Share their expertise about simple machines at Celebration of Learning Stage 2 Assessment Evidence Performance Tasks: Students will be able to Articulate in oral presentations of the Rube Goldberg Machines how they used different simple machines to build the contraption. Build a Rube Goldberg contraption that incorporates at least 3 simple machines to perform the task. Complete two lift a teacher challenges; one with levers and one with pulleys. Other Evidence: Students will be able to Students will be able to write a scaffolded lab report about the lift a teacher experiments. Students will be able to give an oral presentation about science content. Students will be able to extract information out of both experiences and articles/other texts to create lab reports, presentations, and contraptions. Stage 3 Learning Plan Learning Activities: Three main activities: Lift a teacher: levers kick off
Lift a teacher: culminating pulley event Building Rube Goldberg contraptions Detailed Lesson Plans: Full plans attached: Day 1: Kickoff: Lift a teacher with levers Day 2: In-depth dive into levers Day 3: Dive into pulleys Day 4: Lift a teacher with Pulleys Day 5: Introduce Rube Goldberg Project Day 6: Build Rube Goldberg contraptions
Demystifying Science: This unit is an extension of the unit on Energy, Force and Motion. 6th grade has a study of these topics as a typical part of study for the past 6 years. This is an introduction to physics, that is accessible to students at the 6th grade level. It has a focus on mechanical advantage, or how much easier a machine makes a particular task, and hands on activities. It also has as its cornerstones two hands on activities that require the students to design a simple machine set up and actually lift a teacher into the air. These two experiences, one as the kickoff to the entire unit and one in the middle of the unit serve as ways to keep the students engaged as well as provide hands on learning experience where they get to explore the ideas they are learning. Through the use of levers and pulleys they learn about mechanical advantage and get to left their teacher (myself, over 200 pounds) using a single hand. The first activity, they are presented with the challenge and first allowed to try and lift me without any tools. This resulted in much laughter and made them interested in what they were doing. Then they were introduced to the materials, a board and a cinder block. They then had the rest of the period to try and design a lever system that would allow them to life me with one hand. It took much experimentation and trial and error, and some coaching, but they were able to lift me into the air with one hand. This experimentation, testing of hypothesis, and persevering through failure is one of the main strands of science that they had to develop to be successful in this unit. Data Driven Instruction: For this unit we started with the lift the teacher (lever) experiment. This was a challenge given to the students before any instruction on simple machines was given. This was partially to spark their interest in the topic with a very engaging first activity, and partially to see where students were in terms of their knowledge. We did ask the students who had been retained and who might have remembered the answer from doing this particular challenge in years past to refrain from giving the answers to their peers. None of the students spoiled the answers, so either they did not remember, or refrained. From this first experience/formative assessment I found that most of the students had never studied levers or simple machines before. This led me to add in two additional experiences with levers, one article for them to read and another experiment with balances and exploring mechanical advantage. This also led us to do several days on pulleys, both explorations with pulleys and articles, before the second lift a teacher challenge. The original summative assessment at the end of unit was for the students to build a Rube Goldberg contraption which would utilize the simple machines we have studied in action. However while I was away, the science team determined that there was not enough time and changed the assessment to a simple machine museum where groups of students would become experts in a particular simple machine and create a poster and then present their machine to their peers. The student gave their presentations and it was clear they needed more work. They had not had a chance to practice their presentations and the posters themselves were lacking. We gave them feedback and a grade and then a
chance to revise, and after an extra two class periods all of the students improved significantly, and were able to demonstrate their knowledge of their simple machine well, as well as ask questions of their peers that were deep and reflective. Examples of their work have been attached. Part II: Instructional Materials Lesson Narratives: Day 1: Lift a teacher 6 inches For the kickoff/formative assessment for the unit the students were given this challenge: Lift your teacher at least six inches off the ground with one hand. The students were given a chance to attempt to lift me without any tools. Then they were introduced to the materials they could use: an 8 foot board and a cinder block. They were given a planning sheet and a chance to make a plan about how they would set up the lever system and given a chance to try it out. Each student, or pair of students, was given a chance to try their system, and then if it did not work they would go revise their design and try again. As each student attempted the challenge I was able to determine where they were in terms of their understanding of levers and simple machines. Day 2: Lever exploration Day two was a dive into levers and getting more information about them. Students were given an article about levers from the science textbook that is used in 6th grade at Capital City. In addition they were given rules, binder clips, weights and dowels to set up a basic balance scale. They were also given a data sheet to guide their exploration of the balance scales (a class one lever). This allowed them a chance to get more theoretical knowledge about levers and a smaller model of a lever to give them a chance to explore the practicalities of levers more closely. Day 3: Pulley exploration This day was similar to the levers exploration. they were first given two pulleys, string, and a weight and challenged to find ways to lift the weight with the pulleys. At first students are told to explore the pulleys and find whatever way they could. This led to most students discovering a single fixed pulley. After being given about 20 minutes to explore the pulleys they were given an article from the same textbook as before, and then given more time to explore with the pulleys where they found single moveable pulleys and compound pulleys.
Day 4: Lift a teacher 6 feet This was the day that students were most excited for. They were given a planning sheet where they designed a compound pulley system to lift their teacher 6 feet in the air. After they designed the system their diagrams were given to the Adventure Coordinator who rigged up the system, this was done to ensure that the knots were sturdy and safe. Then students experimented with their design and lifted their teacher 6 feet in the air. They also had the opportunity to lift the principal who happened to walk by as the students were in the middle of the experiment. Day 5: Introduction to Rube Goldberg After spending several days working with different simple machines and seeing what mechanical advantage can do for them students will be introduced to their final project for the unit. First they are asked if anyone knows what a Rube Goldberg machine is and if so to share. They will be shown at least three different examples of Rube Goldberg machines. One, Two, Three. After watching the videos they will be given the assignment: To build a Rube Goldberg contraption that will contain at least 5 separate steps and at least two different simple machines with the end goal of pulling a piece of paper out of an envelope. If there is time they will be given time to start planning their machine. Materials for the building of the machines include but are not limited to: paper, tape, scissors, marbles, cardboard, weights, pulleys, rulers, and other classroom materials. One of the great things about Rube Goldberg Machines is that you can use whatever materials are around to build them. Day 6-8: Rube Goldberg Contraptions These days are building and testing time for their Rube Goldberg Contraptions. Teachers should be circulating around helping students troubleshoot and test their machines. When they are done they should practice their machines and describe what the steps in their machine are with a focus on the simple machines, and how energy and force move through the machine. Student Learning: Over the course of the unit I could see the students understanding of simple machines increase. The students started with very little understanding of simple machines and mechanical advantage. At the end of the unit, even though they did not build Rube Goldberg Machines, they did create and present posters after they become experts on their own simple machines. They also were able to ask their classmates informed probing and clarifying
questions about their presentations. Another example of how their understanding has grown was the fact that every student by the end of the class period for each lift a teacher challenge successfully lifted their teacher by designing a simple machine to assist them. I have attached pictures of some of their poster presentations and their graded rubrics as examples of the growth they have made. For comparison I have attached some of their first drafts to show where they started as well. Course Take-aways and next Steps: I have found inquiry units to not only be more engaging for my students, but also more fun for me as a teacher to teach. This unit had two very hands on activities with the lift a teacher challenges that the students loved, and I loved teaching those lessons. I also was nervous about teaching by inquiry and not being sure where it would go and if the students would engage with me. however those fears seemed to be unfounded, even with my most challenging students. They were all engaged and produced some great work. I am much more comfortable in taking on an inquiry based unit than I was before this experience. I was nervous about doing something where I really let the students take control and have the reins, but they stepped up to the plate and showed me that if i trust them they will deliver. What I was also new at doing was seeing that students needed more time with a topic and then finding the time for that. We did that, when we realized students needed more time to really understand levers and pulleys so we took more time to give them more experience with them than we had planned. While I planned two days on each machine in the end we spent about a week on each. In the end this led to students having a much better understanding of levers and pulleys. The downside was that we ran out of time to do Rube Goldberg Machines, and instead did a poster project. While it was disappointing to not get to do a third major hands on project, they did get a chance to work in groups and revise their work after one presentation and demonstrate their knowledge in a presentation. I am very interested in seeing how I could use this method in social studies, a topic that I hope to be teaching next year. I would love to take some time to find what is interesting to the students and spend time doing a unit on that. For example if my students are interested in ancient civilizations to take time and do a unit on that while hitting standards in reading and writing. There are a few lessons that I have taken from this and they are: plan for more time than you think you need, trust your students, and inquiry teaching is fun for the teacher as well. We ran out of time while implementing this unit and because of that we had to do a different project. That is partially due to the fact that we were doing this unit at the end of the year, and partially due to the fact that our kids needed more time to really understand and master levers and pulleys. The second lesson, trusting my students, comes from my class being generally recognized as being a very challenging group. However when given these inquiry lessons, and this unit based on hands on and super interactive lessons they rose
to the occasion and proved that they could handle it. Finally when I am having fun getting lifted into the air on a lever I am a better teacher for my students when I am as into the content as I want my students to be.