5th Grade Curriculum Project
For our final project second semester, we were assigned the task of curriculum creation. This was a unique task as it forced us to become masters of aspects of chemistry well enough to simplify them to a 5th grade level. After finding the guidelines on the current 5th grade science standards, we set out to create our lab-based lessons.
Unlike most science education, we went in a direction we knew would appeal to 5th graders: food. All of our labs teach the required material with the added bonus that afterwards, kids can enjoy a tasty snack in hopes that they will retain the information through the more memorable process.
Unlike most science education, we went in a direction we knew would appeal to 5th graders: food. All of our labs teach the required material with the added bonus that afterwards, kids can enjoy a tasty snack in hopes that they will retain the information through the more memorable process.
Presentation:
curriculum_project_presentation.pptx |
Curriculum:
stem_curriculum_project_final.docx |
Concepts:
Our group's curriculum is broken into 5 labs. Students have journals to fill out after each lab to be turned in for a grade along with their class participation grade.
Our first lab is the Candy Atom Model Lab. This lab's purpose is to teach students about the composition of an atom and function of its parts through the teacher-guided construction of an atom using candy. Students then answer post-lab questions in their journal to check their understanding of the lesson.
Our second lab is our Phase Change Lab which involves making Jell-O to teach students about phases of matter along with the difference between physical and chemical changes. The teacher will make the Jell-O while telling students about the various phase changes occurring. After the lab, students answer a vocabulary fill-in and some critical thinking questions in their journal about the processes observed in the demonstration.
Our third lab is the Hot Chocolate Lab. This lab is the simplest one; students reinforce their knowledge of physical and chemical changes and get to enjoy a nice warm cup of hot chocolate!
Our fourth lab is the Artificial Snow Lab where students observe chemical reactions that produce a snowy substance. Although it isn't food based, we thought students would enjoy playing with the snow and remember the experience better with it. After the lab, students answer more questions in their journals.
For our final lab of our curriculum, we decided to have an Ice Cream Lab. Using their knowledge of phase changes, students learn about the effect of salt and learn more about freezing temperature and get to practice graphing. After finishing the lab and eating their ice cream, students then fill out their journal with a table, graph, and more post lab questions.
Our first lab is the Candy Atom Model Lab. This lab's purpose is to teach students about the composition of an atom and function of its parts through the teacher-guided construction of an atom using candy. Students then answer post-lab questions in their journal to check their understanding of the lesson.
Our second lab is our Phase Change Lab which involves making Jell-O to teach students about phases of matter along with the difference between physical and chemical changes. The teacher will make the Jell-O while telling students about the various phase changes occurring. After the lab, students answer a vocabulary fill-in and some critical thinking questions in their journal about the processes observed in the demonstration.
Our third lab is the Hot Chocolate Lab. This lab is the simplest one; students reinforce their knowledge of physical and chemical changes and get to enjoy a nice warm cup of hot chocolate!
Our fourth lab is the Artificial Snow Lab where students observe chemical reactions that produce a snowy substance. Although it isn't food based, we thought students would enjoy playing with the snow and remember the experience better with it. After the lab, students answer more questions in their journals.
For our final lab of our curriculum, we decided to have an Ice Cream Lab. Using their knowledge of phase changes, students learn about the effect of salt and learn more about freezing temperature and get to practice graphing. After finishing the lab and eating their ice cream, students then fill out their journal with a table, graph, and more post lab questions.
Reflections:
For this project, our group had issues starting, but once we started, we built momentum quickly and managed to finish and make good time. Another problem was standardization of material; each lab has the same necessary information, but our formatting was very different between each person. IN the future, I would set some guidelines before starting, or have one person edit the entire document to a standard method of formatting. While these issues were minor, they were our biggest problems throughout the course of the project as our group worked relatively efficiently and yielded decent results without too many edits to be made.