You are on page 1of 6

Guided Discovery Science Lesson Plan Alysia Adams 2nd Grade I. Objectives A.

Students will create questions relating to a scientific topic and form a hypothesis about the topics. B. Students will record observations of an experiment as they use the scientific process. C. Students will explain the impact that wind has on air. D. Students will identify that wind moves things, even air. E. Process skills i. With the help of a science kit in the classroom, students will be given opportunities to expand their knowledge on weather and work together to come to new conclusions about weather. F. Purpose of the lesson i. Air movement plays an important role in determining the weather, and by learning about the affect of air on wind we can start this journey of discovery. G. Assessment i. Formative Assessment 1. I will be informally monitoring students throughout the lesson. While students are in the Experiment Zone I will be informally assessing their ability to collect and record data, as well as their understanding. ii. Summative Assessment 1. Since this is the introductory lesson in the new weather unit, I will continue to assess that this knowledge is being incorporated into other lessons. At the end of the unit Mrs. Everhart will be giving them a Unit Test. Concept Information A. Standards i. SCI.2.2.1 2010 Construct and use tools to observe and measure weather phenomena like precipitation, changes in temperature, wind speed and direction. ii. SCI.2.2.2 2010 Experience and describe wind as the motion of the air. B. Concept to be taught i. Since this is the first lesson of the new weather unit, students will first be reintroduced to the idea that there are many different types of weather. Then students will see that one of the factors in determining weather is the affect that wind can have on air.

II.

C. Teacher Schema i. I will need to know the affects that wind can have on air, and the affects that air can have on weather. III. Safety Concerns: A. Students will not be touching shaving cream or food coloring in order to ensure neither of these is ingested. B. Since the point of this lesson is to see how wind affects air, students will be hypothesizing what will happen when air movement is stronger. Students will be throwing objects in a designated area, so all other students will need to stay away from this section. C. I will be the one in charge of changing the air speed on the fan so students are not given the opportunity to cause harm to themselves. IV. Materials: A. Clear tub B. Shaving Cream C. Blue Food Coloring D. Paper E. Fan F. Handout/Chart where students can hypothesize and record their findings. G. Masking tape i. To make Experiment Zone H. Picture to color V. Management: A. Space: i. Anticipatory Set 1. Students will be surrounding the kidney shaped table in the back of the room. ii. Instruction 1. Students will be at their individual desks iii. Experiment 1. Students will be at the designated Experiment Zone B. Time: 50 minutes i. Anticipatory Set: 8 minutes ii. State Problem: 3 minutes iii. Develop Hypothesis: 2 minutes iv. Experimental investigations/data gathering: 20 minutes v. Draw conclusions: 5 minutes vi. Determine validity of hypothesis: 9 minutes vii. Closure: 3 minutes C. Flexible group organization i. When students are doing Experimental investigations but are not in Experiment Zone they are to be coloring their picture (attached) and writing a sentence describing the effect of the wind in the

picture. Mrs. Everhart will monitor this activity, and students will be given alternative options in case they finish early. D. Behavior i. Those students who are observed throwing their ball without purpose or not doing what they are asked to, will first be given a verbal warning, and then will be asked to just observe those members of their group. ii. I will delegate my expectations of how scientists should behave during the different parts of the lesson. 1. Observe 2. Engage 3. Make purposeful decisions E. Adaptations i. For those students who easily forget directives, they will be on the SMART Board so that they are reminded. ii. ELL students will be assisted when necessary throughout lesson. iii. Those students who have trouble measuring will be guided while in Experiment Zone. VI. Anticipatory Set: A. Students will be standing at the kidney shaped table in the back of the classroom. B. This is the introductory lesson into the weather unit. i. It seems like every time I look outside it is sunny, does that mean it is always sunny? ii. What other types of weather are there? C. Having informally assessed student knowledge on the topic of where rain comes from, clouds, I will then conduct an experiment that demonstrates this. D. I will have a clear tub full of water, and then cover 1/4 the top of the water in shaving cream. E. Can someone guess, or make a prediction about what will happen if I add blue food coloring to the top of the shaving cream? F. I will then take blue food coloring and drop different amounts of food coloring on top of the shaving cream, which will then go through the shaving cream and create rain in the water. G. Since we already know that clouds make rain, what else can we learn about clouds? When you look at the sky, are the clouds always in the same spot? What causes them to move? H. I will then put a fan on the shaving cream on top of the water to show that wind can move clouds, and thus moves where it rains. I. Wind has a great affect on the movement of clouds, air, and weather in general. Today we are going to become scientists and explore how wind can affect air, which affects the weather we experience.

J. I will then ask students to return to their seats once they have grabbed a handout/chart. VII. Instruction: A. State Problem i. Did you know that wind and air are two different things? Air surrounds us everyday, and if it were not for wind then nothing would move. Wind is the force that causes objects to move. ii. Today we are going to conduct an experiment and see how wind speed affects the movement of air. The question we are trying to answer is, What happens to the air as the speed of the wind increases? iii. The way we are going to test this is by throwing paper, and each time we throw our ball of paper, it needs to be purposeful. Your job is to figure out how wind will affect your accuracy when you throw your ball. You will test this 4 times, where the first time there is no wind, and then the wind will become increasingly stronger. iv. Your table will be your group. Each of you will be able to throw the ball one time, since there are four of you at your table. B. Develop Hypothesis i. Write your name on the paper in front of you, and right below that you will see a line that says hypothesis. Who can tell me what a hypothesis is? A hypothesis is a prediction we have as to what will happen. We need to create a hypothesis that will let me know what you think is going to happen in our experiment. ii. At your table, you will have two minutes to discuss and hypothesize how the ball of paper in the air will be affected as wind speed increases. You will need to circle the correct word based on your discussion. I will be monitoring students during this time, and a timer will be set for 2 minutes, as students are used to stopping when they hear a timer. C. Experimental investigations/hands-on activities i. One table at a time, students will come over to the Experiment Zone and conduct their experiment. This is the station I will be monitoring. (Those students who are at their desks will be given two papers. One will be a chart where they are asked to give two reasons why wind is helpful, and then two reasons why wind is not helpful. The other paper is a page to color and will be asked to write a sentence about wind and air that relates to the picture. The students enjoy this activity, and by writing a sentence relating to the lesson it becomes more purposeful. A list will be made on the SMART Board to remind students what they should be doing so I am not interrupted at the Experiment Zone.) Each group will be at this station for around 3-4 minutes as they record their findings.

I will be involved in this as students take part in the experiment. Wind will be created with the use of a fan with 3-speed settings. One at a time, students will throw the paper ball where the wind will affect their accuracy of making the ball into the container. 1. The first student will stand on the line in the Experiment Zone and throw their paper ball where there is no wind. 2. The second student will stand on the line in the Experiment Zone and throw their paper ball where there is level one wind. 3. The third student will stand on the line in the Experiment Zone and throw their paper ball where there are level two winds. 4. The fourth student will stand on the line in the Experiment Zone and throw their paper ball where there are level three winds. ii. Data gathering/Data-process 1. Students will be recording the distance from the container their paper ball landed. (If students are unable to do this independently I will aid in measuring.) 2. I will guide them through the process of recording their data in the appropriate spaces. 3. During this time I will be able to informally and formatively assess the students. 4. Once data is recorded students will go back to their desks and complete their other tasks. D. Draw conclusions i. Once all groups have completed this, I bring the class back together with 1, 2, 3 eyes on me to which they will respond, 1, 2 eyes on you. ii. We used a paper ball to see what effect wind had on air. How accurate was your shot when the fan was not on and there was no wind? And how close was your shot when the wind was on the highest speed? What effect does wind have on air? Is it air that moves things, or wind? E. Determine validity of hypothesis i. Did the data you collected match your hypothesis? Why or why not? I will give time for each table to respond to this question. F. Closure i. From our experiment we were able to discover that as wind speed increases, my ability to make the ball into the container will decrease. ii. Can you think of other situations in life where wind speed affects something? Flying a kite, playing baseball, making a sand castle iii. Just like in our experiment earlier with the clouds, rain, and wind, we saw how wind can even affect the weather around us. The

next few weeks we will continue to explore this idea as we continue to hypothesize and predict while we are scientists.
VIII. Evaluation A. I will be able to evaluate students by monitoring class discussion, and seeing their integration of todays concepts throughout the rest of the quarter. i. Were children able to hypothesize? ii. Were children able to collect information? iii. Were children able to record results? iv. Were children able to reach conclusions? v. Were children able to verbalize findings? vi. Were children able to apply knowledge? IX. Self-evaluation A. Was the lesson successful? B. What would you do differently? C. Did I empower students to independently discover a conclusion? D. What learning styles did I incorporate?

You might also like