“The Plus-Plus and Minuses of 3rd Grade Science” is an engaging lesson in which students plan and develop a 3D model of a concept they learned in science during the school year. This lesson is designed to teach the NGSS Standard: Developing and Using Models: Modeling in 3-5 builds on K-2 experiences and progress to building and revising simple models and using models to represent events and design solutions. Develop models to describe phenomena. During this lesson my students will use their scientific knowledge to create a 3D model. It is important for my students to learn through making because it will help them engage with the content they are working with and help them feel ownership in their learning. Making also allows kids to interact with lessons in a different way and have a more hands-on experience with the content. If you are interested in learning more about the Maker Movement, and different learning theories that engage with learning through play and natural life experiences, check out my blog post titled “Unschooling and the Maker Movement.”
To design this educational experience, I considered the TPACK Framework to help connect my technological, pedagogical, and content knowledges. I engaged my pedagogical knowledge by using different learning strategies to help scaffold the design process for my students. I did this by developing a Design Journal that they will use to help guide them through the designing and planning of their models. The content knowledge my students will be engaging with will be the third-grade science standards and the NGSS standard aforementioned, and the technology they are using is Plus-Plus Blocks. This will all come together to form a TPACK framed lesson, which will be creatively focus and technology fluent.
Here is a diagram of the TPACK elements in my lesson. To learn more about the TPACK Framework, check out this video.
While crafting my lesson plan, I had to consider what information I needed to provide my students with to help them be successful in the learning objectives. Along with the Design Journals I developed for this educational experience, I also created a tutorial video titled, "Building with Plus-Plus Blocks."This video explains how to use the blocks to make both flat and 3D models of items or concepts. The tutorial aims to both educate my students on the ways to build with plus-plus blocks, and to convey the reality that it is not possible to make an exact model with the blocks because of their unique shape. This is definitely a constraint of the technology I chose for this lesson.
Photos by me. These are examples of different models that my students could create. On the left is a 3D model of a cumulonimbus cloud with a lightning bolt. On the right is a model of a rain gauge.
When I began planning this lesson, it was only supposed to last one period. However, after recieving feedback on my original lesson plan, I incorporated suggestions from my peers which added more layers to my lesson. The more opportunities for collaboration and feedback that I wanted to give to my students, the longer the lesson became. In its current state, the lesson is slated to last four 40 minute periods. Moving forward, I would like to add more extensions for students that could use enrichment, or are inspired by the project and want to take it to the next level. I am very excited to implement this lesson in this coming school year and look forward to further revisions and developments that will come.
Resources
Read ‘A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core
Ideas’ at NAP.Edu. nap.nationalacademies.org, https://doi.org/10.17226/13165.
Accessed 15 July 2022.
TPACK in 2 Minutes. www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FagVSQlZELY.
Accessed 15 July 2022.
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