I mentioned in the last post that most Concept Model units begin with an anchor phenomenon. In the Comprehension Model Learning post, I gave tips to put some best practices into a traditional science class. For this post, I would like to walk you through one of the units I taught last year about friction.
Standard: 2-PS3-1(MA). Design and conduct an experiment to show the effects of friction on the relative temperature and speed of objects that rub against each other.
Day 1: This is your anchor phenomenon see-think-wonder day. For this unit, I started with a video about meteors burning up in Earth’s atmosphere. I also played the video of David Scott dropping a feather and hammer on the moon where both hit the ground at the same time. After each video, I asked students what they saw, what it made them think, and what they wondered. I told them that one force (we had learned about forces earlier) was responsible for both phenomena.
Day 2: Do some experiments to collect additional data and observations. My class was online for this unit, so we watched videos instead of physically doing most of the experiments. For this unit, that included dropping pieces of paper folded and crumpled in different shapes to see which would fall the slowest, racing cars on different surfaces to see which would travel the farthest, moving toy boats in water at different angles to see which would be easiest to push, and walking across the floor in socks or bare feet to see which would provide the most traction.
Day 3: Give students the vocabulary they need to explain what they have experienced. Friction is a force that works in the opposite direction of motion. Friction can happen on land, in water, and in the air. Friction reduces speed because it turns motion energy into heat energy. Students will be better able to retain these vocabulary terms and definitions when they can tie them to specific experiences.
Day 4: Extend students’ learning to further applications. Ask the students, When would it be a good thing for friction to slow things down? When would it be a bad thing? When would it be a good thing for friction to create heat? When would it be a bad thing? What can we do to increase or decrease the amount of friction between objects? Here, students are not memorizing answers; they are making connections between what they have experienced and the new problems at hand.
Day 5: Begin the assessment process. For this standard, the students must show that they know how to design and conduct and experiment. They must also show that they know how friction will affect their experiment. This standard is not one that lends itself well to a traditional test, so a different sort of assessment is required. I’ll give you ideas about how to assess in the Concept Model next week!
Of course, you can adjust these days and topics to suit the needs of your class. This year, I took nine class periods to help my students experience friction before we reached the assessment step. I think that was a little longer than what they needed, but I wanted to take it slow during our online learning time. You might want to introduce vocabulary more naturally along the way as students need it to describe what they observe, and you might want to spread out the experiments so that you do not have too much excitement in one day! I just wanted to give you an idea of how students build their science knowledge in the Concept Model.
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