Secondary Lesson Plan Template Grade level and subject discipline: Length of class: 9th grade Conceptual Physics

90 minutes LEARNING GOALS Iowa Core Statements: Understand and apply knowledge of conservation of energy and increase in disorder. Understand and apply knowledge of motions and forces LEARNING OBJECTIVES Students will be able to Identify force pairs based on Newtons 3rd Law Identify momentum as a property of an object in motion Calculate momentum Differentiate between potential and kinetic energy Calculate the potential energy of an object Describe the relationship between potential and kinetic energy Use the work equation to solve for an unknown KNOWLEDGE (What knowledge (e.g., facts (dates of Civil War), concepts (osmosis, theme), vocabulary words, etc.) will students need to know or be taught in order to accomplish these objectives?) Students will already need to know how to calculate mass and velocity. They will also need to remember how to manipulate equations and backtrack. SKILLS (What skills (e.g., how to compute binary equations, how to solve problems using the scientific method, how to identify a theme, etc.) will they need to have be taught in order to accomplish these objectives?) Students will have to be taught how to read through a problem and pick out the given information. They will need to be able to figure out which variable is missing and then solve for that missing variable no matter where it is in the equation.

RESOURCES/MATERIALS NEEDED (What materials and resources will I use?): Elmo projector White Board Calculators Worksheets ASSESSMENT (How will I know if students achieve the learning goals/objectives?): I will formatively assess student understanding as I walk around and help students work through the worksheet examples. I will also collect student worksheets, check over them quickly and then hand them back. If students have only missed a couple of problems or made a few errors then they will move on to the graded quiz.

To summatively assess understanding, there will be a quiz with problems over kinetic and potential energy. LEARNING PLAN (How will you organize student learning? What instructional strategies will you use? How will you scaffold for student learning?) (Write in outline format). 1. Science Starter Which of the following has the greatest potential energy? Least potential energy? (On PowerPoint slide with pictures) Water in a dropper 3 feet above the ground Bucket of water 10 feet above the ground Water in a bucket at the top of a water park 50 feet above the ground Expected student responses: the water park bucket because it is up higher (height). The water park bucket, because it is holding the most water (mass). Then I will ask which force is causing the water to fall to the ground in all three of these scenarios and students will say (gravity). I will also ask if this force varies based on mass and/or height. I want students to understand that the value of gravity will always be the same on Earth no matter what the other values in the equation are. Go over learning objectives and plan for the day. 2. Making sense of the equation for Gravitational Potential Energy (GPE) So when thinking about how to calculate GPE, we need to factor in height, mass and gravity. The equation that accounts for all three of these is: GPE = mass x gravity x height Discuss units for GPE o Mass in kg, gravity in m/s, height in m o (kg/1) x (m/s) x (m/1) = (kg m/ s) or Joules (J) 3. Kinetic Energy is the energy of motion Work through this equation just like we did for GPE above. KE = mass x velocity Show students that velocity matters more than mass because it is squared by working through and discussing these three examples: o Mass = 5 kg and velocity = 8 m/s o Mass = 5 kg and velocity = 11 m/s o Mass = 10 kg and velocity = 8 m/s 4. Conservation of Energy (KE = PE) We can use KE and PE to figure out other variables! Ask students: are there any similarities between the two equations? Students: Both of the equations include mass. Mini review lesson on back tracking to solve for unknown variables 5. Work Time Students will start on double sided KE & PE worksheet Students can work quietly with a partner next to them or work along with me as I go through the first example on each side on the Elmo As students finish they may take the quiz and then use the rest of the class time to work on their project. Those that need more work will work individually or in small groups with me until they are prepared to take the quiz. 6. Quiz & Project work time Students will take quizzes and then continue to work on their unit projects.

I taught a lesson on how to calculate kinetic and potential energy. Students had already been shown the equations the day before and discussed when and why they are used. However, they had not yet discussed the reasons why the equations include the variables that they do. Students had practice solving for kinetic energy and potential energy, but they had not had any practice with solving problems where kinetic or potential energy were already given. They also needed some work on applying the law of conservation of energy to kinetic and potential energy problems. This class always begins with a science starter. The goal of my science starter was to get students to actually think about potential energy instead of just plugging in numbers and finding an answer. Only about half of the students got this question correct, others picked the smaller bucket of water. We talked through the problem and discussed how all of their potential energies would compare. I then used this activity to lead into deriving the equation for potential energy. Students did well with this because they had a scenario to connect it to in the science starter. We used the same reasoning to derive the equation for kinetic energy. Students did fairly well with solving the equations and finding kinetic or potential energy. A majority of the students had difficulties with solving equations were kinetic or potential energy was already given. They were not comfortable with manipulating the equations to get the wanted variable off to one side. This led to a review of backtracking to solve for an unknown variable. I had not planned on having to schedule time to review math skills but I decided it was necessary if I wanted students to fully understand the concepts of kinetic and potential energy and be able to solve problems with the two. The most successful part of my lesson was the opening science starter. Students were engaged because I had pictures of all three of the objects and I also told them that

they could not use calculators, just their own minds. Students seemed to be very engaged and they were also willing to debate with each other over the answer and provide reasons for their own answers. I also think that the time I gave students to work went well. I told them that I would not answer questions for the first five minutes; I just wanted to see them work quietly. Many students that would usually ask questions right away just went ahead and tried it on their own and most of them ended up doing a great job! The least successful portion of my lesson was talking through the law of conservation of energy. The ability levels in the class varied so much that some students were trying to listen but just did not understand and others who already knew what they were doing were talking and bothering those that still needed help. I could have just started the class by doing the science starter and then handing out the worksheet. I needed to make sure that students fully understood these concepts though before they moved on to the quiz and then onto their project where they have to apply kinetic and potential energy. By allowing the students that were ahead to just move on, I probably would have cut down on side chatter and then I would have been able to zero in on those students who needed more help. I would have had all of the students that needed more help move up closer to the front and those that already got it could move to the back and take their quiz. This change in planning could have cut down on some of my classroom management issues. The students were engaged in the very beginning of my lesson and then again when I was re-teaching backtracking. There were a handful of students that kept talking while I was teaching and distracting their neighbors. I knew that these students were talking because they were bored. I remedied the situation by asking one of them to come up and do an example problem for the class. I knew that this student knew how to do the problem and he was quick to jump at the opportunity. He liked explaining how he solved

the problem and I encouraged him to help the people around him that he had been distracting earlier. As far as overall classroom behavior went, I think that students were talking because they were bored or they did not understand. I could have prevented boredom by allowing the students that already understood to move straight to the quiz. I also could have developed another variation of the worksheet that had easier number choices and missing variables. The abilities in this class were more diverse than I was expecting. Looking back, I should have grouped students by ability and spent time giving small groups attention that needed it. My understanding of student differences also helped to inform my teaching. I wanted all students to take the quiz and eventually get the opportunity to spend some time on their projects. Because of this, I cut the workload down for students that still needed help with the very basic principles of just breaking down a problem and figuring out what you need to solve for. I worked with these students as much as I could and then had them attempt the quiz. A few of them surprised me and got almost all of it correct! I told them try all of the problems and if they could not figure one out then they were to write out in words what was confusing. This gave my cooperating teacher a better idea of how to proceed with them the next day. I have many new goals for myself after teaching this lesson but my top two would have to do with classroom management and being able to change up my plans on the spot. I want to get better at controlling side chatter. I will do this in my future classroom by establishing a voice level chart and making sure that I tell students which level our activity will be (1=silent, 2=quiet partner work, etc). During this lesson, I would tell students to quiet down or ask for their attention back up to the front. If they did not listen then I would just wait silently at the front of the room. After a moment or two they would all redirect each other. This seemed to work better and better as we got farther into the

lesson. The students are not used to this strategy though, so I think if I started this from day one in my own classroom it could be useful. I also want to get better and deviating from my plan. I planned a good lesson without any fluff. I thought that all students needed a review but I quickly realized that some were ready to move on while others needed some in depth re-teaching. I should have immediately cut what I was doing and passed out the worksheet. This way, I could have had more time to give individual help and the students that already understood it could have moved on. However, I found that even those students that thought they understood still needed help with the basic math skills. The mini math lesson could have been done in the beginning and then I could have split them off by needs and level of understanding. Overall, I want to become more comfortable with adjusting my plans on the spot to meet the needs of my students. Planning in advance is not enough because it is not always possible to predict how your students will be feeling the day of the lesson.