Lesson Visit a Planet for a Day!

Date September 2018

Title/Focus

Subject/Grade Grade 6 Science Time 55 minutes

Level Duration

Unit Sky Science Teacher Ms. Casten

OUTCOMES FROM ALBERTA PROGRAM OF STUDIES

General - 6-7 Observe, describe and interpret the movement of objects in the sky;
Learning and identify pattern and order in these movements.
Outcomes:

Specific - 9) Recognize that the other eight known planets, which revolve around
Learning the Sun, have characteristics and surface conditions that are different
Outcomes: from Earth; and identify examples of those differences.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will
1. Students will be capable of explaining their planet’s unique qualities, and create an
argument for why their planet is important to the solar system.

ASSESSMENTS

Observations: Summative
15% of whole mark
- Class participation
- Students conversing with the partner/ group at the station
5% of whole mark
- Filled out worksheet, or have submitted an electronic version to me
- Students who need to demonstrate their understanding through a
different method can talk to me beforehand (having a conversation
with me, videotaping themselves and uploading it, writing it down on
paper, etc)
-
Formative
Physical:
- Walking around room, ensuring on-task behaviour at stations
Oral:
- Listening to class discussion and student conversations
 - Asking precise questions to prompt student to think beyond just
“facts,” but rather apply those facts to pose critical questions about the
solar system
- “Do you think your planet is habitable? Why or why not?”
- “How does the position of your planet from the sun affect its ability to
support life on earth?’
- “Does your planet have any similarities or differences to what you
know about earth?”
Visual:
- Looking for on-task behaviour (students engaged, scrolling through
the website, writing stuff down in their science journal)
- Looking for hands raised/ not raised when asking assessment
questions such as:
- How many of you are one question …?
- Did you have time to look through other material? Which
resources did you use?
- Why is it important to get our information from a variety of
sources?
- What did you do differently today from lesson 2 that helped
you stay on track?

Essential Question to To what extent are we as humans affected by the solar system in which
drive the lesson/unit we live in?

MATERIALS
LEARNING RESOURCES CONSULTED AND
EQUIPMENT

- Learn Alberta website - Textbook

- http://www.pkearthandspace.com/ - Laptops/
ipads
- Books
- Workshe
ets/
pencils

PROCEDURE

Prior to lesson Have essential question on board. When students come in and sit down,
stations with resources for each planet will be laid out around the class.

Introduction Time

Attention Grabber Ask the essential question to the class. Have students participate in 5
a stand up, hands up, pair up activity. minutes
Assessment of Prior Have them high five someone new.
Knowledge - “We will then have 2 minutes for you to discuss your topic
from lesson 2, what you learned from reading the Google
Doc, and then how you think that assignment will help you
with the class project.
I will ask them questions such as:
- “Who read about ...? What did you learn? How is it relevant
to lesson 1, and how do you think it will be relevant for
understanding the solar system?”

Activity Description Class discussion about the 9 planets (For this unit, Pluto is
considered to be a planet)

Self-directed research stations, with resources about the planet.

- Students will be responsible for filling out a worksheet
about their planet and submitting it to me by the end of the
class.
- I will allot more time for students who need it. I will also
ensure that there are headsets/ ear plugs available for
students who need to concentrate. I can also allow for
students to work in the library or hall, provided that they
show me results of hard work.

Transition to Body Have students return back to their desk 1

minutes

Body Time

Learning Activity #1 - Have the students turn their attention to the front. 7-8
State the objective of the lesson, asking to ​“quietly minutes
think of why this would be relevant to the question I
just asked for your own consideration”,​ and explain
the structure of this class’ lesson. “​The structure will
be self-guided stations with support from me”.
- Name the 9 planets orally, and assess what students
know about each planet by asking the question ​“What
do you know about this planet?” This gives me an
idea of their background knowledge.

Transition Have a list at the front of the students who are paired 2-3
together. Students are paired up according to what ways they minutes
demonstrate learning and understanding, which I will have
figured out prior to the lesson. Groups will appear random.
- “When I say go, you can go to your stations and meet
up with your group.”
 Stations will have already been set up by me prior to the
class, and will include resources such as ipads/laptops with
bookmarks for the resources we used in lessons 1/2,
textbooks, and informational books (that will have bookmarks
for accessibility)

Learning Activity #2 - Ask ​“why did I chose to do a worksheet for you to 20-25
use?”​, and then explain that it will be used for minutes
furthering the project of the rest of the unit. I will
explain that they are responsible for answering in
detail the questions of the worksheet. This will be
done by them using the resources I have given them
at their station. Ask for any clarification or questions. I
will tell them that I can be used as a resource, but not
to solely rely on me by asking me questions.
- Walk around each station and take part of the
conversation for about 2 minutes. ​This will encourage
students to use the other resources as I am not at
each station for very long.​ I will ask specific prompting
questions to get them to think about the relevance of
researching and focusing on the information on the
worksheet.

Closure Time

- Ask the students ​“how did this guided lesson 5-7

answer the essential question?”​, which will still be minutes
on the board from the beginning of this lesson.
- Ask students if there is anything to clarify, and
prompt the other students to answer any questions
- Exit slip: Have students send me a message on
Class Dojo about what planet they researched and
one important thing they learned about it.