Re-envisioning the Curriculum Science Lesson Plan Template

Your Name: Meredith A. Dickens

Grade: 4th
Number of students: 25
Concept/Topic: Cause of Day and Night
Time Needed: 1 hour

Learning Goals:
Students will understand the rotation of Earth and its relation to day and night
Students will have to know how to evaluate alternative conceptions
Students will effectively conduct research
Students will develop skills in engaging in written argument using evidence

Shared Practice Targeted: ​Evidence based argumentation

Relationship to other lessons in your Learning Segment: ​Students using

known/learned knowledge to develop a stance on a topic and defending it using
evidence. (Reading/Social Studies: write a letter to the president explaining your stance
on women’s suffrage. Math: form an argument for why your answer is correct and be
prepared to defend it.)

Essential Standards Targeted:

4.E.1.1 Explain the cause of day and night based on the rotation of Earth on its axis.

Common ​(concept-specific)​ Everyday Ideas:

Daytime is when we are awake and nighttime is when we are asleep

Everyone around the world experiences daytime and nighttime simultaneously
The shape of the earth is circular, but one dimensional

Just-in-Time Content Knowledge ​(needed by the teacher):

● The earth rotates around the sun on an invisible axis which is tilted at 23.5
degrees.
● This tilt of the earth makes it appear that the sun moves across our sky from east
to west.
● It takes 24 hours for the earth to make one full rotation around the sun… 12
hours facing the sun (daytime) and 12 hours facing away from the sun
(nighttime).
 ● Half of the earth experiences daytime while the other half experiences nighttime
at any given point.
Lesson Introduction/Hook/Discrepant Event ​(ENGAGE):
The engagement for this activity will be a scenario found from the National Science
Teachers Association (NSTA). This activity is linked below and gets students thinking
about the reasoning for night and day and considering other every day ideas.

Lesson Development ​(EXPLORE and EXPLAIN):

Provide a detailed description of how the lesson will progress. This should be a detailed
step-by-step account of how your lesson should unfold from beginning to end. Any
teacher should be able to read this and teach the lesson.
After the lesson hook, we will review expectations of working in groups and being good
researchers. We also will discuss what we have learned so far about creating arguments
and appropriate language.

Students will be given access to a ​Webquest​ to complete. I will go over the webquest and
make sure there are no questions or any confusion before I begin. They will be allowed
to work in groups of up to 3 people to complete this webquest. I will prompt students to
turn and talk about their current idea about the causes of night and day after they record
it on their papers. I will interject throughout as I see needed and to keep students paced.
Students will ask questions all throughout as I will be circulating. After students have
completed the webquest, they will then return to the beginning worksheet and either
confirm or change their answer of which person they agree most with. I will then bring
them together as a class and demonstrate my lesson closure to demonstrate the definite
cause of day and night.

Productive Questions:
● Why is it light outside during daytime and dark at night?
● Does our Earth move in space? If so, how?
● What shape is the Earth?
● Where is the sun in relation to the Earth?
● Does the entire Earth experience daytime simultaneously?

Concluding the Lesson/Closure/Making sense of content​ (EXPLAIN):

I will wrap the lesson up by bringing the class together and doing a demonstration at the
front of the room. I will show the students a globe and allow them all an opportunity to
observe it. I will then ask a student to point on the globe to where we are currently
(Raleigh, NC) and I will place a sticker on this general location. Then, I will ask if
someone can explain to me the tilt that the earth is on. (They should know about the
axis from their webquest) I will then place my finger on Raleigh and spin the globe
around once to where it ends where it began. I will ask the students what just happened
to the globe… it completed a full what? Now, I will turn off the lights in the classroom
and shine a flashlight on the globe. I will again place my finger on Raleigh and spin the
globe around once. I will remind students that this demonstration is much faster than
the actual rotation of the earth because it actually takes -- ask students to fill in the
blank of 24 hours. I will stop throughout my spinning of the globe to ask if it would be
daytime or nighttime in Raleigh at the specific point I’m at. After the demonstration, I
will collect papers and tell students what I would say to my friend Sarah now that I know
more about the cause of day and night:
Day and night are caused by the Earth rotating around the sun. When the earth faces the
sun, we experience daytime and when the earth is facing away from the sun, we
experience nighttime. A full day is 24 hours -- 12 hours of daytime and 12 hours of
nighttime. Also, since the earth rotates at an angle on its axis, only half of the world
experiences day at any given point.

Assessment Plan ​(EVALUATE):

At the end of the webquest, students are required to rewrite their opinion on which
friend had the most accurate reasoning for day and night. They must use appropriate
argumentative language and backup their claims with evidence. Their conclusions will
be assessed with this success criteria:

0 1 2 3

No conclusion Student provides Student creates a Student develops a

written claim, but their clear claim for their well formed claim
reasoning is unclear argument about on which friend
and no real which friend is they agree most
evidence is correct, but with and provide
provided reasoning, detailed reasoning
evidence, and and evidence
explanation is weak

Materials/Resources:
Materials:
Globe
Flashlight
Sticker
Resources:
Introductory activity link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oykoE1UXHnY2P-73fxfwpXCK_SavHFYh0hxK
6Os_suw/edit?usp=sharing

Webquest sites and videos for students to explore:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr-CRKsTYGs
https://www.dkfindout.com/us/space/solar-system/day-and-night/
https://www.theschoolrun.com/homework-help/day-and-night
http://zunal.com/process.php?w=194426
https://extension.illinois.edu/treehouse/seasons.cfm?Slide=2