East Detroit Public Schools
Lesson Design

Author: Annette Theiss
Subject: Science
Grade:3rd Grade
Course: Properties of Water
Title: Water Around Us

Length of Unit: 4-6 weeks
Materials Needed:
Power Macintosh G3 computers
large monitor
printers
scissors
paper
HyperStudio software
books:
science textbook
Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

Standards-Based Outcomes (MDE):

English Language Arts:

I. Meaning and Communication

Content Standard I, 1: All students will read and comprehend general and technical material.

5. Respond to oral, visual, written, and electronic texts, and compare their responses to those of their peers.

Content Standard I, 2: All students will demonstrate the ability to write clear and grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs, and compositions.

3. Plan and draft texts, and revise and edit in response to suggestions expressed by others about such aspects as ideas, organization, style, and word choice.

Content Standard I, 3: All students will focus on meaning and communication as they listen, speak, view, read, and write in personal, social, occupational, and civic contexts.

3. Read and write fluently, speak confidently, listen and interact appropriately, view knowledgeably, and represent creatively. Examples include exploring ideas in a group, interviewing family and friends, and explaining ideas represented in pictures.

VII. Depth of Understanding

Content Standard VII, 9: All students will demonstrate understanding of the complexity of enduring issues and recurring problems by making connections and generating themes within and across texts.

2. Identify and categorize key ideas, concepts, and perspectives found in texts.

VIII. Ideas in Action

Content Standard VIII, 10: All students will apply knowledge, ideas, and issues drawn from texts to their lives and the lives of others.

2. Combine skills to reveal their strengthening literacy. Examples include writing and illustrating a text, reading and then orally analyzing a text, and listening to and then summarizing a presentation.

X. Critical Standards

Content Standard X, 12: All students will develop and apply personal, shared, and academic criteria for the enjoyment, appreciation, and evaluation of their own and others’ oral, written, and visual texts.

1. Develop individual standards for effective communication for different purposes, and compare them to their own oral, visual, and written texts. An example is evaluating a project report in terms of personal standards for content, style, and organization.

Science:

II. Reflect on the Nature, Adequacy and Connections Across Scientific Knowledge

Content Standard II, 1: All students will analyze claims for their scientific merit and explain how scientists decide what constitutes scientific knowledge; how science is related to other ways of knowing; how science and technology affect our society; and how people of diverse cultures have contributed to and influenced developments in science.

2. Show how science concepts can be interpreted through creative expression such as language arts and fine arts. (Key concepts: Poetry, expository work, painting, drawing, music, diagrams, graphs, charts. Real-world contexts: Explaining simple experiments using paintings and drawings; describing natural phenomena scientifically and poetically.)

V. Use Scientific Knowledge from the Earth and Space Sciences in Real-World Contexts

Content Standard V, 2: All students will demonstrate where water is found on earth; describe the characteristics of water and how water moves; and analyze the interaction of human activities with the hydrosphere.

1. Describe how water exists on earth in three states. (Key concepts: Liquid- visible, flowing, melting, dew, steam. Solid- hard, visible, freezing, ice. Gas- invisible, evaporation, water vapor. Real-world contexts: Examples of water in each state, including dew, rain, snow, ice, steam; examples of melting, freezing, and evaporation.)

2. Trace the path that rain water follows after it falls. (Key concepts: Precipitation- rain, clouds, fog, run-off. Flow- downhill, to ocean, underground. Bodies of water- streams, rivers, lakes, oceans. Real-world contexts: Examples of water flowing locally, including gutters, drains, streams, wetlands.)

Content Standard V, 3: All students will investigate and describe what makes up weather and how it changes from day to day, from season to season, and over long periods of time; explain what causes different kinds of weather; and analyze the relationships between human activities and the atmosphere. (Atmosphere and Weather)

2. Describe weather conditions and climates. (Key concepts: Temperature- cold, hot, warm, cool. Cloud cover- cloudy, fog, partly cloudy. Precipitation- rain, snow, hail. Wind- breezy, windy, calm. Severe weather- thunderstorms, lightning, tornadoes, high winds, blizzards. Climates- desert (hot and dry), continental (seasonal changes), tropical (hot and humid), polar. Tools: Thermometer, wind sock. Real-world contexts: Daily changes in weather; examples of severe weather; examples of climates, including desert, mountain, polar, temperate.)

3. Describe seasonal changes in weather. (Key concepts: Seasons- fall, winter, spring, summer. Real-world contexts: Examples of visible seasonal changes in nature.)

Prior Knowledge:

• Students must be familiar with the properties of water.
• Students must have basic computer skills.

Cue Set:

• The teacher begins discussion by posing two questions:
  - What are the properties of water?
  - How does water change?
• The teacher introduces and reads the book Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. This Caldecott Medal book is the story of William Bentley and his passion for nature and photography. With this book the students gain insight into a soul who had not only a scientist’s vision and perseverance, but a clear passion for the wonders of nature.

Best Shot Instruction:

• The teacher engages the class in a discussion of snowflakes. The discussion then develops and the students realize the effects of temperature on the states of water.
• The class is shown how to create paper snowflakes. (The students are amazed at the uniqueness of the snowflakes they create to adorn the windows and walls of the media center.)
• In the computer lab, the students are introduced to the software HyperStudio through a demonstration with the Power Macintosh G3 computer and the large monitor.
• The students are led step-by-step through the process of creating their first cards for their HyperStudio stack projects on the properties of water.
• After each step is presented, the students are asked to check their work. The teacher engages them by asking, “Do your desktops look like mine?”
• As each stage of the project evolves, the students are taken through the steps of creating cards and buttons for their stacks.
• The students create stacks of ten cards. The cards are comprised of: backgrounds, titles, texts, graphics, and buttons. The students are asked to draw pictures on the cards to show the three states of water. Their pictures are drawn using the software tools and represent their knowledge of each individual state of water: solid, liquid, and gas. The cards are planned and created in a logical order and progress through the students’ successive science lessons. (Each HyperStudio lesson is coordinated with the classroom teacher’s science lessons in this unit.)

Reteaching and Enrichment:

The students are monitored throughout the step-by-step procedure of creating the stacks. The students are allowed creative license in the drawings they use to depict the states of water.

Review and Closure:

The students edit and share their stacks with fellow classmates. Then they print their completed stacks.

Assessment:

• Class discussion and teacher observation are used during the unit to assess student learning.
• The students are given time to use self-evaluation and peer-evaluation.
• The completed project is assessed by the classroom teacher with a rubric system.

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