Unit 2.7 Unit synthesis and lesson plan

After completing this unit, students will:

• Synthesize comprehension of NGSS principles with energy-related concepts
• Communicate relevant concept(s) at an audience-appropriate level
• Analyze & create clear and concise learning objectives using action verbs that focus on big ideas.

This is the culminating module for this unit and should be used to assess the students' comprehension of the materials in Unit 2. While this material is specifically written with education majors and NGSS standards in mind, this lesson plan project is a great summative assignment for all majors because it tasks your students with explaining and applying class-relevant concepts in their own words. Individuals teaching in places with standards different than NGSS will be able to easily swap out the relevant standards needed for their students. Lesson plans are used at the conclusion of Unit 2, 3, and 4.

Plan for these materials to take between 1.5-4+ hours of class time depending on how much of the Lesson Plan preparation you want to leave for out of class and whether you want students to present in class. This is the summative assignment for a month-long course and a typical class would have a midterm at this point.

This type of summative assignment works well in just about any format (large/small, in person/remote, synchronous/asynchronous). Lesson plans are a great way to allow your students to demonstrate their learning without testing, and you don't need to be an education major to benefit from them.

Teaching Materials:

All Slides: Unit 2.7 All Slides v2 (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 6.5MB Aug30 24)

Lesson Plan Template and Grading Rubric: Tides_lesson_plan_template v5 (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 242kB Aug30 24)

Lesson Plan Scaffolding document (instructor notes on how all 3 lesson plans fit together) tides_lesson_plan_scaffolding.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 1MB Aug30 24)

Sample Student Lesson Plans from Pilot: Energy Lesson Plans Redacted.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 2.1MB Jul9 24)

Other Materials: computer and projector, white board or chalk board with markers/chalk.

Pre-Class Assignment(s):

• Choose a favorite activity or lab from this unit for the lesson plan
• Read through the Lesson Plan Template and Grading Rubric - come prepared with questions.
• If this activity spans multiple classes, students should prepare a 5-minute summary to present to the class on the final day.

In Class (90 min - 4+ hours):

Part 1 (60 min): Class discussion about designing learning objectives.

• Students are shown examples of poorly and strongly worded learning objectives given the following prompt for a think-pair-share:
  • 1. What made the poorly worded questions weak?
  • 2. How did the rewrites improve them?
• Students are then told what education researchers have to say about a good learning objectives to compare with their observations.
• Students are then asked to rewrite a set learning objectives using measurable action words in small groups.
• Students are then given time to workshop and peer review measurable learning objectives for their own lesson plans.

Part 2 (30 - 120 min): Students use this time to complete and refine their lesson plan. If time is an issue, this can be done out of class but does not give the same opportunity for peer review and collaboration.

Part 3 (60 min, depends on class size): Students give 5 minute presentations of their lesson plan.

• Ask your students to focus on communicating the activity, the learning objectives, and the deliverable(s).
• Wrap up with these whole-class discussion questions:
  • What did you learn from the exercise of writing this lesson plan?
  • What did you learn from your peers through workshopping and critiquing as you wrote you lesson plans?
  • How did creating a lesson plan impact your confidence and/or level of understanding on the subject of energy?

Students should use allotted class time to peer-review and ask instructor questions for helping them polish lesson plans, not to "research" activities - this part (research) should be done as homework.

Feel free to adopt the in class v. out of class timing to suit your class. Shorten the in-class time the following ways:

• Consider assigning some or all of Part 2 as homework. This does not give the same opportunity for peer review and collaboration.
• Presentations (Part 3) can be skipped altogether, or you can make it a requirement that students present for only one of the three lesson plans in this course so you only have to allocate enough time for 1/3 of the students.

• The Lesson Plan in this unit is a summative assignment. A complete grading rubric is included in the assignment file (Lesson Plan Template and Grading Rubric). Students are assessed based on specific details related to their Integration of NGSS, Introduction, Objectives, Assessment Plan, and Completeness.

• Next Generation Science Standards website
• The class activities on learning objectives in this unit are derived from the article "Establishing Learning Goals and Outcomes" written by the Illinois library system