Brain-Compatible Lesson Plan

Lesson Objective(s): What will you be teaching?

We’ll be teaching Newton’s First Law of Motion.

Assessment (Traditional/Authentic): How will you know students have learned the content?
Students are able to identify examples of Newton’s First Law of motion. In addition, they are also able
to draw a free-body force diagram identifying all the forces acting on an object.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Ways to Gain/Maintain Attention (Primacy): How will you gain and maintain students’ attention?
Consider need, novelty, meaning, or emotion.
Why is it easier to move a box filled with packing peanuts as oppose to same box filled with books.
Newton’s First Law demo will be provided. Skydiver jumping from plane slows down when he opens his
parachute. Why?

Content Chunks: How will you divide and teach the content to engage students’ brains?

Lesson Segment 1: Presentation of definitions of Inertia, Force, Net Force, Balanced &
Unbalanced Forces, and Equilibrium. Presentations of Term Map Rubric.
Activities: Students will works in groups of three to five taking one of the above mentioned
terms and create a Term Maps. Each student will be responsible for creating a term map for at
least one of the terms. Teams will then share their term maps with other teams in the class.

Lesson Segment 2: Presentation of Newton’s First Law statement, and mathematical

representation of First Law. Newton’s First Law demo will be provided
Activities: Students will work in pairs and write in their composition notebooks Newton’s
First Law statements in their own words using the five key terms. In addition, they will also cite
examples of Newton’s First Law from everyday lives. They will then share their statements with at
least two teams.

Lesson Segment 3: Three examples of Newton’s First Law will be provided. Example 1, a book
resting on a table; example 2, a paratrooper jumped out of air plane and opens his parachute; a
curling rock, or a hockey puck sliding over ice.
Activities: Students will again work in pairs writing in their composition notebooks names
of all the forces acting on the object. In addition, they will also draw in their composition
notebooks a free-body force diagram for all three example.
___________________________________________________________________________________
_
Brain-Compatible Strategies: Which will you use to deliver content?

_X_Brainstorming/Discussion _X_Drawing/Artwork __Fieldtrips __Games

_X_Graphic Organizers/Semantic Maps/Word Webs __Humor

__Manipulatives/Experiments/Labs/Models __Metaphor/Analogy/Simile

__Mnemonic Devices _X_Movement __Music/Rhythm/Rhyme/Rap

__Project/Problem-based Instruction _X_Reciprocal Teaching/Cooperative Learning

__Roleplay/Drama/Pantomime/Charades __Storytelling __Technology

__Visualization/Guided Imagery __Visuals __Work Study/Apprenticeships

_X_Writing/Journals
Taken From M. Tate 2005