Science Lesson #1: What Are Waves?

Teacher: Kendall Hall

Grade: 4th

Subject: Science/Health Education/Literature

Date: February 5, 2015

Desired Results
CCSS and/or NYS Learning Standards (Rubric Line 35 and 39):
NYS Learning Standards:
Key Idea 4:
Energy exists in many forms, and when these forms change energy is conserved.

4.1a Energy exists in various forms: heat, electric, sound, chemical, mechanical, light.

4.1d Energy and matter interact: water is evaporated by the Suns heat; a bulb is lighted by
means of electrical current; a musical instrument is played to produce sound; dark colors may
absorb light, light colors may reflect light.

.
NYS Learning Standards
Standard 2- A Safe and Healthy Environment
Elementary Health Education
Students will demonstrate personally and socially responsible behaviors. They will care for and
respect themselves and others. They will recognize threats to the environment and offer appropriate
strategies to minimize them.
Students:
o Understand basic safety rules
o Know some personal and social skills which contribute to individual safety
Essential Questions (Rubric Line 36):
o What makes something a medium?
o How do waves move?

Enduring Understandings(Rubric Line 36):

Students will understand that
Waves are regular patterns of motion, science findings are based on recognizing patterns, and the cause
and effect relationships are routinely identified.
Objectives (Rubric Line 31):
Students will be able to investigate the motions of waves to identify patterns.
Students will be able to experiment showing the movement of waves in liquids, solids, and gases.
Assessment Evidence (Rubric Line 32)

Performance Tasks:
Students will investigate the movement of waves through several different types of mediums through
three different stations. They will write and answer questions in their science notebooks. They will also
complete a worksheet when working at stations.
Other Evidence:
o Teacher observations (walking around during stations)
o Listening in on group discussions
Areas of Child Development (Rubric Line 28)
Cognitive development is supported because children are having their thinking about wave and
different type of waves and their thinking is being challenged.
Linguistic development is supported because children must explain their thinking about waves to the
teacher, on paper, and to one another.
Emotional development is supported because children are exploring three different stations in which
they need to depend on one another to handle the thermometers and the bowls of ice.
Learning Plan
Classroom Arrangement:
Students will be at desks for the anticipatory set of lesson and for the introduction, after they will be put
into groups and from there they will be working at different stations set up in the classroom.
Materials:
Science folders/notebooks
Bin (to fill with water)
Ball
Sound box (includes speakers) with rice
Large Cloth (sheet)
IPod/Cellphone- Technology- this is for the sound waves station. I chose to use my cell phone
because I can play a kid friendly song on my phone to demonstrate the sound waves in third
station.
Worksheet
Book: How Do We Hear

Learning/Instructional Activities (Rubric Lines 29, 33, 34, 39):

Anticipatory Set (Rubric Line 38):
When students enter the classroom, have all the material need set up on a table (teacher) walk over
to the table and start looking at the materials. Students will start to wonder that you are doing. When
you start to catch the attention of some students take the ball and start to walk around the room with
it. Play with the ball, throw it up in the air and catch it while your walking around the room and by
students desks not saying a single word.

Procedure
Story Problem (Rubric Line 40):
Have the students answer the following questions in their science notebooks: At the beach, we see
ocean waves. How do these waves move? Can you think of any other types of waves?
Prior Knowledge Activation: Have students brainstorm their ideas about what they think other types
of waves are , a knowledge-level question on Blooms Taxonomy. (Write down all their ideas.) Have
them respond in the same way to the question, How do waves work? (a comprehension question on
Blooms Taxonomy).
Introduction: Review definitions for wave and medium. You can explain waves, mediums, and
energy using the analogy of students as energy, school buses as waves, and roads as the medium
through which waves travel. Tell students that they will be investigating the movement of waves
through several different types of mediums. Mediums that waves travel through include gases (such
as air), liquids (such as water), and solids (such as a parachute or sheet).
Vocabulary:
Wave - A disturbance in a medium that transfers energy from place to place
Medium - A substance solid, liquid, or gas through which something can travel

Activity: Move through these stations as a class and have students record their observations on the
worksheet.
Station 1 - Waves in Liquids (preferably outside)
o Place a ball on one side of the bin.
o Demonstrate wave formation by disturbing the water on the other side of the bin.
o Have students record their observations: What do the waves look like when they
pass through water? Does the ball move or stay where it is?
o Explain to students that when waves travel through water, they dont carry the
water or the ball with them, only the energy.
Station 2 - Waves in Solids
o Have students each hold an edge of the cloth.
o Go around in a circle and have students take turns sending waves across the cloth.
Let each student have a turn.
o Have students record their observations: What did waves look like when they
passed through cloth? How were these waves different from the waves made in
water? How were they the same?
This is where I fit in Health Education. I thought that this would be the best place because
students are moving around and they should be aware of their environment and understand basic
safety rules (for example: not to rip the sheet out of another students hand.)
Station 3- Waves in Gases

o Put rice on top of the sound box. Turn on loud music inside the sound box.
o Watch the vibrations caused by sound waves make the rice bounce up and down.
o The rice moves without being touched by anything visible. Ask students to record
their observations and make a hypothesis about why this might be happening:
What do you think is making the rice move? Does the rice look like anything else
youve seen today? What does the sound box tell you about sound waves? Have
students brainstorm in pairs and record their hypotheses and observations in their
science journals.

Assessment (Rubric Line 32):

Science notebook observations about wave stations, participation in the stations and class discussions.
Closing Activity: Discuss the following ideas and questions as a class, drawing on the three stations to
come up with answers:
o What did the waves we observed have in common?
o How are they different? What produced the waves?
o What do waves carry?
o What do they travel through?
After going though the questions I will bring my students to the carpet and I will read a book about
sound and how we hear, this is a good introduction for the next lesson when I go in depth about sound
waves.
Book Title: How Do We Hear?
By: Charlotte Guillain

Evaluation of Teaching *done after the lesson is taught*:

References:
Guillain, C. (2010). How do we hear? Oxford: Heinemann Library.

Name:__________________________________

Date:___________________

Waves Lesson #1: What Are Waves?

Station 1:
Does the ball move or stay where it is?

What do the waves look like?

Station 2:
What did the waves look like?

How were they different from the waves in the water?

How were they the same?

Station 3:
What do you think is making the rice move?

Does the rice look like anything else youve seen today?

What does the sound box tell you about sound waves?