First Lesson
The objective of this lesson is to review the scientific method. Through center activities the students will apply scientific process including observing, recording, sorting, classifying, measuring, predicting, collecting, and interpreting data. I will provide each student with a folder for recording information from all the centers. Students will be recording all throughout the activities provided.
The observing center will require the students to look at pictures of the sky (night and day) and to make their own picture of the sky. The night sky will have stars and the day will have the sun. This will be in an attempt to get the students to observe these sources of natural light and record it in their drawings. The question to be answered in this center is what do you see?
The sorting center will have a set of pictures or objects that the students must sort as natural light or man made light. This center requires an adult to help the students sustain a conversation while sorting. In order for the students to agree on the type of source they must identify what makes it natural or artificial. The questions to be answered in this center should be what is natural light and what is artificial light, and how are they different? Once the students are able to sort the different sources of light they write the two lists of sorted objects on their recording folder.
An interesting center will be the classifying center where the students will be talking to their peers about how different light sensitive objects and battery operated objects may work. For example, I have a "bird" I purchased in Chinatown many years ago that is light sensitive. When the light enters the bird box we can hear it singing. I can also use calculators that use light to function, among other objects. The recording for this center will require adult assistance. The question posed will be: "How do you think this works?" The importance of this center is the students trying to explain how the light may affect the object to make it work. The classifying stage of this center will be on whether the object uses light or another source of energy to work.
I want students to create a sundial at the measuring center. Although they would not be doing the measuring in the classroom they will have the opportunity to see a model of a sundial and create their own. The sundial will be used outside at different times of the day so they can measure the daily movement of the Earth. To help them determine the accuracy of their sundial the students will compare their own findings with those of their peers. In addition, they will write the time as measure by the school clock and compare to their own.
I will conduct an instructional conversation with the students with the topic: What is the scientific method? My intent in this conversation would be to help the students debrief on the centers they have visited in order to understand the process of inquiry and the importance of posing questions, predicting, observing, recording and so forth.
All of these activities will take place in an hour and a half period. This will require 15 minutes per activity and allowing 15 extra minutes for rotating and any other management needs. The debriefing can be a whole group activity or a small group activity. I have chosen an instructional conversation for the debriefing to use it as an assessment tool. This lesson is preliminary so I can determine my students needs before I start with the unit. In addition, it will help me establish classroom rules and to start developing a rapport with the students. The following day we are going outside to use our sundials. Once we establish that we can tell time using sunlight, then I can generate a discussion on the uses of light.
Second Lesson
The objective of this lesson is to allow the students to measure solar position and to compare to time as measured by a clock. Utilizing the sundials we go outside to mark the sunlight on each of our measuring dials. We will be outside twenty minutes in the morning, after lunch, and in the afternoon. The teacher, assistant, tutor, and I will assist the students in utilizing the sundial. All students will have an opportunity to debrief and record their observations and conclusions.
Third Lesson
The objective of this lesson is to produce sentences describing light. Utilizing the language experience approach I will allow for my students to experience light and then produce vocabulary and eventually sentences to make up poems. First I will make some demonstrations with different sources of light, such as: flash light, candle, etc. Then the group will generate vocabulary, describing light (adjectives). Demonstrations will include light traveling in a straight line. This demonstration can be done by making dime size holes in the center of index cards, turning on a flashlight, and turning off the classroom lights. I can also demonstrate how light can slowed down by the density of substances. Utilizing a glass half full of water and a pen I can show my students how a pencil appears to bend when it enters the water. A prism can help me show how white light contains a spectrum of color. For this to work one has to use a very narrow beam of light. All of these demonstrations should allow for the students to become better familiarized with the concept of light.
Fourth Lesson
My objective is to introduce the concept of light through one of the poems in the book "Flicker Flash". The first poem refers to light as stretched, bend back, flicker and flash, near and far, lamps and stars, tiny and wide as day. This poem will allow the students to explore vocabulary at the same time they are learning some more information about light. I want to do some drama with this poem, get the kids to act out the words and pretend they are light. This will allow them to increase their experience with the vocabulary and will enhance their ability to comprehend and to write their own poems.
Fifth lesson
The objective is to further understand the characteristics of light. During this session we are going to centers again. We are going to explore some of the characteristics of light. We are going to make waves in a tub of water in the classifying center. The students all must observe and record how many waves they each make. Then they can classify their peers in order of who had the most waves to who had the least or vice versa. In the sorting center they are going to make candles (with the help of the teacher assistant) they must sort the materials and make sure that every student has the necessary parts to make the candle. In the measuring center the students will be measuring the beam of a flashlight. The predicting center will involve making a circle divided into triangles and predicting how would it look when they spin it (this center will be with help from the teacher). The interpreting data center will be looking at light through a prism and trying to explain how is it that they can see the spectrum of light. This will be an instructional conversation with me and the question will be: "The light is one color. How do you think we can see many colors ?" In addition, I have diffraction glasses that we can integrate in one of the centers for the students to see the spectrum of light. All of the center activities will include a question that will require analysis and interaction with their peer to answer it.
These are some examples of how one may cover the topics explored by this unit. A final project will include a written collection of poems produced by the students. Following there is a discussion on the historical and theoretical pedagogical framework of this unit.