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Cokie Gaich

ED327/McAllister
Unit Plan Critique

This unit plan focuses on the building blocks of life, from understanding the role
of atoms in the physical world to understanding how properties can predict behavior of
elements and compounds. The unit strives to answer questions such as, do the laws of
physics apply constantly across the universe? Is anything in the world not made of
matter? Students will be learning about content from physical science that is constantly
at play in their everyday lives.

Overall, many of the lessons are student-focused and encourage students to use
critical thinking skills to predict future behavior of objects or substances. Many of the
lessons are lab based, allowing for students to directly engage in hands-on activities.
These activities allow for students to get up and move around the classroom to visit
different stations and to engage in discussion about their observations. The first lesson
is an exploration about the relationship between mass, volume, and density. I liked the
idea of this lesson because it is based on student discovery and experience. In this
lesson the students rotate around the classroom to calculate the density of different
objects. The equation would be given but not the direct relationship between the
variables. By the end of the lesson students should be able to analyze their data and
deduce how mass and volume independently affect the density of an object.

The second lesson focuses on density of liquids and their buoyancy with respect
to each other. The lesson states that the students will create a density column for
multiple liquids and predict in which order the liquids will rest. However, there is no
mention about how they would use any previous knowledge to make these predictions. I
believe that a quick demonstration and explanation of the effects of density would be
useful to engage the previous knowledge of students. By taking the common example of
water and oil, it can be shown how the higher or lower the density determines where a
liquid lies in respect to another. After this demonstration, students will be able to grasp
the idea better without having the answer given directly to them.
Cokie Gaich
ED327/McAllister
Unit Plan Critique
All of the lessons in this unit plan lead into the final project. There are many
resources that are given for both the teacher and the students to use to further explore
the topic or increase their understanding and knowledge. The activities done appear to
be engaging and relevant to the content and the personal interests of the students.
Throughout the lessons, students are given opportunities to share their knowledge and
engage in critical thinking in a safe environment.

The final assessment of this unit is for students to pick and element and
‘transport’ it to a different planet. They must also explain to NASA why this element is
important to humans and how much (volume) needs to be transported to ‘save’ the
existence of the element. The idea for the assessment is very intriguing and would
easily spark the interests of students as many adolescents have a fascination with
space and space travel. This project allows for students to use their knowledge gained
from the lessons to demonstrate their competence in the subject in a creative and
engaging way.

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