Untitled from Stephanie Wright on Vimeo.
Teacher Name: Stephanie Wright
Collaborators: Deborah Dunham 5th grade teacher
Lesson Title: Scientists
Target Grade/Subject: 5th grade science
Length: 3 hours
Summary:
Fifth grade students will research one of the three scientists for his contribution (Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and Theodore Maiman a.k.a. Robert Maiman). Students will group themselves according to interests. Due to the size of the class (18 students) there will be 2 groups per scientists. There should not be more than 3 students per group. They will work collaboratively on a project to present to the class so that they can teach others about their scientist.
Essential questions or objectives:
Why is your person famous? What important contributions did he make? Where was he born? Did he change science? How do you think things would be different today if he had not made his contribution? Do you think your scientist could have helped one of the other scientists?
Resources:
Technology: Pixie, Inspire, Google Doc, Keynote, laptops, Google, One Search
Other Required Resources: Promethean Board and or Projector to present lesson
Lesson Development:
Process/Tasks: First, students will be taught how to use Google properly and safely. As a group, we will type in Thomas Edison and look at site descriptions. We will discuss which sites we think would be appropriate to use and which would not be useful. Next, students will break up into groups. Students will the decide which scientist they would like to research. Each group will have their own Google Doc to store any information they find from Google or OneSearch. Students will have full responsibility of researching all information and sites. In the Google Doc, students will copy and paste important information as well as websites.
Evaluation Procedure:
Assessment of objectives: Students will make a choice as to how they would like to present their information. Students can use Keynote, Inspire, Pixie, Pages, or Kidspiration. Students must follow the requirements on the rubric. Students will also have to evaluate their teammates based on a group rubric.
TIPC Assessment:
Research and Information Fluency: Students were left alone to research their scientists (while I ONLY facilitated and walked around to monitor). I would rank this as an ideal situation and give this a 6 in a fifth grade class since they were not given the sites and Googled the scientists safely and effectively. Students did have the option of using OneSearch, but all went with Google since it was much more exciting. I would give myself a 5 because I was instructing students on the acquisition and ethical use since it was their first time using Google.
Communication and Collaboration: Students were allowed to pick their own groups. The only limitation was there could only be 3 students in a group. This would be and ideal situation since most classrooms do not allow students to choose their own groups. I would give communication a 6. As a teacher I would say this was in the ideal/target range since students did have a rubric to assess how their groups worked. I would give this a 6.
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Students had to think about how the world would be different if their scientist had not invented their invention (light bulb, laser, etc.). At first students thought this was no big deal. For example, if there were no lasers, so what. Then they researched lasers and realized they were used for more than just pretty colors. Lasers were used in surgery and that they may have been rather important. There was not as much critical thinking in this project as I would have liked. I gave little to no help, but feel this was more developing than approaching so it would be a 3. Due to the SOL I had to use, I did struggle with creating real world problems and open ended questions. I did create several, but I had to lead the students to these questions. I created them. Therefore, I would say this was developing and give this a 3.
Creativity and Innovation: Students had to work together to choose what platform they wanted to create their own project. They could use Pixie, Keynote, Inspire, Pages. Students shared their project within the class and then all projects were then posted on the blog to be shared. I would say this was in the ideal range and give it a 7. I would rank myself in the ideal/target range also. There were ample opportunities for students to create projects of their choosing. I would give myself a 6.