Science 9:00-9:35 Monday, September 17, 2018 Number of Students: 23

Unit: Material Magic

Lesson 2: Can You Really Fry an Egg on a Hot Sidewalk?

Goals (Weekly Learning Targets):

I can describe the insulating property.
I can describe the conducting property.
I can write down my thoughts like a scientist.
Rationale: It is important that students understand the insulating and conducting properties
because this is a foundational understanding that will help students be successful throughout the
rest of this science unit. It is also important that students understand their thoughts can be
recorded because this unit allows them to practice making and sharing observations. Making and
recording observations is a science skill which students will continue to employ throughout the
second grade science curriculum. Additionally, the ability to make observations is an essential
skill for students to master as they apply problem solving skills in their daily life.
Objective: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to describe the insulating property and
name a material that is an insulator.
Standards:
2-PS1-1 Matter and Its Interactions
Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their
observable properties.
2-PS1-2 Matter and Its Interactions
Analyze data obtained from testing different materials to determine which materials have the
properties that are best suited for an intended purpose.
Materials:
 Mystery Science, Unit: Material Magic, Mystery 2
 Properties anchor chart, which was created during the previous week
 Prepared practice questions to model recording thoughts like a scientist
Instructional Plans
Introduction:
 Review properties chart from previous week
 Introduce insulating and conducting properties
 Indicate to students the weekly learning targets
o I can describe the insulating property.
o I can describe the conducting property.
o I can write down my thoughts like a scientist.
 Tell students this week’s big questions is: Can you really fry an egg on a hot sidewalk?
Body:
 Begin Material Magic Mystery 2
 Stop Mystery after first discussion and model thinking aloud
o “Hmmm, so it seems like an oven mitt and a cardboard sleeve can both be used to
help pick up hot objects without burning our hands. I wonder what properties of
these materials make that possible…”
 Continue Mystery 2 until the second discussion slide; stop here—activity will be
completed another day
 Model and practice recording thoughts like a scientist
Closure:
 Review the insulating property
 Ask students to turn to a partner and describe the insulating property
 Ask for volunteer to share their definition and give an example of a material with the
insulating property; thumbs up if other students agree with what was stated
Differentiation Plans: This lesson is the introductory lesson for the week’s science concepts.
Students who do not grasp concepts today will have several more opportunities to gain
understanding as the concepts will be reviewed each science lesson this week. Additionally, if a
student who is unsure of the answer is called on, I will provide direct scaffolding/support to help
them work toward an answer. For example, I might provide two choices for a student to choose
from if they are unable to supply an answer themselves. Scaffolding or providing choices helps
narrow students’ thinking, but still provides them with the opportunity to work towards answers
independently.
Assessment: Informal, formative assessment—Think-Pair-Share describing the insulating
property; thumbs up if other students agree with what was stated.
Reflection:
Overall, I felt like this lesson went well. The kids were very engaged with the Mystery
Science exploration video. This lesson served as the foundation for the students to be successful
when completing the accompanying experiment later in the week.
However, one of the things I thought this lesson lacked was emphasis on the concrete
concepts students should understand after the lesson. Additionally, I believe that many of the
Mystery Science lessons lack direct teaching. While Mystery Science lessons are excellent for
engaging students in the exploration and investigation of science questions and topics, I believe
these lessons need more direct teaching to conclude the inquiry-based style lesson. To help add
more direct teaching to my lesson, I emphasized the vocabulary that I wanted students to know.
In this particular lesson, I was emphasizing the conducting and insulating properties. Before
beginning the lesson, I reviewed the vocabulary—the properties—from the previous week
because this lesson continued to build on that vocabulary. Not only did this reinforce previous
learning, but it activated prior knowledge about properties of materials and got students thinking
about the properties we had already learned about before introducing new properties. I
emphasized the vocabulary by showing students vocabulary words and reading the definitions.
Additionally, I told students the learning target for the week was to be able to explain the
conducting and insulating property. Showing students the learning target explicitly informs
students what you want them to be able to do—something I find important. I also concluded my
lesson with a quick think-pair-share about the insulating and conducting properties. If I was
teaching this lesson again, I would continue to emphasize the vocabulary that I wanted students
to know by employing direct teaching.
This lesson was part of the second week of the Material Magic science unit. After
teaching week 1, I learned that it was critical to use a backwards planning approach. The
assessment that accompanied the Mystery Science lessons from week 1 was not directly aligned
to the practice activities done in the lessons throughout the week. After reflecting on the first
week of science, I incorporated more direct teaching towards the goals of my assessment at the
end of the week. For example, in this lesson I made it a point to explicitly model and practice
what they would need to do on the assessment. In this case, students needed to understand how
to choose a word from a word bank to fill-in-the-blank and explain why they chose that word. I
incorporated whole group guided practice into this lesson to help model to students the format of
this style of question, helping them to be more successful on the assessment at the end of the
week. In the first week’s science assessment, the formatting of the questions was confusing to
students, so it was my goal to model and practice the type of questions students would need to do
on the assessment.