Sarah Cooper and Tess Kokiousis
SPACE PROBE
OVERVIEW
Welcome to our PBI unit centered around the design of a space probe. In this
Unit, meant for an eighth grade science class, students will explore topics
relating to our Solar System. The students will learn about Earth's seasons,
the sun, atmosphere, magnetic field, heat, the mass of planets ,ellipses, angle
of incidence, and more. The student's task, administered by NASA, is to
design the most efficient probe that will be able to travel to a planet on a
foreign star system to detect if there is a chance of sustainable life. They will
use all the knowledge they learn about our Solar System to decide which
detectors they feel are necessary to detect a habitable planet. Within our lesson we will have seven benchmark lessons in order to ensure the students learn all the necessary information, they may have never seen before. These lessons include two lessons on seasons, a lesson on heat and temperature, a lesson on atmosphere and astronomical units, a lesson on the mass of planets, and a lesson on magnetic fields. We will also incorporate two investigations which include an investigations about the angle of incidence, and one on ellipses and habitable zones. Throughout the lessons, we have include milestones as a type of formative assessment to make sure the students are really understanding all the material. At the end of the four and a half week unit, the students will give a presentation about the probe that they chose and why they feel it is the most efficient. This will allow for a final assessment of the students' knowledge `on various topics becuase they will have to incorporate all that they have learned in order to describe why they chose to build the probe in the way that they did.
Project Based Instruction
This project was designed around Project Based Instruction, or commonly known as PBI. In this type of instruction, students are activity engaged in authentic investigations, and at the same time, develop understanding of key content ideas and scientific practices (Short, Lundsgaard, Krajcik, 2008). Learning environments that are project-based have five key features, which include starting with a driving question or problem to be solved, participating in a situated inquiry, engaging in collaborative activities, using technology, and creating a final artifact that addresses the driving question (Krajcik, Blumenfeld, 2006). The driving question needs to be meaningful to the student's lives in order to engage them in the material. The driving question is also usually open-ended in order to allow for exploration. The colloboration and hands-on experience that are unique to project-based instruction, creates a foundation for better understanding of science and math concepts. Our lesson adresses each of the five features of PBI in the following ways.
1. We do not have a driving question, but a challenge for the students to complete. The question challenging the students is: "Can you design an efficient probe and defend why it will be able to declare if life is sustainable?" It also engages the students because the topic is of interest to them, since a lot of students like learning about space and what the future holds.
2. The students engage in inquiry with two different investigations during the lesson. All the inquiries are situated or level 2 inquiry (Bell, Smetana, Binns, 2005).
3. The students work collaborative in groups throughout the whole unit. They will also have a chance to colloborate with other students outside their group during the peer reviews, as well as colloboration with the teachers.
4. The students use technology in the benchmark lessons as well as the investigations. They use ipads, calculators, and computers to watch the videos.
5. The students will be creating a presentation as the artifact in this lesson. They will have the opportunity to create any form of presentation they would like, as long it the follow the rubric. The artifact will contain a list of the sensors they choose to put on their probe, why they chose it, the monetary cost, and information backing up why it is the most efficient probe and how it can detect life.
This project is very meaningful to the students for many reasons. The topic of this unit is very interesting to students because it talks about space, our planet, and what the future holds. The opening problem/challenge helps the students get engaged in the material because it is a competition to see which design NASA will choose for their next space exploration. The situation that the students are put in for this unit, is very relatable to their lives after school because we are always looking for scientists and mathematicians to come up with new discoveries. Additionally, this unit is meaningful because it allows the students to design their own product from their collected data and work.
Meaningfullness of this Unit
PBI and Learning
Many researches have shown the success of PBI in classrooms in many different articles. The features of Project Based Instruction are consistant with the learning needs of many types of students and is an effective tool for teaching complex topics (Cook, 2009). The success of student's has been shown by improved test scores, increased engagement to the topics, and increased cooperative learning skills. Also, PBI is shown to give the student's a "deeper understanding of the subject matter, increased self-direction and motivation, and improved problem-solving abilities" (Cook, 2009). Project Based Instruction is different because the teachers act as facilitators instead of instructors, which gives the students an opportunity to investigate science and mathematical concepts on their own. The access of technology in the classroom can guide their exploration without the need for a teacher lecturing. Colloboration in the classroom creates a social learning environment where "knowledge is socially co-constructed and problem-solving is a process grounded in social practice" (Cook, 2009). Overall, research has shown that PBI not only increases knowledge and important skills, but is able to keep students engaged in an educational problem-solving practice.
Equity in instruction requires that the teacher be responsive to students’ backgrounds, experiences, traditions, and knowledge when implementing a lesson and assessing its effectiveness. It is important that equity is maintained in the classroom because not all students learn the same, and not all students have the same background. So being conscious of these things makes for a more effective classroom.
Throughout this unit, students will be creating a space probe that can travel to a new star system. Not all students may be framiliar with what a probe is. To address this students will be watching a video with what a probe actually is. We want to make sure that in our lesson, student background does not determine the success of students. So one of the main ways we plan to do this is by having students work together. Not only is collaboration one of the essential elements of project based instruction, it is a way to promote equity in the classroom. Having students work with students from different backgrounds, different learning abilities, and different "track levels", creates a more efficient classroom.
Equitable Instruction
Learning Dissability Accomodations
We would like to offer some specific recommendations for ELL students, struggling readers, or students with dyslexia. Students with learning disabilities are usually very intelligent, but exhibit behaviors that can interfere with their learning. Our unit requires some reading that may seem difficult to struggling readers or students with dyslexia. To help these students progress at the same rate as other students in the class, we recommend the teacher provide a summary and list of key ides of each of the readings to all of the students. This way, the students will still read the provided material, so they can work on their reading skills, but will be able to understand a little easier as to what they just read (Steele, 2008). ELL students face many challenges when it comes to learning science and math concepts. Some after to do with their cultural perceptions of science, and others have to do with language barrier. If students have a hard time relating to the American way of preceiving science, we suggest the teacher draws on the student's background by asking about prior knowledge to the topic at the beginning of each lesson. This way the teacher can connect their prior knowledge with the concepts of the lesson. Additionally, if the ELL sutdents are getting lost throughout the lesson due to language barrier, the teacher should thoroughly spell out the main points on the board and provide clear "markers" to help them get back on track if they get lost. The teacher should encourage the students to ask questions if they don't understand, and check in with the ELL students to ensure they are comprehending the information (Edmonds, 2009). In our lesson, we will show a few videos, so we will provide an audio description, which is a descriptive narration of visual elements of the video to accomodate learners who are hearing- or visually-impaired (Curry, Cohen, Lightbody 2006).