Name Julia Underwood

Class ELED 3221

Date February 28, 2018

Indirect Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Saving Sam

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Central Focus/Big Idea: The big idea that goes with this lesson is learning the steps to the
scientific method as well as how to work collaboratively with a group when given a challenge.
You can build on this when you do more experiments in the classroom; the scientific method can
be referred back to.

Subject of this lesson: The subject of this lesson is a STEM activity that involves the scientific
method and collaboration. The students will also be learning about the scientific method.

Grade Level: 3rd Grade (but can be accommodated to do with other grades)

NC Essential Standard(s):3-5-ETS1-1 Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a

want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on material, time, or cost.

21st Century Skills:

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving applies to this lesson because the students are planning
and conducting an experiment and because students will be posed with questions that they must
be able to apply their knowledge in order to answer the question. Collaboration because the
students will be working together in groups to complete this challenge. We will then have class
conversations about the experiment.

Academic Language Demand

I chose predict because before the experiment, I would like for the students to predict
how the lesson will go with their hypothesis and then refer back to it at the end to see if it
was right or not.

Analyze Argue Categorize Compare/contrast Describe Explain

Interpret Predict Question Retell Summarize

 Scientific Vocabulary:
Scientific Method
Experiment
Hypothesis
Collaborate
Instructional Objective: What specific learning objective are you going to use? What are the
students going to be expected to learn? How will you know? Does your instructional objective
include: conditions, performance, and criteria?
Students will be able to work independently to create a hypothesis for the best strategy to get the
gummy life saver on the gummy worm when only using paper clips. Students will be able to
work collaboratively to test out their hypotheses to get the gummy life saver onto the gummy
worm. Students will be able to reflect back on their hypothesis to see if theirs was right or not
and what they could do differently next time.

Prior Knowledge (student):

Students should know how to make a prediction on a certain subject matter. Students should also
already know how to plan out a strategy before implementing it.

Content Knowledge (teacher):

The teacher should know the steps of the scientific method (make an observation, ask a question,
form a hypothesis, conduct an experiment, and accept or reject your hypothesis) and how to start
introducing that to students before they conduct an experiment. Teachers should also know how
to conduct this experiment as well so that they are able to facilitate the students when they are
conducting the experiment.

Accommodations for special needs (individual and/or small group):

For students with special needs, they will be placed in groups that will best benefit their
accommodation. For example, if a student was a multilingual learner, I would place them in a
group where there was a student who spoke very strong Spanish and English so that they could
act as a translator so that student would be able to participate. Pictures will also help the students
a lot with following along the directions for the lesson.

Materials and Technology requirements:

Smart Board, paperclips, plastic cups, gummy worms, gummy life savers, paper, pencil

Total Estimated Time:

This lesson should take about 30-45 mins.

Source of lesson:
Clinical Teacher told me about this lesson and I proceeded to find it on Pinterest

Safety considerations:
I will make sure the students have a clear working space to conduct the experiment.
 Content and Strategies (Procedure)

In your procedure, be sure to include all of the following 5 E’s. Your procedure should be
detailed enough for a colleague to follow. If you will be relying on technology (e.g., a YouTube
video), describe your back up plan thoroughly. Imagine your most novice colleague needing to
teach from your plan. Don’t just answer the questions. Additionally, I expect you to include
possible questions you could ask for each section. This needs to include higher-order questions.

Engage:
At the beginning of the PowerPoint I will state the objective of what the students will be doing
for this lesson. The objective will be ‘Today you will be able to work collaboratively to
successfully put a gummy lifesaver onto a gummy worm by only using paper clips’. This way
the students see a challenge is posed. I will also tie in the scientific method to this lesson with a
second objective that states ‘You will also learn the process of the Scientific Method’. Then I
will read the Saving Sam story to the students which goes: Now Sam, the worm, got stuck on top
of this boat… Somehow... Someway... HOWEVER, he has a life jacket to help him swim to
shore safely but, it is stuck... Under the boat... YOU MUST HELP HIM get his life jacket OUT
and put ON. Questions would be “Who can tell me the importance of having a scientific
method?” and “Do you think hypotheses are always right? Why or why not?”

Explore:
Students will be broken off into four different groups and given their materials of four
paperclips, a gummy worm, a gummy life saver, and a plastic cup. Before beginning they must
know that they are only allowed to use the paper clips and not their hands. Before they begin,
they must complete the first steps of the scientific method which would be to make an
observation, ask a question, and form a hypothesis. In their groups, on a piece of paper, students
must complete these first steps before beginning. Then the students will share their groups
hypothesis. Then the students will go into conducting their experiment. Questions would be:
“What kind of strategy might you use?” and “What might be the best way to accomplish this
challenge?”

Explanation:
Once one group is able to complete the challenge, they will come up to the front to share their
hypothesis and their strategy and how they were able to complete this challenge. “What worked
best?”, “How were you able to complete this challenge?” will be the questions I ask these
students so that they are able to share with their peers how they were able to solve this challenge.
This is also a great way from the students to learn from their peers. “Did your strategy match
your hypothesis or did you have to change something?” This question will get the students
thinking about how they had to think about what to do and how they were able to change
something if need be. This also allows the students to see that it is okay if something does not
work out the first time, as long as they keep trying.

Elaborate:
No other activity will need to be completed. Students will go right into discussion questions.
Evaluate:
There will be a list of discussion questions that I would like for the students to write on a piece of
paper that I can collect from them to check for their understanding. This will be the summative
assessment. The formal assessment was the questions I posed throughout the lesson. The
summative questions will be:
How did you and your group figure out how to save Sam?
Would it have been easier if you were working alone? Why/Why not?
Was there a group leader? Who called the shots or made the decisions about how to save
Sam?
Could Sam have been saved if you only had one paperclip?
How could you make this activity more challenging?

To be completed after the lesson is taught as appropriate

Assessment Results of all objectives/skills:

We ran out of time to have the students answer the questions on a piece of paper so the
summative questions turned into a group discussion.

Reflection on lesson:
I believe that this lesson went very well, overall. The students were very excited to complete this
challenge, and of course eat the materials at the end. As I was walking around the room, I saw
the different groups collaborating very well together with each group creating their own ideas. At
the beginning of the lesson, I did not know if students would be able to complete this lesson in
time, but towards the end of time slot we had, a group was able to complete the challenge
correctly. I had them share their strategy with the rest of the class which led us into the
discussion questions that we just talked through because of time. Something that I would do
differently would be to pass out the materials after discussing the scientific method steps. I
noticed the students were too focused on the materials in front of them and getting them set up
instead of focusing on the content of the lesson. Another thing I would do differently would be to
really focus on their hypothesis so that they see the importance of making a prediction before
they begin an experiment. I was too focused on the students having enough time to conduct the
experiment, that I forgot about focusing on their hypothesis. Other than those two things, I would
most definitely do this lesson again with my future students.

CT signature/confirmation: _________________________________ Date: ________________