Science 3 Lesson Plan

Teacher Candidate: Caitlyn Tomaro Date: 2/22/24

Subject or Topic: Pushes and Pulls (Science)

Steele Standards:
K- Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or
PS2-1 different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object.

K-PS2- Analyze data to determine if a design solution works as intended to change the speed
2. or direction of an object with a push or a pull.*

Learning Targets/Objectives: Students will be able to swing the washer to knock over their
cups from different heights

Assessment Approaches: Evidence:

Subject Matter/Content:
Prerequisites:
 Lesson 1:
 What machines are
 What different machines are used for
 Clothing, food, construction
 What work words are
 Lesson 2:
 Why builders need big machines
 Different types of machines
 Excavator
 Dumptruck
 Crane
 Bulldozer
 Cement Mixer

Key Vocabulary:
  Concrete: An artificial, or human-made, stone
 Sledgehammer: A large heavy hammer usually used with both hands
 Explosives: Used for blowing up concrete building; used by professionals only
 Work words: The words that tell us what a machine is doing
 Wrecking ball: A heavy iron ball that is swung to demolish old buildings

Content/Facts:
 The East Berlin Wall is located between East and West Berlin
 The East Berlin Wall is 96 miles long, 12 feet high, and made of concrete
 The wall fell in 1989 and was brought down with a wrecking ball
 Wrecking ball: A heavy iron ball that is swung to demolish old buildings
 Wrecking ball swings from higher point, it will hit the wall harder
 Wrecking ball swings from low point, it wall hit the wall softer
 If hits too hard, can send pieces flying
 Needs to hit wall just right

Introduction/Activating/Launch Strategies:
(Preview, book, Voc, predict, purpose)
 Call students to the carpet
 Set expectations for them about what is going to happen and give them the plan for the
lesson
 Ask them about what we learned in our last science lesson
 Take students outside to get them to look at dried cement
 Different types of machines and what they do
 Explain to them today that we are going to learn about using a machine to knock down a
concrete wall
 Pull up powerpoint slides
 Show a picture of a concrete wall
 Ask students what they think the wall is made out of
 Students can turn and talk with their neighbors
 Explain what concrete is and what it is used for
 Remind them that it is what comes out of a cement truck after it dries
 This is from our last lesson (talked about cement trucks)
 Pull up next slides of the Berlin wall

Development/Teaching Approaches:
 Explain to the students what the Berlin wall is and talk a little bit about it
 Located in Germany
 Berlin is the biggest city in Germany
 City of Berlin got divided into two very different parts
 Left and right
 Bring up left and right marshmallow activity
 East Berlin didn’t want people to be free
 West Berlin was free
 A wall was built to stop people from leaving East Berlin and being free
 This wall was 12 feet high, 96 miles long, and made of concrete
  Eventually, East Berlin changed their minds and decided they wanted their people
to be free
 This means the wall had to be torn down
 Ask students to discuss how they would knock down a concrete wall
 3 can share their answers
 Explain the different machines you could use to knock down a concrete wall
 Sledgehammer - gives concrete a push, only knocks out a couple of chunks here
or there, not enough to take down an entire concrete wall
 Explosives - creates a huge push, can only be done by trained professionals, and
there can be mistakes that are made
 A machine that can bash the wall in a safe way
 Define a wrecking ball and what it does
 Wrecking ball: A heavy iron ball that is swung to demolish old buildings
 Work Word: push
 Pull up a picture and video of a wrecking ball knocking down a concrete wall
 Explain that you can’t hit the wall too hard because then it will go flying everywhere
 You need the push of the wrecking ball to be just hard enough to knock the wall
down, but not any harder
 Ask the students the questions “How do you think you make a wrecking ball hit harder?
How do you make it hit not as hard?”
 Students can turn and talk
 3 can share their answers
 Start to explain the experiment to the students
 Take 3 plastic/styrofoam cups and set them up side by side
 Explain this is our wall
 A ruler with a washer attached by a piece of string and set the bottom part of the
ruler on the floor so it is standing up vertically
 The washer should be at the top and hanging down
 Explain and show that the ruler is like our wrecking ball
 Going to take the washer and drop it from three different lengths
 High: 90 degrees from the floor
 Medium: lower than that; in between high and low
 Low: almost touching the ruler; could be a little higher
 Set expectations before the students start working
 Students are going to get into groups and work on the floor
 One person grabs that supplies and brings it to their spot on the floor
 That same student can set it up and take their turn first doing the experiment
 Walk around while students are doing the experiment to make sure everyone is getting a
turn and not fighting
 Set a 5-7 minute timer for students to complete experiment
 After the timer goes off, call students to the carpet

Closure/Summarizing Strategies:
 Ask students if they had fun with the experiment
 Go through the parts of the experiment and ask students what the cups and the ruler
represented
  Ask students what the work word was that our “wrecking ball” was doing
 Students can draw a wrecking ball in their science journal
 Can give them choices if they're struggling
 Push, pull, scrub, dig
 Congratulate them on their hard work
 Can pull up a brain break if there is time before special

Accommodations/Differentiation:
 Put Colton in a group you think he will work best with
 Redirect Jensen if necessary.

Materials and Resources:

Reflective Response:
Report of Student Learning Target/Objectives Proficiency Levels

Remediation Plan (if applicable)

Personal Reflection Question

Additional reflection/thoughts