Three Lessons

1
Three Lessons

• Grade Three
• donna may peralta

2
Site Statistics

• St. Vincent School
• Los Angeles, California
• 99.9 Latino
• 3rd grade classroom, ages 7-8
• 35 students
• Teacher, Molly Herbe
• Assisted by USC JEP students

3
Grade ThreeScience Content Standards

• Physical Science
• 1. Energy and matter have multiple forms and can
  be changed from one form to another.

Students will learn about the various properties
of energy through the exploration of light and
its various properties.
4
Lesson One

• Objective
• Students will become familiar with an overview
  of solar energy, a major resource of energy for
  our planet, through the concept of light and
  heat.
• Motivation
• Show students a video depicting the process of
  turning solar energy into the energy we use in
  our everyday things.

5
Lesson One(continued)

• Learning Procedure
• Show video and open floor to discussion
• regarding video.
• -What kinds of things did they see in the video
  can relate to their classroom?
• -Begin the exploration of solar energy through
  diagram, explain the BIGGER picture.
• In smaller groups, use a lamp to show students
  how the sun works to heat things up.

6
Lesson One(continued)

• Learning Assessment
• Help wanted Students to help teacher create a
  large diagram to hang up in classroom.
• -Teacher has pre-made the component parts of
  the solar energy cycle.
• -Students are given the task to figure out
  where each component (i.e. sun, light bulb,
  power plant) should fit in the cycle, through
  discussion.

7
Lesson Two

• Objective
• To give students an understanding of stored
  energy in its various forms (i.e. food, fuel and
  batteries) and how energy is translated into
  motion and heat to make the abstract concept
  more relative.
• Motivation
• Drive a motorized toy car through classroom.

8
Lesson Two(continued)

• Learning Procedure
• Purpose of driving car. Batteries have stored
  energytranslates heat into motion.
• Go outside and do an outside exploration of
  energy.
• -Do a solar power cook-out with hot-dogs
• -The hot-dog is cooked using solar-energy, as
  light is converted into heat, which is reflected
  as waves off of the mirror in a solar cooker.
• -Measure temperature of hot dog during various
  times of cooking. Higher temperature more
  energy.

9
Lesson Two(continued)

• Learning Assessment
• Children write a narrative about their
  experience during lesson, incorporating the
  vocabulary words associated with solar energy (a
  list is provided with definitions).

10
Lesson Three

• Objective
• To show how energy affects life and survival.
• Motivation
• Do the nut demonstration. Burn a nut and
  find out how many calories were in the nut using
  calorimetry.

11
Lesson Three(continued)

• Learning Procedure
• Explain the cycle of converting energy into food
  and vice versa affects the growth of a plant,
  using real props (i.e. seed, soil).
• Time to work the farm in Ms. Teachers
  plantation.

12
Lesson Three(continued)

• Learning Assessment
• While doing the planting activity, children will
  have an interactive worksheet to do.
• Example questions
• -What are the different parts of the seed?
• -What parts of the seed catch the light?
• -What is the function of the seed coat?

13
Technology

• Lesson 1
• While teacher is in small-group discussion, allow
  groups of children to use pre-selected internet
  websites that explore the different parts of a
  plant, and the role the sun plays in its
  development.
• Lesson 2
• Solar-powered oven, not a conventional kind of
  techonology. Gives children a breadth of
  experience with unconventional methods of
  cooking.

14
References

• California State Board of Education
• http//www.cde.ca.gov/board/
• California Academic Standards and
• Curriculum Frameworks
• USC Headstart homepage
• http//www.usc.edu/dept/CCR/theme/headstart.html
• Contain Picture 1
• Solar Turbines
• http//esolar.cat.com/
• Contains Picture 2
• The Great Plant Escape
• http//www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/gpe/case3/c3m2.html
• Contains Picture 3
• St. Vincent School Website
• http//home.pacbell.net/svs1911/