What's Up? Comes on Down!

By James Servais and Sharon Rychter

Overview

Our unit is an interdisciplinary, cross-age study of weather involving first graders and ninth graders. Our goal is not only to teach and actively engage our students in academic concepts but to instill a love of learning and scientific inquiry through "hands-on, minds-on" experiences. In this high touch/ high tech unit, both groups are communicating with an authentic audience.

First grade students will be introduced to essential weather concepts through literature, writing, art, and social studies activities. They will share their learning with ninth grade students who in turn will respond with feedback, support, and encouragement on a continuing basis. In addition, the ninth graders will prepare scientific demonstrations and experiments which will be shared on a one-to-one basis with the first graders in a culminating field trip to the high school.

Unit Outline

  • Lesson 1 - Interconnectedness and Change
  • Lesson 2 - Clouds
  • Lesson 3 - Rain, Lightning and Thunder
  • Lesson 4 - Snow
  • Lesson 5 - Wind
  • Lesson 6 - Sunlight

Lesson 1 - Interconnectedness

First Grade Component

Part A

Objective: Students will begin to understand that all things are linked to one another.

Materials Needed: "Brother Eagle, Sister Sky" by Susan Jeffers, skein of yarn

Teaching Sequence:

  1. Prepare the students to listen to "Brother Eagle, Sister Sky" by posing the following focus questions:
    1. What does it mean when Chief Seattle says, "The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth"?
    2. What is your favorite illustration in the story and why?
    3. What does it mean when Chief Seattle says, "Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves."?
  2. Read the story to the students, discuss their answers to the focus questions, and listen to their responses and comments to the story.
  3. Have the students form a circle and sit down. Explain to the students that we are going to create a web of life just like the one we heard about in the story. Explain to the students that we will toss a skein of yarn and after catching it, hold very tightly to a portion of it, before passing on the remaining skein , forming an intricate criss-crossing web of yarn in the center.
  4. Discuss with the students the analogy between their web of yarn and the web of nature. Discuss with students what happens when one student lets go of their portion of the yarn and disturbs the web. Help students make the connection that when a strand of nature's web is disturbed, it has consequences on many other parts of the web of nature.

Assessment:

Informal teacher observation, active student participation

Part B

Objective: Students will recognize that things change over time.

Materials Needed:

"Footprints and Shadows" by Anne Wescott David, photographs of students as babies, crayons, drawing paper

Activity Preparation:

Have students bring in a baby photograph of themselves from home.

Teaching Sequence:

  1. Prepare the students to listen to " Footprints and Shadows" by posing the following focus questions:
    1. What happens to footprints in the snow? the mud? the sand?
    2. What happens to shadows on the wall?
    3. When are shadows tall? long? When can't they be found at all? Why?
    4. What does it mean when the author says, "shadows come and shadows go, never leaving footprints?
    5. Would you rather be footprints or shadows? Why?
  2. Read the story to students, discuss their answers to the focus questions, and listen to their responses to and comments about the story.
  3. Explain to students that just like shadows and footprints, they too have changed over time. Hold up individual baby photographs of students and have the class try to guess which classmate it is. After a student guesses correctly, return that photograph to the appropriate student to use for an upcoming activity.
  4. Have students place their baby photo, crayons, and a large piece of drawing paper in front of them. Have students fold the paper in half. Have students place the title, "What I Could Do When I Was A Baby" on the left half of the paper and the title, "What I Can Do Now" on the right half of the paper. After a general class brainstorming discussion to get them started, have the students draw three pictures of what they could do as a baby such as crawl, drink from a bottle, clap their hands, etc. and three pictures of what they can do now such as ride a bike, write their name, read a book, etc.
  5. Have the students share their drawings with the class and discuss how they as children have changed over time.

Assessment: Active student participation in discussion, extent of understanding shown in student drawings

Interconnectedness & Change:

Ninth Grade Component

Objective:

  1. Students will understand how energy is transferred and transformed in interconnected systems.
  2.  Students will communicate concepts to first grade students, using clear and simple statements and demonstrations.
  3.  Students will be able to explain how energy is transferred from the earth's surface to the surrounding atmosphere.
  4.  Students will learn to keep a science journal to record research notes and data, to make sketches for personal understanding of important concepts, to record observations, and finally, to record the relative success of the activities which were prepared for and experienced by the first grade students during their field trip to the high school.

Materials Needed:

Text (physical science), energy transfer demonstration device (a row of suspended ball bearings transfer energy through each other when struck on one end of the row), poster board, glue or cellophane tape, colored markers (or equivalent), pictures of wildlife predators and pictures of their prey, scissors, science journal

Activity Preparation:

  1. Explain to students that they will be working with a first grade student "e-pal" (environmental and electronic pen-pal).
  2. Ask students to bring photographs of themselves; one taken when they were in the first grade, and one taken recently.
  3. Explain to students that they will need to communicate concepts to first grade students, using clear and simple statements and demonstrations.
  4. Explain to students that they will need to use their science journal to record research notes and data, to make sketches for personal understanding of important concepts, to record observations, and finally, to record the relative success of the activities which were prepared for and experienced by the first grade students during their field trip to the high school.
  5. Explain to students that part of teaching involves cultivating curiosity and a sense of wonder.

Teaching Sequence:

  1. When students receive correspondence from first grade students telling about their lessons on interconnectedness and change, they respond by writing back to the first grade students, answering questions, and being supportive of their learning. They also tell about the demonstration and exercise on interconnectedness and change that they are preparing for the first grade students to see and do on their field trip to the ninth grade classroom.
  2. Students research and study the energy transfer demonstration device using their text and direct observation and record explanatory notes in their science journal.
  3. Students prepare posters of wildlife predators and their prey to illustrate energy transfer.
  4. Students discuss the importance of listening carefully to first grade students and discuss ways to clearly explain to first grade students the concept of energy transfer.

Assessment:

  1. Teacher observation of student participation during interaction with first grade students
  2. Teacher discussions with students about energy transfer concepts in the context of the demonstration device, the animal food chain, and global atmospheric energy
  3. Clarity, completeness, and neatness of letters to "e-pal".
  4. Participation in constructing and completing predator and prey posters
  5. Clarity, depth, and neatness of science journal

Lesson 2 - Clouds

First Grade Component

Objective #1:

When shown pictures or them, students will be able to identify the three main types of clouds:

  1. cumulus
  2. cirrus, and
  3. stratus

Objective #2:

Students will be able to create a cloud picture using cottonballs and their imagination.

Materials Needed:

The Cloud Book by Tomie de Paola, It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw, cottonballs, 11" by 14" sheets of dark blue construction paper

Teaching Sequence:

  1. Prepare the students to listen to The Cloud Book by posing the following focus questions:
    1. How do you describe a cumulus cloud? a cirrus cloud? a stratus cloud?
    2. If you could be a type of cloud, which one would you be and why?
    3. Looking out the window, what kinds of clouds do we see? How do you know?
  2. Read The Cloud Book to the students, discuss their answers to the focus questions, and listen to their responses to and comments about the story.
  3. Explain to students that now we are going to read another story about clouds but this time, we are going to use our imaginations and try to think of the different shapes that clouds can form.
  4. Read the story It Looked Like Spilt Milk to the students. Discuss which shapes that they liked best and why. Ask the students what shape they would like to see in the clouds and why.
  5. Explain to the students that we are going to make our own cloud pictures using cottonballs and our imagination. Distribute the blue paper and have students write on the bottom of their paper, "Sometimes, it looked like a ________________. But it wasn't a _______________." Fill in the blank with the shape of their choice. Have the students sketch an outline of their shape and glue cottonballs in the center to make it look like a cloud.
  6. Have the students share their cloud projects with their classmates and discuss what they picked for a shape and why.

Assessment:

Active student participation in discussion, extent of creativity and imagination shown in their cloud art projects

Clouds:

Ninth Grade Component

Objective:

  1. Students will be able to identify ten main cloud types, whether they are "high", "medium", or "low" clouds, what they are made of, and how they are formed.
  2. Students will be able to explain why the role of clouds in global climate change is not a simple answer.
  3. Students will be able to sort out information in order to communicate to first grade students a simple explanation of the three main cloud types and the concept of how prefixes, suffixes, and name combinations can be added to cloud names.
  4. Students will be able to produce "clouds" using a cardboard box, a small piece of dry ice, their breath, and gloves.
  5. Students will learn to keep a science journal to record research notes and data, to make sketches for personal understanding of important concepts, to record observations, and finally, to record the relative success of the activities which were prepared for and experienced by the first grade students during their field trip to the high school.

Materials Needed:

Text (physical science), Internet access, poster board, glue sticks or cellophane tape, colored markers, scissors, cardboard box (shoe box will work), dry ice, well insulated gloves, science journal

Activity Preparation:

  1. Explain to students that they will be working with a first grade student "e-pal" (environmental and electronic pen-pal).
  2. Explain to students that they will need to communicate concepts to first grade students, using clear and simple statements and demonstrations
  3. Explain to students that they will need to use their science journal to record research notes and data, to make sketches for personal understanding of important concepts, to record observations, and finally, to record the relative success of the activities which were prepared for and experienced by the first grade students during their field trip to the high school.
  4. Explain to students that part of teaching involves cultivating curiosity and a sense of wonder.

Teaching Sequence:

  1. When students receive correspondence from first grade students telling about their lessons on and understanding of clouds, they respond by writing back to the first grade students, answering questions, and being supportive of their learning. They also tell about the cloud posters and the cloud making activity that they are preparing for the first grade students to see and do on their field trip to the ninth grade classroom.
  2. Students research clouds on the Internet and using illustrations from the Internet, construct individual posters of the three basic cloud types and three individual poster definitions of those clouds that can be matched with the three cloud illustrations.
  3. Students research at least seven more cloud types and their location in the atmosphere, on the Internet.
  4. Students construct individual poster board illustrations of the seven clouds that can be used to show how the use of prefixes, suffixes, and cloud combinations can describe variations of the three basic clouds types.
  5. Students will practice producing "clouds" using a cardboard box, a small piece of dry ice, their breath and gloves.
  6. Students discuss the importance of listening carefully to first grade students and discuss ways to clearly explain to first grade students the three main types of clouds and the concept of how prefixes, suffixes, and name combinations can describe more types of clouds.

Assessment:

  1. Teacher observation of student participation during interaction with first grade students
  2. Clarity, completeness, and neatness of letters to "e-pal"
  3. Clarity, completeness, and neatness of cloud posters
  4. Clarity, depth, and neatness of science journal
  5. Teacher observation of active student participation during interaction with first grade students
  6. Teacher discussions with students about clouds

Lesson 3 - Rain, Lightning and Thunder

First Grade Component

Objective #1: Students will be able to define "rain" as water droplets that fall from the sky.

Objective #2: Students will be able to define "lightning" as a flash of electricity.

Objective #3: Students will be able to define "thunder" as the noise air makes when it expands.

Materials Needed:

It's Raining, It's Pouring by Kin Eagle, Franklin and The Thunderstorm by Paulette Bourgeois

Teaching Sequence:

  1. Prepare the students to listen to Franklin and the Thunderstorm by posing the following questions.
    1. How did Franklin feel about storms? (they were scary) How did Fox feel about storms? (they were exciting)
    2. Why did the Fox's mother want Franklin and his friends out of the tree during the storm? (it was dangerous to be in a tree during a storm because lightning strikes tall things likes trees first and they might get hurt)
    3. What story did Hawk tell to explain thunder? (cloud giants were playing drums in the sky) What story did Snail tell to explain thunder? (cloud giants were bowling and knocking down pins)
    4. What story did Hawk tell to explain lightning? (cloud giants were turning their lights on and off) what story did Fox tell to explain lightning? (cloud giants were swinging from their chandeliers)
    5. Why did Franklin laugh at these stories? (they were obviously made-up and silly and were told to make him less scared)
    6. How did Mr. Owl explain lightning and thunder? (Lightning is a big spark of electricity that travels from the sky to the ground. Thunder is the sound that the air makes because the air is so hot)
  2. Read Franklin and the Thunderstorm to students, discuss their answers to the focus questions, and listen to their responses to and comments about the story. Encourage and be especially mindful about the students' stories abut being afraid during a storm.
  3. Ask students if they know the song, "It's Raining, It's Pouring". Have individual students sing as much as they know. Prepare the class to listen to the book It's Raining, It's Pouring by asking students, "Did you know that there are many more verses to the song, telling about all kinds of weather?"
  4. Read It's Raining, It's Pouring to the students and ask them what other kinds of weather there are in the story besides rain. Teach students the song with the cloudy, snowing, sunny, chilly, and windy verses.
  5. Explain The Thunderstorm Activity from Project Wet to the students. Have students stand in a semicircle in front of you.
  6. Explain that when you make eye contact, he/she should imitate your motion. Students should continue making this motion until you make eye contact with them again and show them a new motion. Start with a student at one end and begin the first motion. Continue the motion as you make eye contact with each student down the line. Return to the first student and work through the following series of motions:
    1. rub your hands together
    2. snap your fingers
    3. clap your hands
    4. slap your hands on your legs
    5. slap your hands on your legs and stomp your feet
    6. stomp your feet
    7. slap your hands on your legs and stomp your feet
    8. slap your hands on your legs
    9. clap your hands
    10. snap your fingers
    11. rub your hands together
    12. open your palms (rest and quiet)
    13. Discuss with students if they noticed how the noise sounded like a thunderstorm building up and then passing through.
    14. Share the following poem with the students from Mother Nature Nursery Rhymes

Why Does Thunder follow Lightning?

Why does thunder follow lightning,
Not the other way around?
Why don't we hear the thunder clap,
Then see light strike the ground?

Though the two start out together,
Lightning always wins the race.
Sound tries hard to go as fast,
But it's light that sets the pace.

Explain to the students that sometimes, we see lightning first and hear the thunder clap much later because light travels faster than sound.

Assessment:

Active student participation in discussion, song, and activity


Rain, Lightning and Thunder:

Ninth Grade Component

Objective:

  1. Students will be able to operate (with teacher supervision), a Van de Graaff generator to produce large, loud, lightning-like sparks.
  2. Students will be able to explain how the Van de Graaff generator functions can be compared to the interaction between raindrops and air in a rain storm.
  3. Students will be able to demonstrate the relative speeds of light and sound using a flashlight and a ball.
  4. Students will be able to sort out information in order to communicate to first grade students a simple explanation of lightning and thunder.
  5. Students will learn to keep a science journal to record research notes and data, to make sketches for personal understanding of important concepts, to record observations, and finally, to record the relative success of the activities which were prepared for and experienced by the first grade students during their field trip to the high school.

Materials Needed:

Text (physical science), Internet access, poster board, glue sticks or cellophane tape, colored markers, scissors, Van de Graaff generator, a 6" to 10" rubber ball labled "THUNDER" with permanent marker, a flashlight or electronic flash, science journal

Activity Preparation:

  1. Explain to students that they will be working with a first grade student "e-pal" (environmental and electronic pen-pal).
  2. Explain to students that they will need to communicate concepts to first grade students, using clear and simple statements and demonstration.
  3. Explain to students that they will need to use their science journal to record research notes and data, to make sketches for personal understanding of important concepts, to record observations, and finally, to record the relative success of the activities which were prepared for and experienced by the first grade students during their field trip to the high school.
  4. Explain to students that part of teaching involves cultivating curiosity and a sense of wonder.

Teaching Sequence:

  1. When students receive correspondence from first grade students telling about their lessons on and understanding of rain, lightning, and thunder, they respond by writing back to the first grade students, answering questions, and being supportive of their learning. They also tell about the "lightning-making" device and the speed of sound exercise that they are preparing for the first grade students to see and do on their field trip to the ninth grade classroom.
  2. Students will research rain, lightning, and thunder on the Internet and in their text.
  3. Students learn and practice a game that uses a flashlight (or camera flash) and a ball labeled "thunder" to demonstrate the relative speeds of light and sound. Two ninth grade students stand next to each other on one end of a room. When one of the students "flashes" the flashlight or camera flash, his partner instantly rolls a ball labeled "THUNDER" to some first grade students. Various distances are tried. Finally, a discussion is started around the question of whether or not it takes longer for thunder to arrive if lightening happens farther away.
  4. Students are trained in the use of the electrostatic generator (always with teacher supervision) and learn how its function compares to the interaction between rain and air in a rain storm.
  5. Students discuss approaches and difficulties of communicating the relative speeds of light and sound to first grade students.

Assessment:

  1. Teacher observation of student participation during interaction with first grade students
  2. Teacher discussions with students about rain, lightning and thunder and the Van de Graaff generator.
  3. Clarity, completeness, and neatness of letters to "e-pals"
  4. Clarity, depth, and neatness of science journal
  5. Teacher observation of student participation in the preparation and practice of the game demonstrating the relative difference in the speeds of light and sound

Lesson 4 - Snow

First Grade Component

Objective: Students will be able to define "snowflake" as ice crystals formed from water vapor and as something that always has six sides

Materials Needed: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats , white chalk, 11" by 14" black construction paper

Teaching Sequence:

  1. Prepare the students to listen to The Snowy Day by posing the following focus questions:
    a) Do you think that Peter liked the snow? Why or why not?
    b) What kinds of things did Peter do in the snow? (made tracks, made snow angels, slid down snowbank, made snowballs)
    c) Why do you think that Peter dreamed that the sun had melted all the snow away?
  2. Read The Snowy Day to students, discuss their answers to the focus questions, and encourage them to share what their experiences have been in the snow.
  3. Explain to the students that because snowflakes form when water vapor in the air turns from vapor to water around a frozen drop of water called a crystal, a snowflake will always have six sides. But because they all have six sides, it doesn't mean that they all look alike. Demonstrate to the students how to draw several variations of six-sided snowflakes on the chalkboard.
  4. Distribute white chalk and black construction paper to the students. Challenge them to draw as many variations of snowflakes as they can think of. Remind them that all of their attempts must have six sides.

Assessment: Active student participation in discussion, creativity, imagination, and effort displayed in art project.

Snow:

Ninth Grade Component

Objective:

  1. Students will be able to describe the formation and the crystal structure of snowflakes.
  2.  Students will be able to explain how the high reflectivity of snow could affect weather, local climate, and global climate.
  3. Students will be able to sort out information in order to communicate to first grade students a simple, clear, explanation of the crystal structure of snowflakes.
  4. ]Students will learn to keep a science journal to record research notes and data, to make sketches for personal understanding of important concepts, to record observations, and finally, to record the relative success of the activities which were prepared for and experienced by the first grade students during their field trip to the high school.

Materials Needed:
Text (physical science), Internet access, Popsicle sticks, classroom white glue, glue sticks or cellophane tape, colored markers, scissors, science journal

Activity Preparation:

  1. Explain to students that they will be working with a first grade student "e-pal" (environmental and electronic pen-pal).
  2. Explain to students that they will need to communicate concepts to first grade students, using clear and simple statements and demonstrations.
  3. Explain to students that they will need to use their science journal to record research notes and data, to make sketches for personal understanding of important concepts, to record observations, and finally, to record the relative success of the activities which were prepared for and experienced by the first grade students during their field trip to the high school.
  4. Explain to students that part of teaching involves cultivating curiosity and a sense of wonder.

Teaching Sequence:

  1. When students receive correspondence from first grade students telling about their lessons on and understanding of snow, they respond by writing back to the first grade students, answering questions, and being supportive of their learning. They also tell about the "snowflake" making activity that they are preparing for the first grade students to do on their field trip to the ninth grade classroom.
  2. Students will research snow and snowflake crystal structure on the Internet.
  3. Students practice building a "snowflake" using three Popsicle sticks and glue, and will write an interesting "snowflake fact" on each end of the sticks (or glue on a piece of paper with a "snowflake fact").

Assessment:

  1. Teacher discussions with students about snow and snowflakes
  2. Clarity, completeness, and neatness of letters to "e-pals"
  3. Teacher observation of practice "snowflake" construction by students
  4. Teacher observation of student participation during interaction with first grade students
  5. Clarity, depth, and neatness of science journal

Lesson 5 - Wind

First Grade Component

Objective: Students will be able to define "wind" as moving air.

Materials Needed: The Magic School Bus: Inside a Hurricane by Joanna Cole, two different-colored copy paper, brad fasteners, drinking straws, scissors, glue

Activity Preparation: pre-cut pinwheel six inch squares

Teaching Sequence:

  1. Prepare the students to listen to The Magic School Bus: Inside a Hurricane by posing the following focus questions:
    1. What is wind? (moving air)
    2. What is a hurricane? (a violent kind of storm)
    3. What part of a hurricane is quiet and calm? (the eye)
    4. What is a tornado? (a twisting, funnel-shaped whirlwind)
  2. Read The Magic School Bus: Inside a Hurricane to the students, discuss their answers to the focus questions, and encourage them to make comments about the book and their personal experiences with windy and/or tornado weather.
  3. Remind students that wind is defined as moving air . Next, explain to the students that we are going to make pinwheels to help us illustrate that point.
  4. Distribute pre-cut copy paper squares, brad fasteners, and drinking straws to the students. Have the students lay one paper square exactly on top of the other paper square. Have students fold the squares so that they form a triangle. Then, have the students fold the triangle in half to make a smaller triangle. Have the students open the squares to see the folded lines. With help if needed, have the students cut on each folded line stopping about one inch short of the center. Bend the resulting triangular sections so they touch the middle. Have the students glue each section to the center. Have the students stick the brad fastener through the center of the pinwheel and through the drinking straw.
  5. Have the students experiment with different ways to make the pinwheel turn such as simply blowing on it, waving it, and walking with it

Assessment: Active participation in discussion and the pinwheel experimentation (not the pinwheel construction)

Wind:

Ninth Grade Component

Objective:

  1. Students will be able to define the terms force and pressure.
  2. Students will be able to explain the origins and causes of wind.
  3. Students will be able to explain how changes in wind patterns could be affected by or could affect global climate.
  4. Students will be able to sort out information in order to communicate to first grade students a simple, clear, explanation of wind.
  5. Students will learn to keep a science journal to record research notes and data, to make sketches for personal understanding of important concepts, to record observations, and finally, to record the relative success of the activities which were prepared for and experienced by the first grade students during their field trip to the high school.

Materials Needed:

Text (physical science), Internet access, two-liter soda bottles, bottle connector devices that screw on to two soda bottles (connecting them opening to opening), science journal

Activity Preparation:

  1. Explain to students that they will be working with a first grade student "e-pal" (environmental and electronic pen-pal)
  2. Explain to students that they will need to communicate concepts to first grade students, using clear and simple statements and demonstrations.
  3. Explain to students that they will need to use their science journal to record research notes and data, to make sketches for personal understanding of important concepts, to record observations, and finally, to record the relative success of the activities which were prepared for and experienced by the first grade students during their field trip to the high school.
  4. Explain to students that part of teaching involves cultivating curiosity and a sense of wonder.

Teaching Sequence:

  1. Students research the concepts of force and pressure in their text and on the Internet.
  2. When students receive correspondence from first grade students telling about their lessons on and understanding of wind, they respond by writing back to the first grade students, answering questions, and being supportive of their learning. They also tell about the water "tornado" device and the "hurricane" exercise that they are preparing for the first grade students to see and do on their field trip to the ninth grade classroom.
  3. Students will research the origins and causes of wind on the Internet.
  4. Students learn and practice the participatory "human hurricane" exercise which is described below.
    All of the students of both grades (e-pals stay together so that the first graders feels safe) form a "hurricane" (a three ring or triple-layered circle of students). They then begin to act out the functions and behaviors of a hurricane by slowly walking together in a circle, thus, rotating the "hurricane" in place. Students in the layer closest to the "eye of the hurricane", reach toward the "calm sea surface" in the "eye of the hurricane". Then they begin to wiggle their fingers to represent surface water becoming "energized" by the energy from the sun, and slowly raise their arms to represent water vapor evaporating off the "sea" surface and rising into the sky. Students in the middle layer of the circle, reach toward the rising "water vapor", and when the rising wiggling fingers touch their fingers, they begin to wiggle their fingers, slowly moving the "water vapor" outward, away from the "eye" of the "hurricane". Students in the outer layer of the circle touch the wiggling fingers of "water vapor" coming toward them, wiggle their fingers and keep the "water vapor" moving outward. When their wiggling-fingers get outside of the circle at the end of extended arms, they stop wiggling, point downward and descend to the floor to represent falling rain, possibly with some sound effects (no spitting allowed). This movement of "water vapor" from the "eye" of the "hurricane" outward to the "rain storms" along the outer edge, is repeated again and again, with no need for the members of a given "layer" or "ring" of the circle to stay synchronized with each other. Of course the "hurricane" is still rotating, and if things are going well, it could begin to slowly "travel" toward "land" and possibly begin to destroy some "things" in its path with its "wind"…you might flicker the room lights for "storm-effect". … (you are on your own now…).
  5. Students discuss approaches and difficulties of communicating an explanation of wind to first grade students.

Assessment:

  1. Teacher discussions with students about the concepts of force and pressure
  2. Clarity, completeness, and neatness of letters to "e-pals"
  3. Teacher observation of student practice using of the "water tornado", and practicing the "human hurricane" exercise.
  4. Teacher observation of student participation during interaction with first grade students
  5. Clarity, depth, and neatness of science journal

Lesson 6 - Sunlight

First Grade Component

Objective: Students will be able to demonstrate that they know the correct order of the colors in the rainbow (ROY G BIV) by creating a rainbow drawing with the colors in the correct order.

Materials Needed: Planting A Rainbow by Lois Ehlert, scissors, crayons, 11" by 14" white construction paper

Activity Preparation: pre-cut pinwheel six inch squares

Teaching Sequence:

  1. Prepare the students to listen to Planting A Rainbow by posing the following focus questions:
    1. Do you think that Planting A Rainbow is a good title for this book? Why or why not? What would you call this book?
    2. What is your favorite page in this story and why?
    3. What happens when you flip the pages of this book? (forms a rainbow)
  2. Read Planting A Rainbow to the students, discuss their answers to the focus questions, and encourage any comments about the story that they wish to make.
  3. Explain to the students that a rainbow is caused by sunlight shining through and being "bent" by raindrops. Share the following poem from Mother Nature Nursery Rhymes to help illustrate the point.

    What is a Rainbow?

    A rainbow is what happens
    When the raindrops break up light
    If the sun is still behind you,
    But the rain is in your sight.

    This bridge of every color
    Is a wonder to behold
    When nature gives such treasure,
    Who needs a pot of gold?

  4. Further explain to the students that when the raindrops bend the sunlight to make a rainbow, the colors always appear in a certain order. The order is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, (ROY G BIV).
  5. Have the students take out their scissors and crayons. Distribute the white construction paper. Explain to the students that we will be making rainbows and putting the colors in the correct order. Tell the students that instead of indigo and violet, we will be using purple. Have the students cut out as large of an arc as they can by trimming off two corners of their paper. Have the students color in the bands of color in ROY G BIP (purple) order.

Assessment: Active student participation in discussion, following directions of correct order placement in their art projects

Sunlight:

Ninth Grade Component

Objective:

  1. Students will be able to define the terms ray, prism, refraction, spectrum and internal reflection.
  2. Students will be able to explain the refraction of light through a prism and a glass of water.
  3. Students will be able to explain how a drop of rainwater can produce a light spectrum.
  4. Students will be able to explain how the earth's energy balance could be affected by changes in the amount of solar energy retained by the earth.
  5. Students will be able to sort out information in order to communicate to first grade students a simple, clear, explanation of the rainbow.
  6. Students will learn to keep a science journal to record research notes and data, to make sketches for personal understanding of important concepts, to record observations, and finally, to record the relative success of the activities which were prepared for and experienced by the first grade students during their field trip to the high school.

Materials Needed:

Text (physical science), Internet access, prisms, jam jars, water, access to sunlight and small mirrors (to direct the light rays) or optical light sources, access to a room that can be darkened, science journal

Activity Preparation:

  1. Explain to students that they will be working with a first grade student "e-pal" (environmental and electronic pen-pal).
  2. Explain to students that they will need to communicate concepts to first grade students, using clear and simple statements and demonstrations.
  3. Explain to students that they will need to use their science journal to record research notes and data, to make sketches for personal understanding of important concepts, to record observations, and finally, to record the relative success of the activities which were prepared for and experienced by the first grade students during their field trip to the high school.
  4. Explain to students that part of teaching involves cultivating curiosity and a sense of wonder.

Teaching Sequence:

  1. When students receive correspondence from first grade students telling about their lessons on and understanding of sunlight, they respond by writing back to the first grade students, answering questions, and being supportive of their learning. They also tell about "rainbow" making exercise that they are preparing for the first grade students to see and do on their field trip to the ninth grade classroom.
  2. Students will research rainbows, light rays, the light spectrum, prisms, and refraction in their texts and on the Internet.
  3. Students practice producing "rainbows" with prisms and water-filled jam jars.
  4. Students discuss approaches and difficulties of communicating the concept of white light containing all the colors of the "rainbow" and the separation of white light into colors in a prism to first grade students.

Assessment:

  1. Teacher discussions with students about snow and snowflakes
  2. Clarity, completeness, and neatness of ninth grade student letters to their "e-pals"
  3. Teacher observation of student effort during practice "snowflake" construction
  4. Teacher observation of active student participation during interaction with first grade students
  5. Clarity, depth, and neatness of science journal