Conceptual Flow Diagram

Disciplinary Core Ideas

NGSS Performance Expectations

Click on linked PEs to see corresponding lessons. 

Year Presented

Chemistry: Matter and Its Interactions

PS1: Matter and Its Interactions

• PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter
• PS1.B: Chemical Reactions
• PS1.C: Nuclear Processes

2-PS1-1, 2-PS1-2, 2-PS1-3, 2-PS1-4

5-PS1-1, 5-PS1-2, 5-PS1-3, 5-PS1-4

7^th and 8^th Grade PEs:

MS-PS1-1, MS-PS1-2, MS-PS1-3, MS-PS1-4, MS-PS1-5, MS-PS1-6

Chemistry & Engineering

Summer 2023

Forces and Motion

 PS2: Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

• PS2.A: Forces and Motion
• PS2.B: Types of Interactions
• PS2.C: Stability and Instability in Physical Systems

K-PS2-1, K-PS2-2

3-PS2-1, 3-PS2-2, 3-PS2-3, 3-PS2-4

Physics

Summer 2022

Energy and Waves

PS2: Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

• PS2.A: Forces and Motion

PS3: Energy

• PS3.A: Definition of Energy
• PS3.B: Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer
• PS3.C: Relationship Between Energy and Forces
• PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life

PS4: Waves and Their Applications for Information Transfer

• PS4.A: Wave Properties
• PS4.B: Electromagnetic Radiation
• PS4.C: Information Technologies and Instrumentation 

K-PS2-2, K-PS3-1, K-PS3-2

1-PS4-1,1-PS4-2,1-PS4-3,1-PS4-4

4-PS3-1, 4-PS3-2, 4-PS3-3, 4-PS3-4,    4-PS4-1, 4-PS4-2, 

5-PS3-1

MS-PS3-3, MS-PS3-4, MS-PS3-5

Physics

Summer 2022
 

Grade Level

NGSS Performance Expectation(s)

Lesson Title and Description

Lesson Materials

Presenter(s)

You CAN Touch This!

In the lesson, students practice making general observations about the properties of objects by participating in classroom scavenger hunts, mystery bags, and picture sorts.  They also apply some basic tests to select materials to gather more observational data about the properties of those materials. Students then analyze their observational data to look for patterns in material properties. They apply this knowledge to hypothetical designs of umbrellas and simulation predictions.  Finally, they make predictions and connections, as they engage in a read aloud and complete a final assessment.

Lesson Plan

Student Worksheets (Google Doc)

Card Sort

Kandie White

Summer 2023

To Change or Not to Change? That is the Question

Within this lesson students will explore what happens when materials are heated and cooled.  By analyzing data, they will see that within the temperature range they explore (32°F -212°F), some of the materials are stable (do not change) and some are unstable (do change). Students will observe that unstable materials can either undergo a reversible change (phase changes) or undergo an irreversible change (chemical reactions). A story will then be used to corroborate their findings. Students will demonstrate what they learned by drawing pictures of a stable material, a material that is unstable and undergoes a phase change, and a material that is unstable and undergoes a chemical reaction.

Lesson Plan

Student Worksheet (Publisher)

Student Worksheet (PDF)

Class Reading

Class Data Sheet

Darby Feldwinn

Summer 2022

5

5-PS1-1

Models Matter

The lesson starts with a review of matter. Students then make observations of water and a sugar cube. These observations are used to generate an initial model of solids and liquids. After this, the water and the sugar cube are heated. While heating students are able to observe water that has condensed on the top and sides of the container. However, no water is seen in the center of the container while it is in the gas phases, therefore, students are led to the conclusion that liquids must be made of particles that are too small to be seen. These observations are incorporated into their model. Students use their model to predict what will happen when the sugar cube is put into the water, then perform the experiment. The sugar cube completely “disappears” into the water. Students verify the sugar is still in the water by tasting the solution. Therefore, students are led to the conclusion that solids also must be made of particles that are too small to be seen. These observations are incorporated into their model. Students then use their model to predict what will happen when the sugar/water solution is heated, including what liquid (only water or sugar and water) will condense over the solution. The lesson culminates with students doing a reading and comparing their model to correct
scientific thinking about molecules as well as learning about the motion of particles in the different phases of matter on the molecular level. Students incorporate everything they learned from the activity and the reading in a final model that shows their understanding of solids, liquids, and gasses at both the macroscopic and microscopic levels.

Lesson Plan

Student Worksheets (Publisher)

Student Worksheets (PDF)

Student Reading

Darby Feldwinn

Summer 2023

Grade Level

NGSS Performance Expectation(s)

Lesson Title and Description

Lesson Materials

Presenter(s)

TK 

K-PS2-1

I Like to Move it, Move it

This lesson is a TK lesson that is designed to prepare students for the Kindergarten PE K-PS2-1. It will focus only on a portion of this PE (speed of objects).

This lesson introduces and differentiates between a push and pull on an object and how changing variables affect the speed of an object. Students will apply what they learned to Marble Run structures and will discuss the structure and function of different specialty pieces. They will predict how the pieces will affect marble motion (slow down or speed up the marble relative to a reference piece). After testing the effects of single pieces, they will predict and rank the order in which a marble will run fastest through five structures with five specialty pieces each. The activity ends with students building Marble Run structures, describing how the speed of a marble will change as it is going through their structures, then releasing a marble through their structure to confirm their ideas. 

Lesson Plan

Student Worksheets (Word)

Student Worksheet (PDF)

Word Cards

Darby Feldiwnn
Janis Spracher

Summer 2022

3 

May the Force Be With You

In this lesson, students will be introduced to balanced and unbalanced forces, and will learn how to draw simple force diagrams. Students will learn that friction is the contact force that counteracts a push or a pull. Students will apply these concepts to what happens when a toy car slides across rough and smooth surfaces. To analyze their data, students will find median distances, find ranges of medians, and make graphs.

*Classroom Tested by 2021 Lesson Study Participant*

"May the Force Be With You! Such a great opportunity to develop a strong understanding of pushes and pulls and balanced and unbalanced forces. With hands-on opportunities to push the cars, students all on their own were able to connect previous knowledge and verbalize the role friction plays in slowing an object. Students were provided with an opportunity to find the range and median values to analyze data. The students were very successful with these aspects of the data set as these were part of previous Sci Trek lessons. However, this could easily be used as an introduction to those concepts as well. The connection to energy and the transfer of energy was more of a challenge for the students, but the opportunity to begin to develop this concept through application and discussion is provided...  All in all a fun, force filled activity!" - Allison Heiduk, Monte Vista Elementary

Lesson Plan

Student Worksheet 

(Publisher)

Student Worksheet (PDF)

Darby Feldwinn

Sammi Lambert

Summer 2022

5

5-PS2-1

Drop it Like its Hot

In this lesson, students explore object motion using video, timers, and penpal data from other areas. With guidance, students use a time scale to compare data to be able to come to conclusions. Students will then create videos to communicate what they have learned. 

Lesson Plan

Student Worksheet (GDoc)

Student Worksheet (PDF)

Teacher Packet

Gravity Reading

Kyla Rightmer

Summer 2022

Grade Level

NGSS Performance Expectation(s)

Lesson Title and Description

Lesson Materials

Presenter(s)

K-PS3-1

Under the Sun

Students will look at a picture of their playground on a sunny day, and generate ideas about what might cause objects in the picture to be at different temperatures. They will turn these ideas into questions. As a class, students will explore their school playground, and measure the temperatures and take pictures of objects they think might be hot or cold. Students will then order the pictures by temperature, allowing them to identify patterns between the hot and cold objects. Students will be led to realize the experiment they did was not controlled, and when comparing pictures, multiple variables were changing. Students will then be given materials they could use to design controlled experiments, and realize with these materials, they can test the patterns of color, moisture, and shading. As a class, they will design these experiments, and carry them out to confirm their findings. Students will use these results to predict the relative temperatures of water, rock, soil, and sand. The lesson will conclude with students explaining what is going on in four pictures, and drawing a picture of the sun heating objects differently.

Lesson Plan

Student Worksheets (Publisher)

Student Worksheet (PDF)

Support Materials

Louka Moutarlier

Summer 2022

6/MS 

MS-PS3-5

Mission Motion: Make it Move!

In this lesson, students will expand on their knowledge of the Law of Conservation of Energy by analyzing and building Rube Goldberg machines. Students will analyze two Rube Goldbergs as a class, and then build one Rube Goldberg to accomplish a specific task. In each scenario, students will explain the energy transfers that occur within each subsystem to determine how the machine works. They will then swap Rube Goldbergs to engage in written and verbal argumentation to determine if another group’s machine works as advertised to accomplish a task in a given number of energy transfers.

Lesson Plan

Student Worksheet (Publisher)

Student Worksheet (PDF)

Teacher Example Rube Goldberg

Sammi Lambert

Laura Spracher

Summer 2022

Grade Level

NGSS Performance Expectation(s)

Lesson Title and Description

Lesson Materials

Presenter(s)

Sound or Silence

In this unit students will identify sounds and discuss why sound is important to their lives. Students will get to explore making sounds from three different set-ups to learn about volume and pitch. These findings will be applied to predict what two other set-ups will do and reinforce the idea that sounds make materials vibrate and vibrating materials make sound. Students will then confirm their findings through comparing what they have observed to information found in a book. The activity concludes with students doing an exploriment around their school campus and noticing sounds and connecting this to vibrations.

Lesson Plan

Student Worksheet (Publisher)

Student Worksheet (PDF)

Kandie White

Summer 2022

1

1-PS4-4*

(The focus of this lesson is an extension and connection to Environmental Principles and Concepts.) 

A Mealworm's Bright Night

Students will begin by discussing the natural patterns of darkness and light on Earth and discuss examples of artificial vs. natural light. Students will be introduced to various impacts of light on animals. Then, with the guidance of the teacher, students will work in small groups to design and carry out an experiment to test how light effects if mealworms will go towards a food source. (YES, this lesson uses live mealworms and is a great opportunity to bring living things into the classroom!) 

Lesson Plan

Student Worksheets (Word)

Student Worksheets (PDF)

Additional Lesson Materials

Mandi de Witte

Summer 2019

4

4-PS4-2

Oh, I See!

Within this lesson students will explore the effect light has on the ability to see. They will observe that without a light source, objects are not visible, and that light from a luminous object reflecting off a non-luminous object causes the non-luminous object to be visible. Students will work in small groups to develop an initial model, which they will revise several times as they learn additional information about how light travels and how the eye takes in light. They will then use their model to make a prediction about how nocturnal animals are able to see in near, but not complete, darkness.

*Classroom Tested by 2021 Lesson Study Particpant*

"I ran the Oh, I See!: How Does Light Cause Objects to Be Visible? twice, once with a whole fourth-grade class and again with a smaller group of fourth graders from another class. The lesson was revised after consulting with the classes' teachers, who observed the lessons. Making the light boxes was not difficult, and is essential for student engagement and modeling of the phenomenon. The phenomenon was very engaging to students, and led to rich discussions throughout the lesson sequence. Students also really liked the mini-investigation into light's effect on pupil size. The lesson sequence includes observation, investigation, direct instruction, and reading of informational texts, which gave students lots of opportunities to connect new learning with prior knowledge and ideas about light and vision, and to make connections from lesson to lesson that they incorporated in their models.The tie-in with nocturnal animals at Sedgwick Reserve was an engaging way to use the models they created in their groups to make a prediction about wildlife that are native to our local ecosystem." - Patty Malone, Monte Vista Elementary

Lesson Plan

Student Worksheet (GDoc)

Student Worksheet (PDF) 

Patty Malone

Summer 2022