Science Lesson Plan

Kara Tippey
LESSON RATIONALE
Young students are learning to explore their surroundings. By establishing their five senses and how to use them to
further explore, students will be able to continue discovering new things about their world. The hands-on nature of
this lesson is exactly what young students need and it is exploratory and attention grabbing.
(CAEP K-6 1.a)
READINESS
I. Goals/Objectives/Standards
A. Goals:
-Students will show understanding of the five senses.
-Students will able to investigate by using their senses.
B. Objectives:
-After completing this lesson, students will be able to identify the five senses.
-Through completing the activity, students will show the ability to identify properties of an object
by using their senses.
-With guidance, students will follow the scientific method to conduct an experiment.
C. Standard: K.PS.1 Plan and conduct an investigation using all senses to describe and classify different kinds
of objects by their composition and physical properties. Explain these choices to others and generate
questions about the objects.
(CAEP K-6 3.c)
II. Management Plan:
 Time: Total – 30 minutes
-Anticipatory Set: 5 minutes
-Lesson: 20 minutes
-Closure: 5 minutes
 Space: Students will remain in their seats until the closure where they will stand up by their seats.
 Materials:
-Apples (pre-cut)
-Cotton balls (with vanilla extract, place all in plastic bag)
-Papers for guesses
-iPads
 Behavior: Make use of sticker chart for good behavior. Ask further questions of students who are off-task

III. Anticipatory Set

• “I would like my friends to all close their eyes. Now think of a place you enjoy being. Maybe somewhere at
home, or somewhere with friends, or somewhere all by yourself. Imagine things that you can see in this
place. Imagine things you can hear or touch there. Try extra hard to think of something you might taste at
this place. What does this place smell like?”
 Allow one to two minutes for students to think.
 “Open your eyes. Turn to someone and tell them the place you were thinking of.” Walk around and listen
to some of the places.

IV. Purpose: “We make discoveries every day and find out about the world by using our five sense. We are going
to learn more about our five sense by conducting an experiment that will give us more information about
how our sense work together to tell us more about the world.

PLAN FOR INSTRUCTION

V. Adaptation to Individual Differences and Diverse Learners—Students might get off-task since they are young.
Provide further questions for those who are distracted or not following instructions to bring their attention
back to the experiment. All students in this class are able to eat the apples and have no issues with the vanilla
extract but other items could be used such as essential oils and other fruits or small snacks.
 (CAEP K-6 1.b)

VI. Lesson Presentation (Input/Output)

 "Who can tell me one of the five senses?” Allow one student at a time to say one sense until all five have
been listed.
- “What sense do we use when we eat something?”
 “I have a question that we will work to solve today. Do you think the sense of taste is affected by any other
senses? Write on your paper either ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”
 “Now that we have a guess of whether our sense of taste is affected by any of our other senses, we can
test our guess to see if it is correct.” Have multiple pieces of apples, two for each student. Place the
pieces in front of each student. “What do we know about apples? How can we find out what this apple is
like? How can we use our sense of sight to inform us about the pieces of apple? What about our sense of
hearing?”
 “Go ahead and pick up one piece and tell me what your sense of touch tells you about the apple. Now
what about your sense of smell?” Instruct students to eat the one piece of apple.
- “Make sure you pay attention to what your sense of taste tells you about the apple.”
 “Was there anything surprising about that piece of apple? What did it taste like?”
- “What could we do to make the apple taste different?”
 Hand out the cotton balls with vanilla. Have students hold cotton ball by their nose while they eat the
second piece of apple.
- The apple will taste like vanilla this time. “Did it taste any different this time?”
- “Turn to a friend and respectfully tell them what the apple tasted like. Remember, you can be respectful
by listening to what your friend has to say too.”
 “So the apple tasted like vanilla that second time. Raise your hand to tell me why you think it tasted
different.”
-Students will answer along the lines of either the vanilla or the cotton ball.
- “Which sense did the cotton ball affect?” Students will answer that it was the sense of smell.
 “So our sense of smell affected the way the apple tasted. How does that answer our question? Did
another sense affect our sense of taste? It did!”
- “Look at the guess you made before we began the experiment. We said that our sense of smell affected
our sense of taste. Was the guess you made earlier correct?”
 Students take out their iPads. With five pairs of four students, have them record a short video of their
findings.
(CAEP K-6 3.d)
VII. Check for understanding.
 “What are the five senses?”
 “What are some examples of things in your lives that your senses help you to experience?”
 Understanding will be seen through students’ answers to questions during experiment.

VIII. Review learning outcomes / Closure

 All students standing at their desks. “Show me how you use your sense of sight. Now show me how you
use your sense of smell. Show me how you use your sense of hearing. Show me how you use your sense of
touch. Now this last one is harder to show. Show me how you would use your sense of taste.”

PLAN FOR ASSESSMENT

 Formative: While students are experimenting with their senses, watch to see that they are using the
correct senses. Listen to the conversations they have with their peers about their thoughts. Take notes on
the level of understanding.
 Summative: Collect the papers that students used for their guesses before the experiment. The videos
the students made will serve as proof of their findings.
(CAEP K-6 3.a)
REFLECTION AND POST-LESSON ANALYSIS
(CAEP K-6 3.b)
1. How many students achieved the lesson objective(s)? For those who did not, why not?
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses?
3. How should I alter this lesson?
4. How would I pace it differently?
5. Were all students actively participating? If not, why not?
6. What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
7. How could I further my questioning to allow for further exploration?
8. Did the activity enhance my lesson rather than distract?