Online

Projects, Collaboration Sites and Publishing Opportunities

Lesson Idea Name: Fertilizer Concentration Project
Content Area: Chemistry
Grade Level(s): 9-12
Content Standard Addressed:
SC4. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about how to refine the design of a
chemical system by applying engineering principles to manipulate the factors that affect a
chemical reaction. (a) Plan and carry out an investigation to provide evidence of the effects
of changing concentration, temperature, and pressure on chemical reactions.

Technology Standard Addressed:
Knowledge Constructor and Creative Communicator

Selected Online Project/Collaboration Site/Publishing Opportunity:
Planting Science

URL(s) to support the lesson: https://plantingscience.org/projects/kisederfall2018project11

Describe how you would incorporate an Online Project/Collaboration Site/Publishing Opportunity in your
classroom:

For this project I would have my students start by addressing a question related to the affect different
fertilizer concentrations have on plant growth. They would create groups to explore this topic and will
be paired with an online scientist mentor through Planting Science. They would be required to create
their research questions, design their experiments, document their data, and provide an analysis of
their findings.

In addition to performing the experiment, the students would also be responsible for providing a
detailed analysis on how fertilizer affects plant growth and on the impact of fertilizer concentrations
on growth. They will need to provide the chemical reactions involved in plant growth, and they will
need to discuss how fertilizer interacts with these processes. Finally, the students will be responsible
for sharing their findings with their classmates, using the digital medium of their choice.

What technologies would be required to implement this proposed learning activity in a classroom?
This activity will require them to have access to computers or tablets with internet connectivity in the
classroom for research, mentor communication, and project analysis presentation. Additionally, they
will need space and proper materials to perform their experiments.

Describe how the following features are addressed in this learning experience (note: all of them may not be
addressed in the project, but most should be if you are reaching a high LoTi Level).
• Collaboration with peers, near-peers, mentors outside their classroom and often beyond their school:
The students will be designing their inquiry activity with the help of a mentor in an online
capacity. This mentor could come from anywhere in the world, thus satisfying that they be
beyond their classroom and school.

• Student-centered learning and knowledge creation (creating original data and or producing original
products as a result of engaging in a project):
The students will be responsible for the specific line of inquiry they follow for this project,
Additionally, they will be collecting data and producing an analysis of their findings.

• Higher-order thinking:
This project requires creativity. The students have to bring different elements together in
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 Online Projects, Collaboration Sites and Publishing Opportunities
order to design their experiments. They also have to create an analysis using some sort of
digital medium. Both of these aspects of the project require planning, strategizing, and
implementation.

• Students publishing their original work to others who will use/care about their product:
The students will be sharing their findings and analysis with their classmates. Additionally,
their experiments and results will be posted on the Planting Science website. The digital
analysis will be useful to their classmates, as it will help the class develop a more robust and
deeper understanding of the impact of concentration, and their Planting Science inquiry post
can serve as a starting point or inspiration for other students that come to the Planting
Science website looking for ideas.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):

☐ Remembering ☒ Understanding ☒ Applying ☒ Analyzing ☒ Evaluating ☒ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):

☐ Level 1: Awareness ☐ Level 2: Exploration ☐ Level 3: Infusion ☐ Level 4: Integration

☒ Level 5: Expansion ☐ Level 6: Refinement

Universal Design for Learning (UDL):

This lesson requires students to find creative ways to explore a topic. Throughout the project they
can choose the ways in which they engage with the core concept. They also have opportunities to
express their findings in a multitude of ways. Additionally, students may need to find lots of different
representations for the concept they are dealing with. The lesson takes basic concepts, and asks
students to explore how it works in the real world. Undoubtedly they will have to have different ways
of seeing how this process plays out in order to fully grasp it. I will support this process by providing
the students with visuals, images, videos, podcasts, etc. to help them gain the best understanding
possible.

Lesson idea implementation and Internet Safety Policies:

I could implement this lesson while still following the district’s Internet Safety and Student Privacy
Policies by ensuring that my students are only communicating with their mentors throughout the
Planting Science website. I will have the ability to monitor all communications between the mentors
and students. Additionally, the students will be given guidelines on what type of information they can
share, what information is private and unshareable, what kinds of images are appropriate to share
with their mentor and to post as their team picture. We will do a full lecture on Internet Safety prior to
the start of this project, and I will let students and parents know that I will be making the
conversations between students and mentors available to parents as well.

Reflective Practice:
I think the activities in this lesson idea could lead students to see the usefulness in what they are
learning. Planting and plants are something that just about everyone is familiar with, and students will
be able to see how small changes can make a significant impact on a chemical level. In order to take
this project to a LoTi 6, students could have instead chosen chemistry-based problems to solve as
entry into the Google Science Fair project. The competition encourages students to think of problems
that they care about and then find creative ways to solve them. Students could have found mentors
to help guide their project, and once they were done, they could have presented them to the class,
and published them online for the competition as well. The Google Science Fair is a global project
with solutions that bring real value to the world.

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