Victoria Winn

17 October 2016
Science Lesson Analysis & Adaptation
Activity:
Blow and Go from AIMS Education Foundation (attached below)
Analysis:
Science Content: This lesson is most likely intended for 2nd or 3rd grade. This lesson
covers the topic of forces and how they are pushes and pulls that make things move.
However, this lesson will dig deeper into the topic of non-contact forces. Non-contact
forces are forces that act from a distance without making different contact (i.e. the wind,
gravity, and magnetism). This activity focuses on using wind to make objects move. I
think that this lesson is more appropriate for the grade level it is intended for. However,
students would need to have a solid understanding of forces they can see before moving
on to forces they cannot see.
Science Process Skills: This lesson plan lists integrated processes that are used by the
students throughout this lesson. These include, observing, comparing and contrasting,
collecting and recording data, and interpreting data. Of these listed skills, observation
measuring, and communicating are process skills that are used in this lesson. Students
will be engaged in doing science because students will be investigating how many
times they have to blow on an object to get it to move to the finish line.
The Nature of Science: This activity portrays science in many different ways. This
activity demands evidence (NOS 4) because students will be collecting data throughout
the activity by counting how many times they have to blow on an object. It also is a blend
of logic and imagination (NOS 5) because students will have to use their imagination to
imagine the invisible force (air) they will be using to complete this activity and use logic
to determine estimate how many times they will have to blow on an object to get it to
move to the finish line. This activity also also explains and predicts (NOS 6) because the
students will have to make estimates before they begin the activity.
Modification:
Three Legs of Science
Modification
Content
I think that the content is related directly to the activity that the
students would be completing. I would begin the lesson by having a
quick overview of what a force is (push and pull). I would then
open up the students to a discussion about forces that they cannot
see, such as wind. I would ask them if they can think of things that
move in nature without being visibly pushed or pulled (i.e.
branches on a tree).
Science Process Skills
The lesson contains a list of integrated processes used in the
activity. These include observing, comparing and contrasting,
collecting and recording data, and interpreting data. I have sorted
these provided processes and placed them into the science process
skill they belong. Observation, measuring, and communicating are
science process skills that are used in this lesson. I would explicitly
teach students measuring because they would be using a nonstandard form of measurement, which would be the number of
times they had to blow on an object to get it to the finish line. I

NOS

would do this by modeling and insuring that students are correctly

counting. Another science process skill that I would explicitly teach
is communicating. I would teach this because students will be using
two types of communication in this lesson. These forms of
communication are creating a bar graph representing their data and
sharing their results with a peer or classmate. I would again use
modeling to show the students how to complete the bar graph. As a
class we would already have a set of norms created for when
students are sharing to the whole class. I would review these norms
to make sure that all students are able to hold themselves
accountable.
I would first modify this lesson by explicitly stating which Nature
of Science elements are represented in this lesson. For NOS 4,
science demands evidence, students will be using evidence when
they are creating their bar graphs. For NOS 5, science is a blend of
logic and imagination, students would have to use this to make
estimates at the beginning of the activity. For NOS 6, science
explains and predicts, student will be using this throughout the
activity. They will be making predictions (estimates) at the
beginning of the lesson and will explain their findings to their peers
at the end of the activity.