In order to demonstrate my ability to integrate theory, research, and experiential wisdom into my professional practice, problem solving, and decision-making, I have included a unit that I created on the solar system in collaboration with the fifth grade and computer teachers here in White Lake. This unit is based around technology integration into the curriculum and does a wonderful job of demonstrating how our content standards were met throughout the process. This unit was done as part of the LOFTI Mini-Grant program during the 2001-2002 school year and is now published on the LOFTI web site so that other teachers may access and implement it in their classrooms. Here is the web site:

http://sf018.k12.sd.us/LOFTI/minigrt_sprg02/LOFTI_minigrant_4.htm#Bosworth

I have also included a reflective paper collaboratively written by Delesa Bosworth and Teri Morgan. In this paper, we share our thoughts and explanations upon the book Things That Make Us Smart by Donald A. Norman. The reason that I included this particular reflection is that it presents such a humanizing look at technology and what should really be driving technology development. I share the authors feelings that technology should not replace humans, but simply enhance what we can do. The technology should only be used in circumstances when we could otherwise not perform the task without the technology there. We must choose wisely in our technology decisions to ensure that the technology works for us, rather than we as people work for the technology.

LOFTI/DIAL Mini-Grants

Planning Framework

Technology into the Curriculum

Title: Exploring Solar System

Author: Delesa Bosworth, Scott Giblin, Bob Schroeder

Email: delesa@easnet.net

Subject Matter Emphasis and Level: Physical Science Grades 4-6.

Brief Description of the Lesson/Unit:

Students will use discovery-learning techniques to develop further understanding of our solar system. Students will research and discover information about planets, discover how planets move through the solar system, discover relationships among the planets in the solar system such as size, distance and path of travel.

Engaged Learning Indicators:

What engaged learning indicators did you use while writing this portion of the lesson? Explain how your lesson matches the engaged learning indicator you used for this portion of your lesson

Collaborative work – Students will work in collaborative groups with clearly defined tasks.

Tasks involve inquiry and research in order to complete their final projects. The tasks are higher-level thinking and require the students to take responsibility for their learning.

Assessment – Are meaningful, challenging, and involve authentic tasks. Student presentation will be evaluated by the teacher and themselves.

Goals:

Why are you teaching this lesson or unit? What are the goals? What school, district and/or state standards and outcomes are addressed? What new knowledge, skills, habits of the mind, and attitudes do you expect students to gain?

It is important that students learn about the solar system to further understand about where they live and what is around them. They will further their research skills and learn how to gather, analyze, and interpret data.

Students will research and discover information about planets.
Students will discover how planets move through the solar system.
Students will discover relationships among the planets in the solar system such as size, distance and path of travel.

The following content standards will be covered in this unit:

Science (4^th grade)

1. describe the motions of Earth, sun, and moon. (example: revolution and rotation)

2. describe relative size, position and makeup of Earth, moon, and sun.

3. describe how Earth is part of the solar system.

(5^th grade)

1. describe the variety of components of the solar system.

2. describe the relative scale of Earth to the sun, planets, and moon.

Writing (4^th grade)

1. write in response to information from various sources to develop personal understanding.

2. write reports which address key questions, issues, or situations.

(5^th grade)

write in response to information from various sources to confirm or reject prior understanding.
support key ideas and view-points using various references from print or electronic sources.
write to organize information according to category, situation, issue, or topic.

Math (4^th grade)

use appropriate scales to represent data in various forms.

(5^th Grade)

1. collect, organize, and display data in a variety of forms.

Content:

What important content will you teach in this lesson or unit? What will your students know and be able to do at the end of this instruction? Will you present the content as a problem, theme, or topic? What role will students play in selecting content?

The students will select a planet from the solar system to research in small groups.

The students will learn information to help them identify differences between individual planets through their research projects and solar system models. They will use this information to create Power Point presentations. Students will also find information used to make comparisons among the planets including sizes, revolution times, and distance from the sun.

Assessment:

What assessment procedures will you use? How will you build them into the lesson? How will you guide students to assess themselves? How can technology enhance assessment?

Students will demonstrate their understanding of planetary relationships including size, individual characteristics, and movements through the solar system by completing the end of the chapter assessment (from the text book), research reports, Power Point presentations, graphs of planet size, revolution time, and distance from the sun. Students will develop models of the solar system.

Planet Reports will be assessed following the attached checklist.

Power Pts. and solar system models will also be graded using the attached checklist.

Graphs will be graded on accuracy of information and readability.

Prior Learning, Interest, Misconceptions, and Conceptual Difficulties:

What student needs, interests and prior learning are a foundation for this lesson or unit? What conceptual difficulties might students have? How will the lesson or unit address these?

The solar system is usually interesting to upper elementary level children. They will take in an interest in finding which order the planets are in, their sizes and unique features. Some misconceptions the students might have will be that they think they will be able to find all their information on the computer. Conceptual difficulties that our students may encounter are drawing conclusions from the information that they find.

Major Learning Activities:

What worthwhile and engaging learning activities do you plan? Describe these activities in sufficient detail to be useful to other teachers. What learning objectives will they address? How will you use community and technological resources effectively to enhance students’ learning?

Activity # 1: The 4^th and 5^th graders will cover the textbook information separately. This will introduce the students to concepts such as moons with the planets, distances from sun in miles and kilometers, galaxies, facts about the sun, and the solar system. It will also introduce words such as rotation, revolution, axis, and orbit. We will touch briefly on what the planets are individually made of. Terms such as meteorite, asteroid, and comet were also defined. Space probes will also be discussed. This will be completed first so that the students will have some basic information and terminology to use when they move onto the next phase of the unit. This phase will require a week and a half to cover the material.

Activity #2: The students will work in the 4^th and 5^th grade classrooms using the reference materials and computers available to them there. Groups of 4^th-5^th graders will collaborate to research and report information on individual planets. The instructors will put them into groups of 2 or 3. They will be assigned a planet to research and given two days to complete the research portion of their project. The computer lab will be reserved for two hour long blocks to allow the student groups time to type their reports. The information will be gathered from outside resources besides their textbooks such as Internet, encyclopedias, and reference books. The final product will need to be done in a word processed format and must also include the 6+1 Writing traits to ensure that the work high quality. This information will be used to develop power point presentations, graphs, & solar system models.

Activity #3: The Power Point presentations will be completed in the computer lab with the help of Mr. Schroeder, the computer teacher. We will use a two-hour block of time to complete the slides for the presentation. Mr. Schroeder will put these slides together into one presentation.

Activity #4: The groups will also create graphs of their information that will demonstrate the differences in rotation, revolution times, and orbit distances. This will be finished in one class period.

Activity #5: Groups will develop a plan for building a solar system model of their own design. Students will use the checklist (attached) to ensure that the model includes the entire solar system in the correct location (accuracy). Students will also be scored on creativity and group participation. Some examples of what the students may want to try could be clay models, mobiles, posters, or using the computer to create a replication.

Materials and Resources:

Classroom text books (4^th and 5^th grade Scott Foresman), Internet, reference books such as World Book Encyclopedias and solar system books. Some of the books we like include the following: The Planets Neighbors in Space by Jeanne Bendick, The Universe by Time-Life Books, Our Universe by Roy A. Gallant.

Management:

How will you manage students working in cooperative or collaborative groups? With partners? Independently? How will you arrange the classroom physically? Where will students work? (In the classroom, in the resource center, in a computer lab or another location?) How will you deal with students who need extra help? How will you help students who have special needs?

They will work in groups of 2 or 3. They will do some work in the classrooms, as well as the computer lab. The 5^th grade class has an aide for a special needs student. She will be on-hand to help modify any work that needs to be done. Groups will be assigned so that special need students can get peer help.

Support Services and Special Teacher Notes:

What help will you need with computer hardware or with software, listserv, email, the Internet, or other technology applications? What other help will you need, such as a special education teacher to advice or assist you with special students? What professional development opportunities would you like?

We have Bob Schroeder, the elementary computer teacher, working with us to help with all technology. He will assist the students with the power point and graphing assignments.

Extensions and Adaptation:

How could these materials be adapted to other grade levels? How could it be related to other curriculum areas?

It could be adapted to middle school aged kids by having them work more independently.

It could also be adapted for math and writing.

Handouts

Power Point Presentation Checklist

Fourth and Fifth Grade Solar System Unit

The following criteria will be used to grade the Power Point slides you create using the information from your research reports. We will be looking to see that each part is included when we evaluate your final products.

_____ Information found in research materials other than our text book.

_____ Graphics are included.

_____ The information included is correct.

_____ The overall presentation and layout of the slide is interesting and easy to read.

_____ All group members cooperated in the creation of the slide and participated well.

_____ The slides must include at least 3 facts about the planet.

Solar System Model Rubric

Fourth and Fifth Grade Solar System Unit

The last project that your group will complete as part of this unit is to create a model of the solar system. It will be up to your group to decide how you would like to create this model. You will be graded on the following criteria.

________ Creativity. Your group may decide to create your model however you feel that you can best represent the solar system. You may try to work out something on the computer, make a mobile, draw a poster, use clay, or any other idea that you can come up with. Try to be unique and do something different from everyone else. (We will help you gather supplies as necessary.)

_____ All parts of the solar system are in correct relative location. Ex. Pluto is not next to the sun!

_____ Model is neat and well put together – not sloppy.

_________ All members of the group participated in the creation.

Report Writing Guide

Fourth and Fifth Grade Solar System Unit

Here are some tips to help guide you through your research and report writing about the planet that your group has chosen. You need to include the following information in your report. Some of this information will be used again later to create your Power Point Presentation and graphs.

______ The planet’s location in the solar system in relation to the other planets.

_____ How long does it take the planet to orbit the sun? How long is its path of travel?

_____ How large is this planet? How does it rank in comparison to other planets?

_____ What is this planet made of? What does it look like?

_____ How have scientists been able to learn about this planet so far?

_____ List some interesting facts about this planet that make it unique.

_____ Think of your 6+1 Writing Traits. Be sure that your information is well organized and interesting to read. Do not simply write out a long list of facts about your planet.

Check for the following: _____ Good Word Choice

_____ Organization

______ Sentence Fluency

______ Conventions

______ Presentation

Things That Make Us Smart

By Donald A. Norman

Reflection by Teri Morgan and Delesa Bosworth

The author of this book is a cognitive scientist who is interested in the workings of the human mind. His point of view is not that he dislikes technology itself. Norman dislikes how current technology has been developed. His claim is that society has a problem with keeping humans at the center focus of our technological development. Modern technology has been developed with a machine-centered point of view rather than a human centered one.

Norman is a proponent of technology. He sees some forms of technology, which have been developed to compliment a human weakness, as essential to further our development. One example of this would be the calculator. Humans are not very good at manipulating large numbers even with the aid of artifacts such as pencil and paper. We are prone to errors. Technology in this instance is invaluable. The calculator accurately manipulates the numbers for us displays them in useable form. This frees us up to use this new data in a way that might not have been possible before.

Other technology is not as human centered. At times technology has been used simply to automate activities that humans were perfectly capable of completing unaided. The key question that Norman poses over and over again throughout the book is that just because we have the ability to create new technology, should we? The answer is dependent on whether or not this new technology increases our human quality of life.

When Norman explains his point of view on this, he does not mean “quality of life” to simply include whether or not we enjoy something. The new technology we develop should make things possible that were not possible before the advent of the technology. An example of this is deeper reflective qualities. We as humans have become very passive with the introduction of some technologies such as TV. We would rather sit back and vicariously experience events rather than have to reflect and draw our own conclusions. Deep thought and decision making require a great deal more effort on the part of humans, but usually result in new ideas and “novel responses” (pg. 16). More often than not in modern society, entertainment takes precedence over thought.

The technology is currently available to create just about anything we want. However, this automation of human activities is not always the best choice. The example that Norman continuously referred to throughout the text was that of aviation. It is technically possible to create airplanes that could essentially fly themselves, eliminating the need for the bulky and expensive controls currently required for the task. Once again, Norman reflects on why this may not be the best choice for human future even though it is all too possible.

Technology tends only to work well under normal circumstances. If something occurs to throw anything out of line, the technology fails. This is where technology breaks down and the human mind shines. Humans are very well suited to quickly analyzing circumstances and adapting to whatever situation arises. If the technology has not been programmed to do this, which is a very difficult task, an error occurs. This provides evidence that we are living in a machine centered world rather than a human centered one. If there is ever a breakdown with a resulting accident, human error is quickly blamed rather than looking at what should have been done with the technology to avoid the situation in the first place. Technology should be made to aid humans, not to replace them.

Norman enjoys looking to the future and trying to predict what could possibly come to us next. One example that seemed interesting was his prediction that with modern technology it will be possible (and already is to a certain degree) for anyone with the time to sit down and discover any information about individuals he or she wants to find. One description of this centered on the idea that we no longer have to look for “paper trails” to provide evidence of something happening. We now leave “technology trails.” With the aid of telephone companies, a record is kept of anyone we have tried to contact via telephone. The credit card company tracks any expenditures we have made. Things will only get more sophisticated in the future. Will employers be privy to these records? Could a job be withheld from a future employee because a political contribution was made and viewed as an affiliation frowned upon by the employer? This information was simply too difficult to get a hold of in the past and not really worth the time and money it took to track down. It now is entirely too easy for private daily lives to become public knowledge.

In summary, the author urges us not to sit back and allow technology companies to make decisions for us. We should not settle for “hard” or machine friendly technology. We need to demand “soft” or human friendly technology. We cannot sit back and let companies automate our lives. We must demand that the new technology “informate.” The purpose of new technology must be to, “inform, to provide people with rich access to a variety of information that would not be available without technology” (pg. 226). We must use the technology we have reflectively. It should enhance our lives without trying to take it over. We should make the technology industry conform to our needs, not the other way around.

Back to Key Area 1

Planning Framework

Engaged Learning Indicators:

Science (4th grade)

Science (4^th grade)