Rhiannon Dancaster

Lesson Plan – 2nd Observation 10/13/2021

1. Anticipatory Set (Focus): The students will be called to the carpet and asked a simple
question of what reminds them of fall. Hopefully someone will say “apples,” or even
“apple picking,” and if not, I will ask them if they have ever been apple picking before,
then introduce that the lesson will be on apples.
2. Purpose (objective): The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the variety of
apples in our world and where they come from, as well as to challenge their engineering
ability at creating, testing, and modifying tools to find which one works best for
grabbing “apples.” The “apples” will simply be balled up pieces of paper.
3. Input: The students will learn about all different kinds of apples, with a heavy focus on
their critical thinking skills to test possible tools for grabbing the apples.
4. Modeling (show): The activity will be modeled with the Mystery Science videos, that will
give step by step instructions of how to carry out the activity. The videos are very, very
detailed, so I might only show certain parts of it, to not give away too many ideas for
how they should design their tools. I want to see what they come up with first before
giving them more detailed examples.
5. Guided Practice: After watching the Mystery Science videos, I will dismiss the students
to go back to their desks where they will make their own tools with paper and tape as I
show them how I make my own, too. I will also walk around to guide the students
through their designs and discuss their ideas with them.
6. Check Understanding: Once the time is up for designing their apple grabber, I will make
sure they understand how to actually go through the apple-grabbing process, as well as
what they are expected to do after the first time they put their tool to the test. They will
work in partners when they grab apples, as they have to lift up an apple with their tool
and safely get it to their partner next to them for it to count as a successful apple grab.
7. Independent Practice: The students will practice entirely on their own by redesigning
their apple grabbers after the first trial. They will use the result of how well their
grabber performed in the first trial to figure out what they should change for the second
trial. They will then test their modifications for a second trial, to see if their new design
was able to grab more apples more effectively.
8. Closure: To finish the lesson, the students will gather on the carpet once more where
they will get to share their thoughts and reflections on how their designs performed. I
will also ask them what designs worked best, and if there are any commonalities
between the well-performing designs.

Standards:
- NGSS K-2-ETS1-2. Develop a simple physical model to illustrate how the shape of an
object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.
- NGSS K-2-ETS1-3. Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same
problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.
Time Duration: About 40 minutes.
Materials: Mystery Science videos, red and green construction paper, regular white paper,
tape, scissors.
 Rhiannon Dancaster

Follow-Up Activity: For an art lesson on the following Friday, the students will get to make their
own apple tree using brown paper, scraps of green paper, and red pompoms, all of which will
be glued onto a blue background paper that acts as the sky. Some apples will be glued on the
tree itself, and some will be glued on the ground. There will then be a piece of paper that will
go over the trunk of the tree which will form a number sentence for the number of apples on
the tree plus the number of apples on the floor, to then add up to how many apples they have
total.
Strategies: Visualization (the lesson videos), cooperative learning (working in partners),
problem solving-based learning (improving their tools based on an initial test).
EL Accommodations: The videos will provide helpful visuals for the activity, so an EL student
can follow along by connecting the oral directions with the visuals that go with them. The
videos are very detailed and easy to follow, so they should be very useful for an EL student.
Accommodations for Disabilities: The design aspect of the activity can be very open ended or
easy to follow step-by-step, depending on what works best for the student. Because of that,
any student can use their own way of thinking to design their tool, as it isn’t restricted to one
way of thinking. The activity, as a result, is accessible to all learners.