Lesson Plan for Implementing

NETS•S—Template I
(More Directed Learning Activities)
Template with guiding questions
Teacher(s)
Name Elizabeth Huffaker

Position 8th grade science teacher

School/District Creekland Middle School, Cherokee County

E-mail Elizabeth.huffaker@cherokeek12.net

Phone 7707103739

Grade Level(s) 8

Content Area Science

Time line 5 days

Standards (What do you want students to know and be able to do? What knowledge, skills, and strategies do you
expect students to gain? Are there connections to other curriculum areas and subject area benchmarks? ) Please
put a summary of the standards you will be addressing rather than abbreviations and numbers that indicate which
standards were addressed.
SPS8. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to explain the relationships
among force, mass, and motion.
b. Construct an explanation based on experimental evidence to support the claims
Content Standards presented in Newton’s three laws of motion. (Clarification statement: Evidence
could
1 a, b, demonstrate
c relationships among force, mass, velocity, and acceleration.)
2 a, b, d
3 b, c
4 a, b, c
5 a, b, c, d
ISTE Standards: 6 a, b

Overview (a short summary of the lesson or unit including assignment or expected or possible products)

The students will be exploring Newton’s Laws. They are given a variety of materials and tasked with creating a
laboratory experiment for 8th grade on level students to complete which tests/demonstrates Newton’s Laws. The
students will peer edit and evaluate each other’s experiments.***

***Sequence list of lesson activities can be found at the end of the document.

Essential Questions (What essential question or learning are you addressing? What would students care or
want to know about the topic? What are some questions to get students thinking about the topic or generate
interest about the topic? Additionally, what questions can you ask students to help them focus on important
aspects of the topic? (Guiding questions) What background or prior knowledge will you expect students to bring

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to this topic and build on?) Remember, essential questions are meant to guide the lesson by provoking inquiry.
They should not be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” and should have many acceptable answers.

How do Newton’s Laws explain force and motion?

Students care about this topic because they are interested in motion and the driving forces behind it.
Before the activity, the students completed a discussion called “Would you rather?”. The students were given two
situations and had to choose which situation they would rather be a part of. The situations included examples
such as would you rather crash into a bicycle or dump truck? The thought behind this hook was to harness what
the students already know. Most students chose the bicycle because it would hurt less (unless someone was
riding it). The science behind force is dependent on mass and acceleration of an object. So, once we were able
to discuss our scenarios, the students could connect the concept.
Additional guiding questions: Why do you think all objects in space are moving? What forces stop motion on
Earth?
Most students do not have formal prior knowledge as this is the first time in the Georgia standards that Newton’s
Laws are addressed. As mentioned earlier, students generally have a conceptual background from life
experiences regarding force (big forces resulting from large objects, gravity, friction, etc.)

Assessment (What will students do or produce to illustrate their learning? What can students do to generate new
knowledge? How will you assess how students are progressing (formative assessment)? How will you assess
what they produce or do? How will you differentiate products?) You must attach copies of your assessment and/or
rubrics. Include these in your presentation as well.

Students will develop a formal laboratory experiment template as well as a key. Students will also create a
demonstration video of themselves performing the experiment. The assessment will be a rubric and peer
evaluations. The products are differentiated as the process was chosen by the student; therefore the product will
be a result of their choice.

Resources (How does technology support student learning? What digital tools, and resources—online student
tools, research sites, student handouts, tools, tutorials, templates, assessment rubrics, etc—help elucidate or
explain the content or allow students to interact with the content? What previous technology skills should students
have to complete this project?)

Technology supports student learning as they first will research Newton’s Laws. Next, students will investigate
already made laboratory experiments to help brainstorm their own. Students will use Microsoft Word to create
their template and peer edit. Students will use a moviemaking application to record their demonstration.
Students will also utilize a Padlet page to share content and review one another. Students need to be familiar
with Microsoft Word and the internet, as well as internet safety rules, to complete this assignment.

Instructional Plan
Preparation (What student needs, interests, and prior learning provide a foundation for this lesson? How can
you find out if students have this foundation? What difficulties might students have?)

Students completed a Quizizz Pre-test over Newton’s Laws. Students also completed a discussion post sharing
prior knowledge. Finally, students completed a basic webquest gathering the facts and concepts addressed in
Newton’s Laws. I evaluated the work submitted for all of these assignments to determine if the students had the
foundation. Most difficulty was identified in Newton’s Second Law, Force=Mass x Acceleration. As the second
law incorporates math, some students struggled with this. To alleviate the challenge, I visited each project group
and explained the second law. I also confirmed that the students understood it by checking where in their
experiment it was incorporated.

Management Describe the classroom management strategies will you use to manage your students and the use
of digital tools and resources. How and where will your students work? (Small groups, whole group, individuals,
classroom, lab, etc.) What strategies will you use to achieve equitable access to the Internet while completing this

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lesson? Describe what technical issues might arise during the Internet lesson and explain how you will resolve or
trouble-shoot them? Please note: Trouble-shooting should occur prior to implementing the lesson as well as
throughout the process. Be sure to indicate how you prepared for problems and work through the issues that
occurred as you implemented and even after the lesson was completed.

Classroom management includes daily classroom rules, lab safety procedures and digital citizenship. All of these
guidelines have been established since the first day of school. Students will be reminded at the beginning of the
project again.
Students in this class are learning at a high school level (for a high school credit), so they are generally motivated.
Many of them are also gifted. As gifted learners work best with other gifted learners, I allowed the students to
choose groups. I limit the group numbers to three, but students could also work independently or with a partner. I
provide this options as differentiation.
The project is done completely in school and therefore I can provide the hardware and digital tools to all students
daily.
Possible problems include internet outage and possible difficulty accessing video applications. To resolve these
problems, I could have the students story board their demonstration instead of video recording. Additionally, I can
provide hard copies of research. Throughout the lesson, problems could arise with digital tools where I would
provide an alternative or back up.

Instructional Strategies and Learning Activities – Describe the research-based instructional strategies you will
use with this lesson. How will your learning environment support these activities? What is your role? What are the
students' roles in the lesson? How can you ensure higher order thinking at the analysis, evaluation, or
creativity levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy? How can the technology support your teaching? What authentic,
relevant, and meaningful learning activities and tasks will your students complete? How will they build knowledge
and skills? How will students use digital tools and resources to communicate and collaborate with each other
and others? How will you facilitate the collaboration?

The research-based instructional strategies that I will include start with collaboration. My learning environment is
set up with science lab tables to support this. I will be the facilitator while the students are the creators. I can
ensure higher level thinking because the students are taking their content knowledge and applying it to an
experiment. This requires the students to synthesize the information. Technology will provide the main tool for
student content knowledge acquisition and demonstration. The students will authentically design their own
experiment which will allow them to take ownership of their learning. They will build knowledge through research
and skill through practice. The digital tools for communication and collaboration include Microsoft Office suite,
video sharing and Padlet. I will facilitate this collaboration by monitoring the collaboration tools for appropriate
and effective usage.

Differentiation (How will you differentiate content and process to accommodate various learning styles and
abilities? How will you help students learn independently and with others? How will you provide extensions and
opportunities for enrichment? What assistive technologies will you need to provide?)

The content is differentiated for the high school level students to incorporate the math component of force. The
eighth grade students learn the same concept without the equation. The process is differentiated because the
students are given a choice as to how they want to demonstrate their learning. Due to the choice, students can
choose tools and processes suited for their learning styles. By creating their own laboratory experiments,
students will be learning independently and with their group. They will also collaborate with other groups to learn
from each other. The extension for enrichment is to allow the students to deliver their lesson plan to each other.
Assistive technologies include the dictate function on Microsoft Word.

Reflection (Will there be a closing event? Will students be asked to reflect upon their work? Will students be
asked to provide feedback on the assignment itself? What will be your process for answering the following
questions?
• Did students find the lesson meaningful and worth completing?

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 • In what ways was this lesson effective?
• What went well and why?
• What did not go well and why?
• How would you teach this lesson differently?)

Students will be asked to review the peer evaluations that are done. They will have an opportunity to improve
upon their design once they are given the feedback. The closing event will be the final peer reviews on Padlet. I
will assess the meaningfulness of the lesson by the quality of the laboratory experiments designed. I will survey
my students at the end of the eyar to determine their thoughts about my non traditional approach to classroom
teaching. I will determine the effectiveness of the lesson based on the students evaluations of each other and
their performance on the rubric. The students really enjoy participating in laboratory experiments, but is
challenging for them to design their own. I think, in the future, I would add an example component to help them
brainstorm. I sometimes hesitate to provide examples because I don’t want to hinder creativity. I could provide
examples possibly if needed to groups struggling to conceptualize an idea. If I taught this lesson differently, I
would like to extend the collaboration to include possibly students from other local schools. They could complete
each other’s designed labs and provide feedback virtually.

Closure: Anything else you would like to reflect upon regarding lessons learned and/or your experience with
implementing this lesson. What advice would you give others if they were to implement the lesson? Please
provide a quality reflection on your experience with this lesson and its implementation.
The video component is challenging in our technology environment as there is not an application on the school
devices to support it. Before the lesson, teachers would need to check what the students have available to them.
I encouraged the students to use their own devices. Also, I might add a time frame. Some students’ labs were
very lengthy while others were way too short to show content knowledge.

Students will complete the assignment in the following sequence:

1. Brainstorm and research laboratory experiment.

2. Write the formal lab report using the provided template for the guide (Microsoft Office).
3. Record demonstration of lab report (Video application tool).
4. Write the formal lab report key (Microsoft Office).
5. Share lab report and demonstration video on Padlet page.
6. Complete chosen group’s lab report (from the Padlet page).
7. Complete peer evaluation template for chosen peer group from Padlet page.
8. Post peer evaluation link to Padlet page.
9. Review peer evaluations and edit.
10. Submit assignment to be graded using this rubric.

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