Lightning Before Thunder

This lesson was originally a 3 day exploration in the properties of light waves versus sound waves. While writing this post I realized this is exactly what students need to know to understand why we see lightning before we hear thunder. I plan to tinker with this idea more next year to better connect the phenomena to the student explorations.

Glow Little Glow Stick...

Here's a lesson I just completed with my Regents Chemistry Class. It's early in the year and this is our intro to the structure of an atom and chemical reactions. It was a shining success! Check out the student work that is posted at the end of the slideshow. Several of these students were exposed to a few 3-dimensional lessons in my biology class last year.

How Fast do Dominoes Fall?

Students explore the relationship between speed, distance and time by studying how how distance impacts the speed at which dominoes fall.

3D Earth and Space Science - Mapping Earthquakes and Volcanoes

Earth and Space Science 5E Lesson: ENGAGE
What do students know about plate boundaries and their interactions?
HS-ESS2.B Plate Tectonics and Large Scale System Interactions

I really like the work being done by the New Visions for Public Schools curriculum project. Their updates for 2016-17 give us a meaningful look at how to transition from NY's MST standards to the NYSSLS. The project is a work in progress, but what's great about it is that teachers can truly observe the shift in thinking from traditional instruction to 3-dimensional instruction. Judging by the improvements I've seen over the past three school years, this project seems to be a potentially valuable resource for science educators (as it has already proven to be in other subjects).

This lesson comes from the second Earth Science unit: Plate Boundaries and Surface Features. There is a nice 5E structure to the unit, but I found that this first lesson needed some support. Once again, a Crosscutting Concept graphic organizer comes to the rescue. After engaging in this activity, Earth Science students are immediately able to jump into using the ESRT p. 5 map and can begin modeling the landforms found at different plate boundaries.

Link to Lesson Slides

HS Chemistry - Models of the Atom

3D High School Chemistry Lesson

Link to full lesson

Lesson by Toni LaPoint, Benita Cataldo, Tim Freed - North Country Master Teachers

3D Physics - Fun Flyers

3D High School Physics Lesson

HS-PS3-5. Develop and use a model of two objects interacting through electric or magnetic fields to illustrate the forces between objects and the changes in energy of the objects due to the interaction.
[Clarification Statement: Examples of models could include diagrams, texts, algebraic expressions, and drawings representing what happens when two charges of opposite polarity are near each other.] [Assessment Boundary:  Assessment is limited to systems containing two objects.]

Lesson by Charlene Rydgren, Malone CSD

Exploring modeling instruction and the properties of matter

3D Middle School Physical Science Lesson

MS PS1-4: Develop a model that predicts and describes changes in particle motion, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed.

Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on qualitative molecular-level models of solids, liquids, and gases to show that adding or removing thermal energy increases or decreases kinetic energy of the particles until a change of state occurs. Examples of models could include drawing and diagrams. Examples of particles could include molecules or inert atoms. Examples of pure substances could include water, carbon dioxide, and helium.

Phenomenon: 

What happens when you add an ice cube to a cylinder filled with oil?

Photo from Steve Spangler Science

Students can use the Systems & Models graphic organizer to begin developing a model of the phenomenon, and whiteboards later on to build a group consensus model.

Link to full set of Crosscutting Concepts Graphic Organizers

3-dimensional lesson plan for this phenomenon:

Link to lesson file with blank template

Modeling the phenomenon:

The most important facet of this lesson is the development of student models to diagram and explain the phenomenon. The demonstration sets the stage for student understanding; it's important for the teacher to equip students with the opportunity to ask questions to reveal new layers of understanding of the phenomenon. Through group collaboration, class discussion, and individual reflection, students have an opportunity to continually revise their understanding. Class discussion, led by the teacher, is critical so that key vocabulary and concepts are connected to student understanding and represented in the consensus model. Teachers need to be equipped to guide students through any typical misconceptions during the discussion phase.

Want more information about modeling instruction? 

Here's a synopsis from the American Modeling Teachers Association.

3D Lesson - Earth and Space Science - Interpreting Models of Landscapes

3D Earth and Space Science Lesson: Mapping the Impossible

ESS2; ESS3; ETS1

This lesson is an example of curriculum adaptation.

Regents Earth Science: A spiral approach to teaching maps

In the current NYS Regents Earth Science course, mapping is a skill that reinforces learning across multiple content areas. Many teachers choose to include a unit on mapping early in their curriculum sequence to give students the background skills needed to interact with learning later on in the course. This is similar to the way in which Earth Science courses address skills-based topics such as measuring and density, and rock and mineral identification.

More recently, many teachers have proposed shifting topics out of the "prologue" or preview of the course, and spiraling their introduction within the context of other Earth science themes. For example, teachers introduce density when discussing the separation of the Earth into layers and the mechanism of convection currents. Igneous and metamorphic rocks form by tectonic processes, and sedimentary rocks link the study of lithospheric landforms with the interactions of the hydrosphere and atmosphere.

The same can be done with map skills. Outside of their contextual use in interpreting landscapes, maps are arbitrary constructs to students. Especially with the shift toward a 3-dimensional approach to student learning, maps can and should be more of a thematic link between multiple core ideas within the discipline. Deliberate decisions about the introduction of the different types of maps can have an important impact on student understanding, especially if aligned with the development of a student's math skills. This also allows teachers to free up the time usually spent introducing skills at the beginning of the course and dive deeply into the curriculum itself - addressing the concern that a 3-dimensional approach "takes longer" in an already-full Earth Science curriculum.

3-D Lesson - Regents Chemistry - Distillation

3-D Chemistry Lesson - Using Distillation as a Phenomenon: 

HS-PS1-10; HS-PS3-1

 

This lesson is an example of curriculum adaptation -