Lesson Plans: What's this Bright Light?
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Roberta Peryea
EDU359
Lesson Plan with Technology
September 23,2008
Lesson Title: What’s that Bright Light?: An Introduction to the Sun.
Target Age/ Grade Level: 13-14 yrs/ 8th or 9th grade
Content Area Standards: NYS Standard 4, performance indicator 1.2b
Technology Standards: NETST 2c, 3b, 3c, 4a
Lesson Objectives: Students will recognize from a previous lesson that the Sun is a star and is a gaseous body. After this lesson, they will be able to explain how it produces energy. They will understand that there are different layers to the sun and what these layers are responsible for. They will also have knowledge of different phenomena that occur on or due to the Sun.
Introduce the Learning Activity: To start off the lesson I will provide the students with a brainteaser that would get their minds working. After they think they have the answer, the will go online and find a picture image that represents their answer, copy and paste it onto a slide in PowerPoint and hit F5. After our brainteaser fun, I will tap into my students’ prior knowledge of yesterday’s lesson dealing with stars and their life cycles by doing a quick game of red card/green card (a colorful game of true of false, basically). I’ll then tell my students that we will be taking a closer look at the Sun to understand where it is in its life cycle, what gases are most present within it currently, how it produces energy that fuels it and that there are different layers that make up its body. We will also touch on certain phenomena that we see here on Earth that occur because of the state the Sun is currently in.
Provide Information: Students will receive a packet that contains worksheets that correspond with the information they will learn about the Sun (two for the layers, one for fusion). To ease into the subject of the Sun, we will do a KWL chart to see what the students already know about the sun, what they would like to know, and later on, what they have learned. We will then move onto the six different layers of the sun:
1. The core
2. The radiative zone
3. The convective zone
4. The photosphere
5. The chromosphere
6. The corona
We will take a few minutes to discuss what the importance of these layers are which will lead us into discussing how these layers work together to produce the energy the Sun gives off. We will discuss nuclear fusion (H3 + H2 à He 4 + neutron) and what elements are involved and how the energy released reaches Earth. After covering fusion within the Sun, we will look at the different phenomena that occur because of the Sun such as Sunspots, solar wind and solar flares.
Provide Practice: Students will receive a sheet with a picture of the Sun broken down into its layers. They will be responsible for labeling the picture and color-coding each layer to help distinguish them from each other. They will also have a separate worksheet that they will use as a note sheet for the different layers.
Using the WebQuest on my website, we will transition into how the Sun produces energy by looking into nuclear fusion. At the WebQuest, students will have an opportunity to visit three websites that will explain nuclear fusion to them. They are responsible for answering questions on this WebQuest page by copying and placing the questions into a Word document. They will then print out the questions with their answers and hand it in for a participation grade. A picture representation of fusion will be presented in their “Sun” packet as well.
Once fusion is covered we will move on and discuss solar phenomena such as sunspots, solar wind and prominences. We will watch a video from YouTube that talks about solar wind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1DfOYl857w&feature=related. For further understanding of sunspots and prominences we will look at this website: http://science.howstuffworks.com/sun4.htm. When talking about sunspots, it is important for students to understand the sunspot cycle and for this students will be provided with a sheet containing data for sunspot activity which they will have to graph. After graphing they will answer a few questions to show comprehension. For fun, students will also receive a flip-book project that they can staple together to have a hands on version of solar prominences.
Provide Knowledge of Results:
Students will have skills worksheet that they will be able to fill out with answers to the location, cause and result noticed from Earth when sunspots, solar wind or prominences occur. This assignment will be used as group work where groups are responsible for an individual phenomenon and then the groups will jigsaw their findings. After, we will discuss if all the information is correct to check for understanding.
Students will also take a short, two part quiz that has fill in the blank and matching sections to make sure that there are not any misunderstandings along the way. This quiz will cover the information that we have covered within the past few days and if there are any uncertainties left this quiz will let me know what to go back over.
Review the Activity:
We will play a game called “pick a layer, any layer” to review the 6 layers of the Sun and what their importance is. This game consists of me reading off certain characteristics of the layers and the students, who are split up into two teams, use a white board to write down their groups answer and show it to me when the timer has run out.
To review fusion we will play a game with foam balls that represent the different particles working together in the fusion process. We would attempt to toss the balls around the room to re-create how fusion would take place in the core but if it gets out of hand I can modify the activity to get control back.
To tie up all loose ends, I would play a video from YouTube called The Universe: Secrets of the Sun
Method of Assessment: To assess whether or not students have fully understood the importance of the Sun and what makes it tick, they will have a choice between four methods of assessment. They can take a standard test consisting of multiple choice and short answers, they can submit a paper explaining the layers, fusion, and solar phenomena, they can make an interactive bulletin board that will engage their classmates in kinesthetically understanding the way of the sun, or they can perform a skit or song that includes all aspects of prior lessons. Rubrics will be made available for all choices that are in need of one.
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Roberta Peryea
Hosted By: SUNY Plattsburgh
Email: rpery001@plattsburgh.edu
Last Updated:
September 25, 2008