LESSON PLAN: "Introducing the Four Disciplines of Earth Science" - Differentiated Style

[Terri Grams]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxbIJH4fTYo
Excellent video to introduce Earth Science--Just found it!!

Terri Grams   *   Earth and Space Science 11/12th Grades

 

DIFFERENTIATED LESSON PLAN:  INTRODUCTION TO THE MAIN DISCIPLINES OF EARTH SCIENCE

 

      

This lesson will take place within the first two weeks of the school year.  Students will have had a review of safety in the lab and the scientific method.  This will be the first introduction to the disciplines of Earth Science other than the syllabus.

 

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

1.  How are the disciplines in Earth Science classified?

2.  Who studies these disciplines, how and why?

3.  How does knowing about the study of the Earth and space contribute to your ability to understand what is happening in the world and space around you?

 

KNOW:  The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the four MAIN disciplines of Earth and Space Science.  There are also four spheres that relate to the disciplines which will be introduced, but will not be the primary focus. (The purpose of including the spheres is to begin connections between the categories.) The four main disciplines are Astronomy, Meteorology, Geology and Oceanography.  The four spheres that will be introduced are the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere.  The final assessment is to produce a product related to a real world profession of one of the disciplines.

 

UNDERSTAND:  Once students have completed this lesson plan, they will understand the following:

1.  What the four main disciplines are as well as the four spheres

2.  Have a general idea as to why we should care about each of those topics.

3.  Have a basic understanding of how the disciplines are studied.

4.  Who the people are who are interested in and have occupations related to each discipline.

 

 DO:  This activity, from beginning to product, will take 5 class sessions.

Materials:

* A list of quotes from famous scientists or famous science quotes, cut individually and laminated

* Titles and descriptions of four main disciplines in bold lettering on paper a similar size of the  

    photos.

* Descriptions of the four spheres on the board during day 2.

* Laminated photos of places, disasters and people related to the disciplines.

* Board space and category titles for students to place their photos under.

* Computers with internet access

 

Day 1

1.  Students are instructed on how to use the Quadrant partner activity.  They locate partners for each category. 

2.  Possible inclusion: Brief teaming activity since Quadrant and KWL will not take entire period and this is initially a partner activity.

3.  KWL—What is Earth Science?  Students work with Quadrant partner to brain storm topic. One Quadrant partner per topic. Share as whole group what they know and what they want to know. Emphasis will be guided to classification of disciplines.

4.  Since this is the beginning of the year, students will also introduce partner from one topic and state one thing that the person is interested in about Earth Science.

5.  Students are instructed to bring in a photo of any type of natural occurrence, such as an earthquake, flood, mountain range, ocean waves, forest fire, sunset or lunar eclipse.  They are to do this with the four disciplines in mind in order to prepare for Day 2.

 

Day 2

1.  On the board, have titles of four categories.  Students will tape their photos under category they determine photo applies.

2.  Pick a photo to discuss in class.  Create a discussion with basic questions, such as “What is happening? Where is this happening? Is this a good or bad event?  What will be the consequences? Who would be involved in creating/fixing this?”  Ask what specific elements of the photo led them to their conclusions.

3.  Photos to be place on floor are from book called Earth from Above—see website http://www.yannarthusbertrand.org/v2/yab_us.htm for examples.  Discipline descriptions in file of same name.

4.  Direct students to work with a Quadrant partner.  Choose two photos that have something in common.  Allow 5-7 minutes for students to choose photos and discuss what the photos have in common.

5.  Ask students to share how they categorized their photos and why they chose the photos that they did.  Create a conversation that aids students in recognizing the significance of their choices.

6.  Have the students return their photos to the floor, and with the same partner, choose two new photos and one discipline description (Astronomy, Oceanography, Meteorology or Geology).  As they are choosing, they should think about the connection between the photos and the chosen discipline.

7.  Pass out two science quotes to each pair.  Allow 3-4 minutes for discussion of the meaning of each quote. (Most quotes refer to science, imagination and discovery.)

8.  Having already discussed the photo/discipline connection, the two students should now take 3-4 minutes to connect at least one of the quotes to the photos/disciplines. 

9.  Once students are done, create a whole group conversation based on the connections they have made.

10.  Depending on time and interest, students will choose a different discipline and new photos.

11.  Exit slip—“What do you know now that you didn’t know before class today?”  “How has your idea about Earth Science changed or stayed the same?” “What photo/saying/discipline caught your attention and would be something you’d like to investigate more?

 

Day 3

FINAL ASSESSMENT:

Objective:

Students will understand one profession that uses one of the disciplines as its focus, such as astronomer, geologist, volcanologist, cartographer (map maker) or something less well-known—water quality analyst. (List of professions is provided.) They will present a real-world problem/current issue that the profession would be involved in, such as the oil spill, predicting earthquakes or flood control. 

 

1.  Before beginning the assessment, students will watch some portions of the video

http://www.agiweb.org/workforce/video/video-windows.html that will show them what the geosciences professions do and why their work is important.  When it is time to choose a product, watching the video will help to give ideas of what actually happens in a profession.

2.  Students may use the following websites to discover more information on possible careers:

http://www.agiweb.org/workforce/brochure.html

http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/archive/career/index.html

http://www.earthworks-jobs.com/

http://www.agiweb.org/workforce/Currents/Currents-036-StudentPercep...

 

3.  Choices of product (all of the following are non-negotiable):

*  Dress as someone of that profession and give a three minute talk about how he/she has dealt with a real world issue of that profession.

*  Research the profession using online databases and write a help wanted ad that includes information about the profession such as the responsibilities, salary, benefits, work conditions, where the job can be found globally, years of school required and any special abilities that the job would require. This website is the one to be used http://www.bls.gov/oco/

*  Draw a cartoon with at least 10 boxes of how that profession would handle a current global event or what a person in that profession would be doing on a daily basis.

*  Create a timeline of a current global event from the perspective of someone in the chosen profession, such as an oceanographer looking at the current oil spill, scientists looking at Hurricane Katrina, or geologists looking at recent earthquakes.

*  Interview someone on the list of career choices.  Develop 8-10 questions to ask and have them approved by teacher prior to interview. 

 (Possible exposure to technology in terms of cartoon creation and timeline software)

 4.  Students will spend time on the computer and determine what project and topic they will pursue prior to leaving for the day.  Students will complete the THIS is MY CHOICE form and turn in as they exit for the day.

Day 4

Students are given the entire period to complete their product.

Day 5

1.  Students will complete any remaining in class work. 

2.  Students who complete the task prior to others will have the option of non-negotiable items to complete.

*  Choose another career focus and complete a mini-version of above assignments.

*  Choose 2-3 famous science quotes and go into greater depth on how one of the disciplines relates to the quotes.

*  Locate additional photos of an Earth Science topic. Create a powerpoint with brief descriptions of the photo and why it is of interest to you.

3.  Any students who chose the “Dress as a profession” option will give the speech today.

   

Follow up activity for teacher to develop:  Activity to connect four disciplines with four spheres.

 

Famous Science quotes

 

You have to know the past to understand the present.”  Carl Sagan

 

Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used” Carl Sagan

 

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.” Carl Sagan

 

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” Carl Sagan

 

“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.” Carl Sagan

 

Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.  ~Edwin Powell Hubble, The Nature of Science, 1954



I think science has enjoyed an extraordinary success because it has such a limited and narrow realm in which to focus its efforts.  Namely, the physical universe.  ~Ken Jenkins


Nature composes some of her loveliest poems for the microscope and the telescope.  ~Theodore Roszak, Where the Wasteland Ends, 1972



Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.  ~Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776



The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny..."  ~Isaac Asimov



A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes.  It is innocent, unless found guilty.  A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe.  It is guilty, until found effective.  

~Edward Teller

 

The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.  ~William Lawrence Bragg



 Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.  ~Henri Poincaré, Science and Hypothesis, 1905



Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

If we wish to make a new world we have the material ready.  The first one, too, was made out of chaos.  ~Robert Quillen



Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.  ~Albert Einstein



The greatest discoveries of science have always been those that forced us to rethink our beliefs about the universe and our place in it.  ~Robert L. Park, in The New York Times, 7 December 1999

 

Observations always involve theory.  ~Edwin Hubble



The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he's one who asks the right questions.  ~Claude Lévi-Strauss, Le Cru et le cuit, 1964



For every fact there is an infinity of hypotheses.  ~Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, 1974



The doubter is a true man of science; he doubts only himself and his interpretations, but he believes in science.  ~Claude Bernard



In physics, you don't have to go around making trouble for yourself - nature does it for you.  ~Frank Wilczek





In all science, error precedes the truth, and it is better it should go first than last.  

Hugh Walpole



Scientific principles and laws do not lie on the surface of nature.  They are hidden, and must be wrested from nature by an active and elaborate technique of inquiry.  ~John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy, 1920



The way to do research is to attack the facts at the point of greatest astonishment.  ~Celia Green, The Decline and Fall of Science, 1972



Science, in the very act of solving problems, creates more of them.  ~Abraham Flexner, Universities, 1930



Science is always wrong.  It never solves a problem without creating ten more.  ~George Bernard Shaw



Reason, Observation, and Experience - the Holy Trinity of Science.  ~Robert G. Ingersoll



An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature, and a measurement is the recording of Nature's answer.  ~Max Planck, Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers, 1949



In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again.  They really do it.  It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful.  But it happens every day.  I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.  ~Carl Sagan, 1987



The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.  ~Eden Phillpotts, A Shadow Passes

My mother made me a scientist without ever intending to.  Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school, "So?  Did you learn anything today?"  But not my mother.  "Izzy," she would say, "did you ask a good question today?"  That difference - asking good questions - made me become a scientist.  ~Isidor Isaac Rabi



The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.  ~Isaac Asimov, Isaac Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations, 1988



The scientist, by the very nature of his commitment, creates more and more questions, never fewer.  Indeed the measure of our intellectual maturity, one philosopher suggests, is our capacity to feel less and less satisfied with our answers to better problems.  ~G.W. Allport, Becoming


"Should we force science down the throats of those that have no taste for it? Is it our duty to drag them kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century ? I am afraid that it is."

— George Porter (1920- ), British chemist

 

Han Solo:

Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy. Without precise calculations, we'd fly right through a star, or bounce too close to a supernova, and that would end your trip real quick, wouldn't it.

 

“Because the highest purpose of science is the search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us.”  President Barack Obama

 

“I am confident that if we recommit ourselves to discovery, if we support science education to create the next generation of scientists and engineers right here in America; if we have the vision to believe and invest in things unseen, then we can lead the world into a new future of peace and prosperity.” President Barack Obama

EVALUATION SHOULD BE IN RUBRIC FORMAT

Name _______________________________________ Date __________

                          Earth Science Career Evaluation

Chosen project topic and product___________________________________

Student work will be graded using the following scale
4 Exemplery
3 Accomplished
2 Developing
1 Beginning

Ideas and Content 30 pts 

4 Product shows that student knows topic well. Contains interesting facts and connection to science. 

3 Product shows that student knows topic. Contains some interesting facts. 

2 Product shows that student is beginning to understand topic and contains a few interesting facts. 

1 Product shows that student has minimal understanding of topic. Needs more interesting facts.

Organization 10 

4 Follows logical pattern presenting information. Easy to follow. Smooth transitions. 

3 Follows logical pattern and easy to follow 

2 Some difficulty following topic 

1 Difficulty following flow of topic. Pattern makes understanding difficult

Creativity 10 

4 Product is very creative and interesting to read/watch/
observe
3 Product is creative and interesting to read/watch/
observe 

2 Product is somewhat creative and interesting 

1 Product needs additional effort to be creative and interesting

Information: Seeking & collecting 15

4 Information seeking extremely well done. Evident that time/effort taken to obtain interesting and thorough info 

3 Information seeking well done. Evident that time/effort taken to obtain interesting and thorough info 

2 Information seeking adequate. Evident that some time/effort taken to obtain interesting info 

1 Improvement needed on information seeking. Minimal time/effort taken to obtain interesting info

Self evaluation form 10

4 Student has taken time to thoughtfully and thoroughly review own learning and quality of finished product 

3 Student has spent adequate time on thoughtfully reviewing own learning and quality of product 

2 Student spent minimal time on reflection of own learning and quality of product. 

1 Student did not turn in or did not spend sufficient time to reflect on learning and quality of product

Additional Comments                                                            Score: ____/75

[Joseph J. Wechman]

This looks fantastic!!! You really flushed out the questions we had by adding the video segments, the great website, the quotes and the scoring rubrics.

Careers in each of the disciplines was an added bonus. Much more rounded out now. Great job!