Project description
For this project, we were assigned to create a curriculum to be used by fifth grade teachers in order to teach their students science concepts that are included in the fifth grade science curriculum in a fun, engaging, and effective way. We chose to achieve this mainly through Project Based Learning, and we came up with a series of lessons, activities, experiments, and quizzes to include in our three week curriculum.
We based these projects on the following state standards:
Physical Sciences
1. Elements and their combinations account for all the varied types of matter in the world. As a basis for understanding this concept: a. Students know that during chemical reactions the atoms in the reactants rearrange to form products with different properties.
b. Students know all matter is made of atoms, which may combine to form molecules.
c. Students know metals have properties in common, such as high electrical and thermal conductivity. Some metals, such as aluminum ,iron, nickel, copper, silver, and gold, are pure elements while others, such as steel and brass, are composed of a combination of elemental metals.
d. Students know that each element is made of one kind of atom and that the elements are organized in the periodic table by their chemical properties.
e. Students know scientists have developed instruments that can create discrete images of atoms and molecules that show that the atoms and molecules often occur in well'ordered arrays.
f. Students know differences in chemical and physical properties of substances are used to separate mixtures and identify compounds.
g. Students know properties of solid, liquid, and gaseous substances, such as sugar, water, helium, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide .
h. Students know living organisms and most materials are composed of just a few elements.
i. Students know the common properties of salts, such as sodium chloride.
We based these projects on the following state standards:
Physical Sciences
1. Elements and their combinations account for all the varied types of matter in the world. As a basis for understanding this concept: a. Students know that during chemical reactions the atoms in the reactants rearrange to form products with different properties.
b. Students know all matter is made of atoms, which may combine to form molecules.
c. Students know metals have properties in common, such as high electrical and thermal conductivity. Some metals, such as aluminum ,iron, nickel, copper, silver, and gold, are pure elements while others, such as steel and brass, are composed of a combination of elemental metals.
d. Students know that each element is made of one kind of atom and that the elements are organized in the periodic table by their chemical properties.
e. Students know scientists have developed instruments that can create discrete images of atoms and molecules that show that the atoms and molecules often occur in well'ordered arrays.
f. Students know differences in chemical and physical properties of substances are used to separate mixtures and identify compounds.
g. Students know properties of solid, liquid, and gaseous substances, such as sugar, water, helium, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide .
h. Students know living organisms and most materials are composed of just a few elements.
i. Students know the common properties of salts, such as sodium chloride.
Our Curriculum
reflection
I liked this project mainly because it helped us to look at chemistry concepts from the perspective of a teacher. Designing science based lessons specifically for 5th graders allowed me and the rest of my group to look at the way I learn in a different way, and it helped me to understand how to learn more effectively. My group and I worked well together, however, this was not our favorite project to work on because it did not include any real hands-on activities, and most of the work was done on our computers. Despite a lack of fun and entertaining labs, I enjoyed the majority of this project for its ability to make me think about education in a way thats different from the way I normally do. If there is one thing that I would have done differently for this project it would have been thinking more about the teacher and not the students. Of course, the education of the students should always be the primary concern when designing a curriculum for any course and any subject, but we really never considered how teachable this class would be for the teacher. One thing that I think my group and I did well was communicate and stay focused on our goal of completing the project on time.