Inquiry Lesson Plan Template

Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University

Teachers: Isra Mishqat
Title & Topic:
Grade Level: 7
Geology Soil
Types
Standard:
Arizona Science Standard:
o Concept 1: Observations, Questions, and Hypotheses. PO 1. PO
3.
NGSS
o

Objective (Explicit & Measurable):

Students will be able to compare and contrast different sand and gravel
types and their physical properties to predict and assess how they
perform in a stimulated earthquake.
Evidence of Mastery (Measurable Assessment: formative and summative):
(formative) Students or groups will present their hypothesis before
proceeding with the experiment.
(summative) Students will complete a formal lab poster presentation
after this project.
Sub-objectives, SWBAT (steps that lead to completion of objective; sequence
from simple to more complex):
Students will be able to analyze and compare different soil types and
their properties both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Students will be able to formulate a prediction and hypothesis using
their quantitative and qualitative observations.
Students will be able to analyze their data and create a claim backed
up with evidence.
Lesson Summary and Justification: (summary gives detailed information
about what students are doing. Justification why is this lesson being
taught)
This lesson will be taught when introducing soil types in the ecology
segment of the yearly curriculum. This lesson plan is being taught to
engage students in the real life importance of the study of the
surrounding environment. An important example of this field of study,

is in the work of civil engineers when they build the foundation for
buildings around geographical fault lines.
Operational Vocabulary
Vocabulary needed for the
experience, introduced prior to when
it is needed.
1. Grain The relative size of
particles. 1
2. Tectonic Plates- Two sub layers of
the Earths crust that can move to
cause earthquakes of many things. 2
3. Settlement The act of making
stable. 3

Conceptual Vocabulary
Vocabulary that will be developed as
a result of the experiences.
1. Rate of settlement of sand /
gravel mixture

Misconception: (what possible misleading thoughts might students have?)

Students may believe that the finest grain will yield the most stable sand.
But what does it mean to be stable? What does it mean to settle?
Safety: (what safety rules and items need to be addressed?)
Students will be using a blender and must be aware of the blade inside the
blender. Students are prohibited to reach inside the blender. Its sole purpose
is to stimulate an earthquake. Students are also not allowed to throw or eat
sand or gravel being used in the lesson.
Inquiry Questions: (testable in the here and now.)
1. (to explore) Students will explore the properties of sand.
2. (to elaborate) Students will analyze how different sand grains interact
with another and build upon the properties they explored
Materials: (list item and possible quantity)
1.
2.
3.
4.

Sand ( 2 lbs to last the day for all classes)

Gravel (2 lbs to last the day for all classes)
Silt
1 Blender per group (4 6 blenders)
If there are not this many blenders available, an adjustment to this lesson
plan can be made to just have one or two blenders already made to serve as
Earthquake Stimulators and positioned at the front of the class to share. In
this case, groups will not be individually constructing their own.
5. 1 large container per group
6. 1 Plywood beam per group

Engage - In this section you should activate prior knowledge, hook student
attention, pose a question (IQ#1) based on your lesson objective that students
will seek to answer in Explore. Estimate how much time you need.
Teacher Will: (hook) 5 minutes
Students Will: - 5 minutes
The teacher will ask the students
The students will share their past
where they and or their family have
experiences in different geographic
lived in the past. And if they have ever zones of the Earth, and share their
survived an Earthquake. If no one can
experience with earth quakes if
relate to this, the teacher can ask if
any.
anyone has watched San Andreas, the
Students will actively participate in
movie. The teacher will use this to
a discussion that incorporates their
engage the class in a discussion on
ideas on different soil types and
earthquakes and soil types and which
their ability to withstand
soil types are more prone to settle in a settlement.
tectonic plate movement.

Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation and Teacher Notes

If this is being taught in a class with a majority of ELL or SPED
students, co teaching can be used by dividing the class into two and
engaging smaller groups more effectively. Both groups can then share
what they discussed briefly.
Explore - In this section students should take the lead and actively use materials
to discover information that will help them answer the question posed in
Engage. Teachers may choose to give steps to follow, especially for younger students,
but the goal is for students to discover some or all of the sub-objectives of the lesson.
Estimate how much time you need.
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #1) 10 minutes Students Will: - 10 minutes
The teacher will divid the class into
The students will analyze the soil
groups and distribute different sand
types
types to each group.
The students will record the soil
The teacher will instruct the students
type properties to make a
to analyze them for their quantitative
hypothesis on the soil type or
and qualitative properties.
mixture of soils most resistant to
settlement.
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation and Teacher Notes
While one teacher teaches the other one will assign groups. The
differentiation strategy during this stage of the lesson plan is that
students that require additional help will be paired with students who
are proficient in the material.
Explain In this section students share what they discovered, teacher connects
student discoveries to correct content terms/explanations, students
articulate/demonstrate a clear and correct understanding of the lesson sub-objectives
by answering the question from Engage before moving on. Estimate how much time
you need.
Teacher Will: - 5 minutes
Students Will: - 5 minutes
The teacher will instruct the groups to The students will present their
share their predictions and hypothesis predictions and hypothesis and
and ask the students to provide
provide reasoning for each.
reasoning.
The students will compare their
After each group shares their
prediction and hypothesis with the
prediction and hypothesis, the teacher information presented by the
will remind the students on how
teacher.
settlement occurs and what properties
support and oppose settlement.
After that, the teacher will
demonstrate how to build their
earthquake stimulator and allow
proceed with their experiments.
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation and Teacher Notes
The co-teaching strategy used in this segment of the lesson plan is one
teacher teaches and the other one assists and monitors the class for
questions.

Elaborate In this section students take the basic learning gained from Explore and
clarified in Explain and apply it to a new circumstance or explore a particular aspect of
this learning at a deeper level. Students should be using higher order thinking in this
stage. A common practice in this section is to ask a What If? question. Estimate how
much time you need. IQ #2
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #2) 5 minutes
Students Will: - 25 minutes
The teacher will ask students to add
Run the remainder of the
their sand mixture to the earth quake
experiment and record data.
stimulator.
Each student is to run the
blender on crush for 1
How does the rate of the tectonic
minute and record settlement.
plate movement affect settlement?
Students will run the blender
This question is guided to get the
at two other speeds, one
studetns to further elaborate on their
slower and one faster and
predictions and data gathered from
compare rates of settlement
this section of the lesson.
to explore at a deeper level.
Students will elaborate on their
data gathered and elaborate on
their predictions from the previous
section of this lesson.
Students will record their all
predictions and data in their
science notebook for the class.
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation and Teacher Notes
The best teaching strategy for this lesson would be a co-teaching strategy.
Differentiation throughout this lesson would be to pair less proficient
student with higher performing students. The teachers role in this part of
the lesson would be to be available as a resource in the classroom but would
not be micromanaging the groups.
Evaluate In this section every student demonstrates mastery of the lesson
objective (though perhaps not mastery of the elaborate content). Because this also
serves as a closing, students should also have a chance to summarize the big
concepts they learned outside of the assessment. Estimate how much time you need.
Teacher Will: - 5 minutes
Students Will: - 5 minutes
The teacher will instruct the groups
The students will work in their
to create a poster presentation that
groups to create a poster
each group will present at the end of presentation that includes all the
the week. Students will be given at
parts the teacher instructed.
least one in class day to work on this The work is to be delegated equally
poster.
and students will be doing peer
Posters are to include:
evaluations at the end of the lab to
determine work distrubution
Purpose of the experiment
throughout the lab.
Hypothesis and Prediction
Students will be given one full in
Data and Graph
class day following this experiment
Claim, Evidence and Conclusion
to work on their posters. Groups will
Posters are to show creativity
present their posters to the class by
and include graphics.
the end of the week.
Closure: (revisit objective, IQs and make real world connections)
Students will have analyzed different soil types and their physical
properties. From this analysis, they will formulate a hypothesis on which soil

type or mixture of soil types will be most resistant to settlement upon an

earthquake.
Students will record observations and analyze data from their experiments
to make a claim backed with evidence.
The real world connection in this inquiry lesson plan is very apparent, how
soil properties play in a role in buildings all across the world by being
resistant to settlement upon a tectonic plate movement.
References Used:
1
Dictionary. (n.d.) American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language,
Fifth Edition. (2011). Retrieved October 25, 2016
from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dictionary
2
Tectonic plate. (n.d.). Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon. Retrieved
October 25, 2016 from Dictionary.com
website http://www.dictionary.com/browse/tectonic-plate
3
Settlement. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved October 25, 2016
from Dictionary.com
website http://www.dictionary.com/browse/settlement

Assessment Rubric:
Science Fair Experiment : Soil Types Lab Presentation
Rubric
Teacher Name: Ms. Mishqat
Student Name:

________________________________________

CATEGORY

Hypothesis
Development

Independently
developed an
hypothesis wellsubstantiated by
a literature
review or
concepts
covered in class
and observation
of similar
phenomena.

Independently
developed an
hypothesis
somewhat
substantiated by
concepts
covered in class
and observation
of similar
phenomena.

Independently
developed an
hypothesis
somewhat
substantiated by
concepts
covered in class
or observation
of similar
phenomena.

Needed adult
assistance to
develop an
hypothesis or to
do a review on
the concepts
covered in class

Descripton of
Procedure

Procedures were
outlined in a
step-by-step
fashion that
could be
followed by
anyone without
additional
explanations.

Most (90%)
procedures were
outlined in a
step-by-step
fashion that
could be
followed by
anyone without
additional
explanations.

Some (75%)
procedures were
outlined in a
step-by-step
fashion, but had
1 or 2 gaps that
require
explanation
even after adult
feedback had
been given.

Few (60% or
less) procedures
that were
outlined were
seriously
incomplete or
not sequential,
even after adult
feedback had
been given.

Descripton of
Procedure

Procedures were
outlined in a
step-by-step
fashion that
could be
followed by
anyone without
additional
explanations.

Most (90%)
procedures were
outlined in a
step-by-step
fashion that
could be
followed by
anyone without
additional
explanations.

Some (75%)
procedures were
outlined in a
step-by-step
fashion, but had
1 or 2 gaps that
require
explanation
even after adult
feedback had
been given.

Few (60% or
less) procedures
that were
outlined were
seriously
incomplete or
not sequential,
even after adult
feedback had
been given.

Display

Each element in
the display had
a function and
clearly served to
illustrate some
aspect of the
experiment. All
items, 6, graphs
etc. were neatly
and correctly
labeled.

Each element
had a function
and clearly
served to
illustrate some
aspect of the
experiment.
Most items, 6,
graphs etc. were
neatly and
correctly
labeled.

Each element
had a function
and clearly
served to
illustrate some
aspect of the
experiment.
Most items, 6,
graphs etc. were
correctly
labeled.

The display
seemed
incomplete or
chaotic with no
clear plan. Many
labels were
missing or
incorrect.

Diagrams

Provided an
accurate, easyto-follow
diagram with
labels to
illustrate the
procedure or the

Provided an
accurate
diagram with
labels to
illustrate the
procedure or the
process being

Provided an
easy-to-follow
diagram with
labels to
illustrate the
procedure or
process, but one

Did not provide

a diagram OR
the diagram was
quite
incomplete.

process being
studied.

Conclusion/Summ Student
ary
provided a
detailed
conclusion
clearly based on
the data and
related to
previous
research
findings and the
hypothesis
statement(s).

studied.

key step was

left out.

Student
provided a
somewhat
detailed
conclusion
clearly based on
the data and
related to the
hypothesis
statement(s).

Student
provided a
conclusion with
some reference
to the data and
the hypothesis
statement(s).

No conclusion
was apparent
OR important
details were
overlooked.

Created using Rubistar: some enteries were editted for this lesson, others were kept as
created by the rubistar program