CALCULATING HEAT MICROTEACH REPORT

TIFFANY CHRISTIAN
SED561
DUE: 12/2/14

Microteaching Report
Tiffany Christian
Arizona State University
Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College

CALCULATING HEAT MICROTEACH REPORT

TIFFANY CHRISTIAN
SED561
DUE: 12/2/14
Lesson Overview and Design
In this lesson, students worked to develop and use an equation in order to calculate
how much heat was released or absorbed during a reaction. The lesson was aimed toward
high school students and aligned with the Next Generation Science Standard HS-PS3-4:
Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that the transfer of thermal energy
when two components of different temperature are combined within a closed system
results in a more uniform energy distribution among the components in the system
(second law of thermodynamics) (NGSS Lead States, 2013). The primary objective for the
lesson was for students to be able to calculate heat as a quantity of energy by relating
variables in an equation. The lesson was framed around the concept of food energy, in
which students calculated the caloric content of different food. From this lesson, students
would progress to a calorimetry lab in which they would utilize the equation further.
The lesson started with a review of what had been covered over the previous two
days regarding temperature, heat, and phase changes. It is important that students have a
solid understanding of these concepts before moving on to the days lesson as the lesson
builds on prior knowledge. Students were all asked to bring in some kind of food that had a
label with nutrition facts and did a think-pair-share regarding what component on the label
was related to the total amount of energy that the food provided. From there, I discussed
Calories, calories and joules and how they were related to one another. Then the students
provided insight as to what they believed were the relevant components used to calculate
heat. Suggestions were evaluated and we were able to agree on the necessary components.
After the proper equation was developed and the meaning of each component was
explained, I modeled how I expected students to complete calculations and provided time
for students to complete the remaining problems provided to them. I went over one of the
problems with the students and asked the students to defend the answer based on the
numbers involved in the calculation and the wording provided in the question. At the end
of the lesson, students explored a virtual calorimetry lab in which they calculated the
caloric content of different food. The virtual lab served as a preview to the lab that they
would be completing in class the following day.
Unit Connection
This lesson takes place on day four of an eleven-day unit plan on Thermodynamics.
The unit is framed through our puzzling phenomenon of Why does a metal pot feel colder
than a book when they are actually the same temperature? During previous lessons,
students explored the concepts of temperature, heat, and phase changes. The
understanding of these concepts was critical in order to progress to the current lesson, as
students need to evaluate heat in relation to temperature change. From this lesson and its
subsequent lab, students investigate different forms of heat transfer. Students then set out
to create their own investigation to further explore the concept of heat transfer.

CALCULATING HEAT MICROTEACH REPORT

TIFFANY CHRISTIAN
SED561
DUE: 12/2/14
Throughout the unit, students complete multiple lab activities, each requiring some
form of a lab write-up. Each lab write-up is a little more complex than the previous one.
This scaffolding provides students with progressive support and gives students plenty of
practice with each component so that the lab report for their culminating assessment is
less daunting.
Lesson Analysis
The focal SSTELLA practice of the lesson was Contextualizing Science Activity. The
lesson had the potential to be considered Elaborating; however, as it was carried out, I
believe that it was Implementing. The lesson was framed using the concept of food and
calories. Students brought in their own food sample and used it to calculate the amount of
energy it provided using different units. The lesson concluded with using a virtual
calorimetry lab in order to calculate the caloric content of different foods; the students
chose five of the possible ten foods to investigate. The middle of the lesson, when students
developed the equation for calculating heat and applied it to the provided problems, was
disconnected from the over-arching frame. In order to reach the Elaborating rating, I could
have had the students develop the equation using examples with food, and perform more
calculations based on the food they brought in rather than using decontexualized problems.
For Scientific Sense-Making, the lesson would be rated Introducing/Implementing
for Communicating the Big Idea and Introducing for Pressing for Model- or Problembased Scientific/Engineering Practices. The connection between the big idea and the
current lesson and the learning objective were mentioned at the beginning of the lesson,
before and after the bell work, but it could have been stated more explicitly. I provided all
the questions and used a virtual lab, which walked the students through the activity. The
lesson is towards the beginning of the unit, so my intention was to still provide students
with adequate modeling of how to perform investigations. The students helped to develop
the equation to use to calculate heat, but I needed stronger evidence to describe why
certain components were not involved in the calculation.
Scientific Discourse was rated Introducing for Facilitating Productive Student Talk
and Implementing for Pressing for Scientific Explanation and Argumentation. The majority
of the discourse that took place during the lesson followed the teacher initiates question,
student responds, teacher evaluates format. All students were encouraged to talk; there
were times when students talked in groups and others when they were asked to share
ideas with the class. I primarily relied on cold calls in order to ensure full class
participation. Due to time constraints I was only able to go over one additional problem
from the heat calculations that the students completed. After the student provided the
answer, I posed the question Does this answer make sense? As a class we discussed how
to evaluate an answer in order to determine its validity using context clues from the
problem and basic math. Had there been more time, I would have gone into more depth
regarding analyzing and defending answers.

CALCULATING HEAT MICROTEACH REPORT

TIFFANY CHRISTIAN
SED561
DUE: 12/2/14
English Language and Disciplinary Literacy Development was Implementing for
Promoting Opportunities for English Language Development for ELs through Student
Interaction, Implementing for Promoting opportunities for English Language Development
for ELs through vocabulary, and Introducing/Implementing for Pressing for Authentic
Science Literacy Tasks. Students interacted with each other during the think-pair-shares,
small group conversations, and whole-class discussions. Each student was required to talk
during the lesson; however, this was easier to accomplish in this setting because there
were only eight students to account for. New vocabulary was explicitly introduced and
supported using visuals, definitions, and descriptions. When developing the equation for
heat, visuals were provided in order to consider their effect on the amount of heat
required. Specific heat was specifically defined and explained. The Greek symbol delta
was introduced and defined as well. Previously taught vocabulary, such as temperature and
mass, were also reviewed. This lesson focused more on science concepts than on
scientific/engineering practices. The lesson covered underlying concepts that were
necessary in order to investigate the topic further throughout the unit. The virtual lab
required students to record information in the form of a lab write-up. For this activity, I
provided them with a handout that outlined all of the information that they were required
to include. As the students completed more lab activities, this kind of explicit outline would
not be provided.
The technology that I used was the virtual calorimetry lab. This was a great way to
introduce the students to the lab that they would be performing the following day. The inclass lab differs in procedure because the virtual lab has more high-tech equipment than
what is available at the high school level. The students are able to practice making
predictions, gathering data, and performing calculations using the equation that they
developed during class.
Revised Lesson
This was a decent lesson; however, additional changes should be made in order for
it to be more effective. First of all, I would extend the lesson to cover two days. There is a
lot of information to cover, and in order to allow more focus on the SSTELLA practices
more time is needed. Many of the SSTELLA practices were introduced, but time restraints
prohibited me from elaborating on them. In particular, I would have liked to spend more
time going over answers from the practice problems and having students defend their
answers as well as providing the students with plenty of time to explore the virtual lab.
The lesson also did not flow as I anticipated, and the students were offset by the
disconnection between the framing concept of food and the development of the equation
and practice problems. According to feedback, I should have spent more time on the topic
of calories and engaged students in a discussion regarding their prior knowledge of
calories. Then I could have used examples of food when developing the equation for heat
rather than other objects. The practice problems could also be centered around food,
where students calculate the caloric content of different foods based on information

CALCULATING HEAT MICROTEACH REPORT

TIFFANY CHRISTIAN
SED561
DUE: 12/2/14
provided. These changes could help to ensure the contextualization of the content (Tolbert,
Stoddart, Lyon, & Solis, 2014)
The feedback I received alerted me that while virtually everyone enjoyed the virtual
lab, many did not feel that they were able to spend as much time on in as they would have
liked or felt that it was confusing or should have been explained more. I would resolve this
by having the students complete the lab during the following class period. I debated on
introducing the lab earlier and then continuing the lab on the following day, but because of
the way the lab is set up, it would be difficult to do so. I would, however, introduce them to
the concept of calorimetry prior to developing the equation and remind them of the
process prior to them completing the lab.
The students also felt that they did not have many opportunities to discuss the
concepts discussed. In order to address this, I would incorporate more student discussions
into the lesson and use more talk move to promote deeper understanding and further
elaboration from students (Michaels & OConnor, 2012). Students would share with each
other during the newly added discussion regarding calories. I would also assign student
groups and have the students first discuss with one another what they believed to be
necessary components of the equation. Then one group would present their findings to the
class, while other groups were given the opportunity to agree or disagree. After their
discussion I would prompt students with additional questions, if necessary, and provide
visuals in order to bring them to the conclusion of the true equation. I believe that these
additions would help the students to be able to develop understanding of the content,
whereas the way the lesson was presented often provided the students with the necessary
information. This would create a more authentic, inquiry-based learning experience
(Windschitl, 2008).
References
National Research Council (2012). A framework for K-12 science education: Practices,
crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. National Academies Press: Washington, D.C.
Michaels, S., & O'Connor, C. (2012). Talk Science Primer. Cambridge: TERC.
Tolbert, S., Stoddart, T., Lyon, E., & Solis, J. (2014). The Next Generation Science Standards,
Common Core State Standards, and English Learners: Using the SSTELLA Framework.
Issues in Teacher Education, 23(1), 65-74.
Windschitl, M. (2008). What is inquiry? A framework for thinking about authentic scientific
practice in the classroom. In Science as inquiry in the secondary setting. Arlington, Va.:
NSTA Press.