Lesson plan:

Inquiry Lesson Plan Template (with Four Ways of Thinking connection)

Teacher: Ms. Estrada Content & Title: Grade Level: 5th
Water Pollution
Standards:
Science:
Strand 1: Inquiry process
Concept 3: Analysis and Conclusions
PO 2. Construct reasonable explanations of observations on the basis of data obtained

English Language Arts: 5.RI.2 Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are
supported by key details; summarize the text.
Objectives (Explicit & Measurable):
SWBAT Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or
concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on the information presented int hat text.
Evidence of Mastery (Measurable Assessment: formative and summative):
(formative) Have the students verbally respond to questions that you purposely pose throughout the
lesson to see if they are grasping the information.
(summative) Have the students answer a couple of questions as an exit ticket after every relevant day.

Sub-objectives, SWBAT (steps that lead to completion of objective; sequence from simple to more complex):
o SWBAT to comprehend and construct reasonable explanations of events that take place in a text.
Lesson Summary and Justification: (summary gives detailed information about what students are doing. Justification
why is this lesson being taught)
o For this lesson, students will go through a series of days where they will be introduced to different
topics that all coincide with the main topic of water conseravtion. For the first day, students will be
making models to help introduce them to the water cycle. The second day, students will explor water
pollution by creating their own polluted water. On day three, students will learn about the importance
of clean and safe water by reading an article provided by the teacher. On day four, students will visit
the website provided by the teacher to learn about all the water and conservation resources in the
state of Arizona. On the final day, students will research and provide different ideas on ways that
they can conserve water at home as well as summarize what they learned throughout the past week.
Background Knowledge: (What do students need to know prior to completing this lesson)
o Students must know what a main idea is.
o Studnets must know how to summarize content that they read.
Misconception: (what possible misleading thoughts might students have?)
o Students might misinterpret data presented in their reading.
o Students might misinterpret reading/facts that will make them oppose the idea of water
conservation.
Process Skills: (what skills are you introducing or reinforcing)
o Communication
o Inferring
o Observing
o Classifying
o Predicting
Four Ways of Thinking connection: (Provide a complete explanation of how your lesson plan connects to futures, system,
strategic, or values thinking. Define the way of thinking you selected and used in this lesson plan. Remember, this should be
included meaningfully in the lesson plan.)

Safety: (what safety rules and items need to be addressed?)

o Rules:
1. Remain seated unless otherwise stated.
2. All materials must remain on your desk unless otherwise stated.
3. Gloves must be worn during all activities.
4. Follow all given instructions for every activity.
5. Think smart.
Inquiry Questions: (testable in the here and now.)
1. (to explore) Will I get the same cleaning results on my petri dish if I add things to my water?
2. (to elaborate) What do you think would have happened if we hadnt added all of the extra things to
our water?
Key vocabulary: (list and define) Materials: (list item and possible quantity)
1. Observation
2. Explanation Plastic Bowl Container
3. Summary
Sponge

Water
Gloves
Spoon
Petri dish (Dirty/Full of dirt)
Soil
Food coloring
Soap
Oil
Pieces of Plastic
A Cardboard Milk Carton
Scraps of Paper
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/fresh
water/freshwater-crisis.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93Bq
Lewm3bA
IPads
Paper
Pencil
 Science Notebooks
Engage - In this section you should activate prior knowledge, hook student attention, pose a question
(IQ#1) based on your lesson objective that students will seek to answer in Explore.
Teacher Will: (hook) Present the following video to the Students Will:
class. o Sit silently and watch the video.
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93BqLew o Students will respond to the question
m3bA posed.
o The teacher will then pose the question asking o Students will sit quietly and listen to all
students if they know what pollution. instructions before beginning their activity.
o AThe teacher will then ask the students to take
out one iPad per group.
o They will then pull up the article the teacher
provides and will read it aloud to each other to
introduce the idea of the severity of the water
crisis we are in.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/freshwa
ter/freshwater-crisis.html
o The teacher will go on to explain what water
pollution is before placing materials on each
gourps tables. The teacher will follow that by
telling the students what they will be doing for
their activity. The will explain that:
1. All students will put on gloves for this activity.
2. Students will take their plastic bowl container and
pour their cup of water into the container.
3. Students will take their sponge and place it in their
container before placing the container to the side.
4. One student will take their dirty scrap of plastic and
try to clean it with their sponge.
5. Students will place their sponge back into the
container and set it to the side.
6. Students will take their soiled and make the petri-
dish dirty again.
7. Students will take any of the extra materials that they
have, add it to their container, and mix with their
spoon.
8. Students will take their dirty Petri dishes and try to
clean it once again with their dirty sponges.
9. Students will record what is happening in their
science notebooks.
10. Students will write a summary of what they did in
this activity, what they think each item represented, and
write down what they learned.
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
o The teacher will make sure that any ELL students in the class are sitting next to or near students that
they can best communicate and get extra support from throughout the lesson.
Explore - In this section students should take the lead and actively use materials to discover information
that will help them answer the question posed in Engage. Teachers may choose to give steps to follow,
especially for younger students, but the goal is for students to discover some or all of the sub-objectives
of the lesson.
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #1) Students Will: (list all steps)
o Inquiry Question 1: Will I get the same cleaning o Students will follow all teacher instrctions
results on my petri dish if I add things to my before beginning.
water? o Students will pour their water into their
o The teacher will allow the students to begin container.\
their activity. First they will ask one person in o Students will take the sponge an place it in
each group to take their water and pour it in to their container.
their continer. Then they will ask them to place o Students will make observations in their
the sponge in the container of water. After this, science notebooks.
the teacher will ask the students to refer to their o Students will wash their dirty petri dish in
science notbooks to write out their observations their container.
and draw a picture of what they are looking at. o Students will make observations in their
o After the students are finished, the teacher will science notebooks.
ask one member of each group to take their o Studnts will pollute their water, make more
dirty scrap of plastic and try to clean/rinse it observations, and then try to wash their
using their sponge. petri dishes again to see what happens after
o Once each group has cleaned their scrap as best their water has been polluted.
as they could, they will write down
observations once again.
o Next the teacher will ask that every group takes
the spare dirst that they were provided and
makes their petri dish as dirty as they can with
it.
o Once every group has done that, they will all
take their extra materials and throw them in
their water to pollute it.
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
o The teacher will make sure that any ELL students in the class are sitting next to or near students that
they can best communicate and get extra support from throughout the lesson.
Explain In this section students share what they discovered, teacher connects student discoveries to
correct content terms/explanations, students articulate/demonstrate a clear and correct understanding
of the lesson sub-objectives by answering the question from Engage before moving on.
Teacher Will: Students Will:
o Once all students have finished making their o Students will clean their workspace.
observations, they will clean up their areas. o Students will sit quietly and contribute to
o Once all workspace is cleared, the teacher will the group discussion.
gather all students attention to begin a group
discussion on what they did and what they think
each of the things we used represented.
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
o The teacher will allow for their ELL students to sit next to someone they can best communicate with
in the class to get that extra support during our group discussion.
Elaborate In this section students take the basic learning gained from Explore and clarified in Explain
and apply it to a new circumstance or explore a particular aspect of this learning at a deeper level.
Students should be using higher order thinking in this stage. A common practice in this section is to ask a
What If? question. IQ #2
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #2) Students Will:
o Inquiry Question 2: What do you think would o Students will listen to the posed questions
have happened if we hadnt added all of the and verbally contribute to the discussion.
extra things to our water?
o The teacher will pose the second inquiry
question to the class.
o The teacher will allow students to respond to he
question before building on each of the students
ideas. During this time, the teacher will go on to
explain: The container of water at the
beginning reperesented out clean water supply.
Our dirty petri dishes where there to
represented ourselves. When we cleaned our
petri dishes with the clean water, it was a lot
easier to wash our petri dishes. When we added
all of the extra things to our water, we were
doing the same thing that happens when we
pollute our water supply in real life. When we
tried to clean our dirty perti dishes with our
dirty water, we realized it was harder to get it
clean. This happens the same way in real life.
What do you think would have happened if we
hadnt added all of that extra stuff to our water?
Do you think it would have made it easier to
wash our petri dishes?
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
o The teacher will allow for students to draw pictures for their observations in case any student is
having trouble writing down what they see.
Evaluate In this section every student demonstrates mastery of the lesson objective (though perhaps
not mastery of the elaborate content). Because this also serves as a closing, students should also have a
chance to summarize the big concepts they learned outside of the assessment.
Teacher Will: Students Will:
o After the class discussion, students will be o Students will take out a sheet of paper and do
asked to take out a sheet of paper. On this what they are asked.
sheet of paper, they will be asked to
summarize what we did, write down 2 things
they learned throughout this activity, and 2
main ideas from the article that they were
required to read.
Closure: (revisit objective, IQs and make real world connections)
o Once all students have turned in their paper with their work completed, the teacher will revisit
everything the students accomplished today. The teacher will explain that they have been able to
construct reasonabe explanations for observations and were able to summarize alongside name 2
main isdeas of a text.
**Best Practices List the Best Teaching Practices you will use to enhance the learning outcomes. In each
section where prompted, list the best practice, how the practices will be used and the purpose.