EDUC 2220- Educational Technology Lesson Plan Solar System Exploration

Alyssa LeRose Grade 5/Science

Common Core Standards: The solar system includes the sun and all celestial bodies that orbit the sun. Each planet in the solar system has unique characteristics. By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of two pages in a single sitting. Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.

Lesson Summary: This lesson is designed for students to explore the basic elements of the solar system, specifically focusing on the sun, the eight planets, and their relation to one another. In the first day of the lesson, students will be exploring the order/positioning of the planets through a kinesthetic model. In addition to the order of the planets, this activity will model a scale of planet size and distance from the sun as well as planet orbits. On day 2, students will choose a planet to explore further. This will consist of independent research in a library/computer lab session. On day 3, students will work on compiling the most important elements of their research into a class Google Doc. The Google Doc will consist of important planet facts that every student will contribute to. Students will use the facts they found about their planet to create a story/journal/newspaper article about a creature that would live on their planet. These stories will be posted to the students personal class blog. The blog will also include a Voki avatar of what their fictional creature will look like. This project will allow students to create stories about outer space based on the research they find, while providing opportunities to work at home and in the classroom. Estimated Duration:

I estimate that the instructional portion of this lesson will take 3 hours, which I will be dividing into three days of approximately 1-hour segments. Commentary: To initially hook the students, I will be showing them a YouTube video called We Are The Planets- The Solar System Song found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHAqT4hXnMw. This is a fun, catchy rap song that 5th graders will love. It covers the sun, planet names and a few facts about each, and introduces planet orbits. This makes for a great introduction to the solar system unit! This will be something we watch several times throughout the unit so it becomes more familiar and a way to reference quick facts about the planets. This will transition into a conversation about what we think about when we hear the words solar system. This will generate some vocabulary to be used throughout the lesson.

Instructional Procedures: Day 1: 10 minute Intro: Students will watch the We Are The Planets YouTube video, as mentioned above, to hear a short rap song about planet names, interesting facts, and orbits. I will then ask, What are some things we know about outer space?, What do you think of when you hear the words solar system? As a class, we will generate a quick list of student responses on the chalkboard. After using the vocabulary words to recall what they know, ask students to draw a picture of the planets and their orbits in relation to the sun, labeling what they know (10 minutes to draw). 20 minutes: Ask for 9 student volunteers to each represent the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Each student will hold a card identifying what planet they are so the rest of the class can see. Begin with the Sun standing at one end of the room. Each planet card will have a set of directions on the back telling the student how far to travel from the planet before them. (Ex. Mercury: take 4 small steps from the sun, Venus: take 3 small steps from Mercury, etc.) After all 9 students are aligned, tell the class that the positions of the students represent the positions of the planets in relation to the sun. A few students will then model their planets orbit by walking the appropriate distance around the sun, observing that planets have their own unique orbit. 15 Minutes: Allow time for students to talk with partners or in groups about what they observed in the model. Students will then draw another sketch of the planets and the sun after the human model has been done, paying closer attention to drawing orbit pathways, correct labeling, and appropriate scale. They may work with one another to do this. Day 2: 10 minutes: Recap the previous days activity, making sure to name every planet in order. Show a picture of the planets to remind them of how they are distanced apart from each other. Now, students will choose a planet to explore further on their own. 40-50 minutes: This time will be spent in the library and/or computer lab doing Internet research or finding

books about their planet of research. For homework, students will create a list of their favorite/most interesting facts they discovered about their planet (10 facts minimum). Day 3: 15 minutes: In the computer lab, students will all contribute to a class Google Doc to share a few pieces of information they found about their planet. The Google Doc will already be created and divided into a section for each planet. Students will be instructed on how to access the document, find their appropriate planet section, and add 2-3 facts to the list. (Note: point out that students are only to add to this list, rather than erase work that someone else has already done). This list will be used for the class to refer to as a guide to learn about the other planets. 45 minutes: Assuming that the students created personal blogs at the beginning of the school year to share their work, we will be creating a new blog post in the last day of the lesson that ties their planet research into a writing piece. Students will be prompted to invent a creature that would live on their planet. They will then write a 2-3 paragraph blog post about this creature in which they incorporate research about their planet. Their post can be in the format of a fictional story, a newspaper article, or an encyclopedia entry. Students will create their creatures using Voki.com (they can choose to make their character before or after their blog post is written) and then embed their Voki into their blog post as a widget. Assuming that students will not finish this entire assignment in one class, they can finish up what they need to at home or during free-choice time in class. When all blog posts are complete, students will be able to read each others stories and learn about the different planets from each other in a fun, creative way.

Pre-Assessment: Before the first planet model activity on day 1, there will be an open conversation for students to share what they know and generate some vocabulary about the solar system. Individually, students will then draw their interpretation of what they think the planets look like in relation to each other and the sun. These drawings will be turned in to me. Scoring Guidelines: This serves as an informal assessment to see what students know before instruction begins. I will take note of all the responses students give in terms of what they know. These responses will inform my choices on what to focus on less or more in the following activities. The drawings will also show me what students know about planets and inform further instruction. For instance, if students already give many of the correct labels to planets, focusing on the planet names might not be a major topic for the planet model activity. Instead, planet orbits might be the larger focus. Post-Assessment: Students will be asked to draw the solar system model again at the end of the activity. This model should show a shift from the first model with more attention to detail and more solar system attributes included. The other assessment portion will be the writing piece students create in their blog. This will give the students a change to share what they have learned in their research in a creative manner of their choosing.

Scoring Guidelines: In the drawing, students will be scored on their general sense of scale within the model; in other words, do they depict that planets have different sizes and are not equally spaced apart (3 points). They will also be scored on their labeling of the planets (4 points) and their portrayal of the orbits (3 points), 10 points total. The blog post will be worth 20 points. 5 points for including planet facts, 5 points for their Voki, 5 points for their explanation of how their creature would be able to live on that planet, and 5 points for contributing to the Google Doc.

Differentiated Instructional Support Describe how instruction can be differentiated (changed or altered) to meet the needs of gifted or accelerated students: For a more advanced student, they could have the option to do a compare/contrast piece for their blog writing assignment in which they create a story to compare and contrast two different planets. This would require more in depth research and analysis of that research. Another option might be for them to start exploring other features of the solar system (i.e. moons, stars, asteroids, etc.) and have them incorporate that research into their blog. Discuss additional activities you could do to meet the needs of students who might be struggling with the material: Grasping concepts about something that seems so distant to us (outer space) can be difficult. Giving more comparisons of things in space to things on Earth could make a more substantial connection for some students. There is a great Bill Nye video that talks about a lot of these comparisons that students could watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a47GU14I_ak Having more physical materials to supplement activities could also be beneficial. With the human planet model activity, we could also incorporate a model of spheres to represent the planets, so students can visualize the different planet sizes.

Extension http://www.kidsastronomy.com/index.htm -This website is user friendly and targeted for kids specifically. It is very easy to navigate and provides great information. Within the solar system tab, there are links to specific planets with facts, activities, and videos for the students to learn. This could be a great resource for their resource project. There is also a moving model of the planet orbits, which could be a great way to visualize the solar system for those who are struggling.

Homework Options and Home Connections If students do not finish their blog post in class, they will have the option to complete this at home if they would like to continue moving at their own pace. Another homework option would be for the students to visit kidsastronomy.com and explore the games tab. There are many different educational games to play all dealing with the solar system. A home assignment could be to play at least two of the games and then write a

paragraph about anything interesting they learned from the game to share in class the next day.

Interdisciplinary Connections Art- an art extension could be applied by having the students physically create their planet creature, based on the Voki they created. They could draw, paint, or make a 3D model of their creature. They could do the same for the planet they researched, using different materials or colors to show the different physical features of their planet. Language Arts- Writing the blog post lends itself to additional lessons on specific writing conventions for different writing styles. For instance, if the student chooses to write a narrative blog post, a language arts connection could be discussing the idea of writing from a different perspective. They might learn how to write from the perspective of their creature and discuss how this changes their writing style and voice.

Materials and Resources:

For teachers

Internet accessible computer, projection screen, paper for planet cards (Day 1 activity), access to library/computer lab, Google account, Google Doc template

For students

Computer paper, writing utensils, library card, library books, computer login, access to home or school computer with Internet, Blogger.com account, Google Doc template

Key Vocabulary -Solar System, Orbit, All planet names, Voki