ED161: Discovering Science at the Out-of-School Time Science Demo Template

Designing a Science learning Activity

Note:Titlesandpartswritteninplaintextaremeanttobeincludedinyourfinalreport.
Notesinblueitalics(includingthisone)areadviceondesigningasciencelearningactivity.
Pleaseerasetheblueitalicsfromthefinalversion.

Name:SuzanneCardenas Partner:Jenny
FieldSupervisorsname:HollyFletcher Fieldsiteforthislearningactivity:Crystal
CoveStatePark
Date:1/26/16

PartI:InformationaboutContext
Physicalsetting:JennyandIdecidedtodotheactivityatthePark
Learners:5thgrade
Theestimatedinstructionaltime:4550minutes
Topic:Earthquakes
Abstract
Students learn how engineers construct buildings to withstand damage from earthquakes
by building their own structures with toothpicks and marshmallows. Students test how
earthquake-proof their buildings are by testing them on an earthquake simulated in a pan of Jell-
O. Due to earthquakes causing walls to crack, foundations to move and even entire buildings to
crumple, engineers incorporate into their structural designs techniques that withstand damage
from earthquake forces, for example, cross bracing, large bases and tapered geometry.
Earthquake-proof buildings are intended to bend and sway with the motion of earthquakes, or are
isolated from the movement by sliders. Engineers come up with an idea, test it, and then re-
engineer the structure based on its performance. As the facilitator, I will be introducing the lesson
with a 5 minute preview of what they will be doing and handing out the assignment to them.
Most of the time will be for the students to work on their structure.

PartII:DesigningaScienceLearningActivity

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ED161: Discovering Science at the Out-of-School Time Science Demo Template

1. Setting the goals

2. Defining learning outcomes & objectives

3. Designing a system of activity: Designing task, tools, and talk

Three lessons from the research on how people learn science

1. Recognizing and building upon students prior knowledge, experience and languages
2. Engaging students in doing science (i.e., the practice of science)
3. Supporting students to be a metacognitive process

Three strategies for supporting learning (from Surrounded by Science)

1. Juxtaposition
2. Multiple modes
3. Interactivity

Instructional strategies:
P(E)OE: Predict (explain) Observe-Explain
5E instructional model: Engagement-exploration-explanation-elaboration-evaluation

Task: describe instructional task that you are going to use. Think of the following question to
design your task:
a. What am I going to ask students to do? What will be produced upon completion of the
task?
- Tell students that today they are acting as if they are engineers. They will make models
of buildings and conduct an experiment to test how well their structures stand up under
the stress of an earthquake. Explain to them that this is similar to what some civil
engineers do as their jobs.

b. How do my students do this work? What procedure do they follow? Are they working
individually or as a group?
- As facilitators, we will illustrate how to make cubes and triangles using toothpicks
and marshmallows. Show students how to break a toothpick approximately in half.

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ED161: Discovering Science at the Out-of-School Time Science Demo Template

Explain that cubes and triangles are like building blocks that may be stacked to make
towers. The towers can have small or large "footprints" (or bases). For this
engineering challenge, students are limited to using only the materials they have been
given to make structures. They may make large or small cubes or triangles by using
full-size or broken toothpicks. They may use cross bracing to reinforce their
structures.

c. What resources would be useful to complete this task, and how can I make it accessible to
my students?
- Toothpicks, Miniature Marshmallows, Earthquake Journal, 8 inch square baking
sheets, Jell-O.

Talk: prepare your back-pocket questions. Please check out the Discourse Primer (the primer on
the course website)
a. What questions do I ask when I launch the task and when students implement the task?
-Have you ever looked at a really tall building, such as a skyscraper? What does it look
like? Does it appear to be stable or frigid? Is it wobbly?
b. What discourse moves am I going to use to elicit students ideas?
-Pose questions, Pressing, re-voicing, peer-to-peer talk that will probe mental modes in
students and this will help with how coherent the models are, how general it is, and
whether or not they can use each others ideas to make something out of it.
Tools or scaffolds:
It is highly likely that some students in your group have some difficulties in completing the task
as expected, especially when the task is high cognitive demand (such as making sense of real
world phenomena). What support would you provide to make sure that everyone in your
classroom successfully complete the task? Tools are something that you can use over and over,
across topic or unit. It always serves for the same function. A good example of tool is the
framework of Before/during/after. It always presses students to think about the mechanism or
process. In contrast, scaffold is temporary support to assist the work usually for novice. When
they become proficient, the scaffold will be removed. Fading is the key feature of scaffolds. In a
real instructional context, it is less important to distinguish tools from scaffolds. We only need to
make sure that every student in our classroom can be successfulcompleting intellectually
challenging task with high quality. So question is going to be:

what goes on in completing the task that you propose:

A. Students will be able to identify some factors that make buildings earthquake-proof,
including cross bracing, large footprints and simple geometry;
BEFORE: Students will be using an earthquake journal, dividing one page into 4
quadrants entering new vocabulary what theyve learned, what they observed, and
question.
DURING: Students will be recording their observations in What Ive observed.
Students will be measuring the length, width, and height of their structures. (V-LxWxH)
AFTER: Students will fill out final section in the journal. Ask the question on What can
you do to make it stronger? Should you make a bigger base? Let students re-design
their structure. Or students can make a pitch and pretend to be engineers and make flyers
to convince a company to let them design a better building structure (Evaluate)

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ED161: Discovering Science at the Out-of-School Time Science Demo Template

who may have difficulties and why?

A. Students who are ESL Learners can have a difficult time grasping on to concepts.
what support would be necessary to assist those students? how am I going to provide
that support?
A. There are a variety of strategies that can be used to help ESL learners. One can be
re-stating vocabulary words in Spanish in order for ESL Learners to make
connections with their native language (Ex: Mountain can be Montaa). Using
GLAD strategies:
10/2 Lecture- This strategy suggests for facilitators (very import, because they are the
main base that carry conversation and can help to keep the conversation flowing) to
talk for 10 minutes, and then peers talk to a partner for two minutes to see what they
learned out of those 10 minutes. Most importantly, students will be able to talk to
each other either in Spanish or English.