Unit: The Many Healthy Benefits of Water

Unit Overview The purpose of the unit is for students to be able to learn about various
influences on their health and the benefits of drinking water can impact both
the body and the mind as well as the emotions. Students were asked to
watch a video and discuss what they already know about the benefits of
water.
Unit Goal An underlying unit goal of the lesson is to teach students about the many
benefits of water on the body, mind and emotions. I was first trying to assess
prior knowledge through a nearpod by asking an open ended question “What
do you alread know about the role of water in the body.”

Learning Goal Students demonstrated in the nearpod formative assessment, that they had a
good amount of prior knowledge of the benefits of water. The nearpod
format allows me to assess the point of view and pior knowledge of all of the
students in the classroom. I then do the brief lecture and informative video
and assess the learning gains of the students through the nearpod format.
The goal is for students to gain a new, more comprehensive understanding of
the benefits of water.

Standards Met MS-LS1-5 Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental
and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms. **

**- Allow for local, regional, or Michigan specific contexts or examples in teaching and
assessment. (I used the example of the benefits of water.)

HLTP - FA Students were asked about their prior knowledge of the benefits of water.
The nearpod formative assessment then allows me to assess knowledge and
determine which gaps in knowledge need to be filled. I then do the brief
lecture and informative video and assess the learning gains of the students
through the nearpod post formative assessment, asking them not only what
they learned but specific learning gains such as: “What is the purpose of
Aquaporin?” (Video: 20:21) This was a specific lesson goal and the
students for the most part did very well on this aspect of the assessment. The
goal is for students to gain a new, more comprehensive understanding of the
benefits of water.

Launch I asked the student this open ended launching question: “Who can tell me the
benefits of drinking water? (Video: 0:41) Students came up with the fact
that it cleans your colon, helps you lose weight, clear skin and increase your
metabolism” I gave a brief review of the previous lecture (Video: 2:32).
 The quiz was sent in the assessment, where I give them some information
and send them a nearpod and then I have them watch a video. After that they
answer the nearpod post assessment regarding what the video and lecture
covered briefly. The nearpod assessment was very brief and consisted of 4
questions.

Visuals The nearpod I created incorporated a Ted ED talk on water and the
importance of it for the human body and the planet itself. Clearly, life on
earth would not be possible without the prevalence of water. As the video,
went on, students were requested to complete the “Do Now” : “What do you
already know about the role of water in the body?” At Video 18:34, all
students answered, what percentage of the body is made of water. This
question is important because water makes up most of our earth as well as
most of our bodies!

Analogies Several examples and analogies were utilized including how the water on the
planet shares similar processes as the human body in terms of processing and
utilizing water. Water is essential for life on the planet and in the human
body. The video discussed how water is regulated in the body and how it is
also regulated on the planet and in the environment. Body regulation was
discussed in the video at 28:36. Water is replenished through a variety of
means so the sources of water can be like tea and coffee and can vary by a
person’s weight, diet and environmental factors. In the same way, the planet
can replenish water from plants, ocean, snow, mountains and even
respiration in all animals. Another analogy was discussion of how much
sugar is in the body vs. how much is given in the food and drinks that we
consume.

Progress The students finally started getting online and involved in the lesson when I
threatened those 5 or 6 students who were not online. The students expresses
a great deal of interest and excitement about the lesson. All students
expressed that they learned something new after listening to the brief
overview lecture and the video as reflected on the nearpod quiz results.
(Video: 20:42)

Conclusion The lesson was concluded when students finished the nearpod and answered
the final questions. and it was clear by the number of hands that finally the
vast majority of the students were participating in the lecture. (Video, 32:01)
One student came at the very end of class and missed the entire lesson,
however he had a valid excuse and was able to complete the nearpod later
online. (Daveon, Video 30:17) The students did pretty well and I
encouraged those who did a great job and let those who could have done
more that they needed to step up. (Video: 31:50)
Anticipated Some challenges include the fact that the students are learning online and we
Challenges had 18 students. I had to warn students that they all join the nearpod and told
them I would only count attendance for those students who joined the
nearpod and did the assessment (Video: 5:14). The students are now
learning online again, which makes discussions and assessments difficult.
Some students were using the wrong name (Maya, Video 7:20). The past 2
years of forced online learning are certainly taking an academic and
psychological toll on the students. It is very difficult to get every student
involved in class (Video: 8:23, calling on Jaheem). These challenges make it
difficult to get all students involved in the lessons. My classes have more
participation then most because I routinely call parents daily during class or
after school to gain participation. However some parents are not even home
to monitor their children or correct their lack of involvement and
participation. (Video: 10:36, I threatened to call Jaheem and Paniea’s
parents). Finally, I got participation up to 106% and all students were
participating.

Assessment The nearpod is a good format for a formative assessment because you can
ask the students any kind of question to guage their learning. I like to ask an
open-ended question to assess prior knowledge, so I asked “What do you
know about the role of water in the body?” This allowed me to see where
students were coming from in terms of general understanding. I was then
able to do a post-lesson assessment asking them in general terms, how did
the lesson expand your understanding of how much water you need to
consume on a daily basis?” By the time we got to the 1 st nearpod question, I
had 106% participation, which is more than excellent!!!

Materials The materials included student issued computers, a video on the importance
of water and teacher generated questions and prompts to engage discussion.