Science Lesson Plan – Kara Tippey 1

Elementary Education Lesson Plan

CAEP 2018 K-6 Elementary Teacher Preparation Standards
5th grade Science Lesson Plan
Kara Tippey

LESSON RATIONALE (CAEP K-6 1.a)

Students in 5th grade are curious about the way the world works, and part of that is flying. Students
will begin to understand Bernoulli’s Principle as the way planes fly and simultaneously be learning
how to conduct investigations.

READINESS (CAEP K-6 3.c)

I. Goals/Objectives/Standard
A. Goal: Students will perform investigations and reach conclusions.
B. Objective: Students will conduct investigations through the scientific method to discover how
Bernoulli’s Principle works.
C. Standard: SEPS.3 Constructing and performing investigations.

II. Management Plan

 Time: 45 minutes (43 with extra space)
o Anticipatory Set: 8 minutes
o 1st experiment: 8 minutes
o Students read text: 5 minutes
o Experiment stations: 15 minutes
o Closure: 7 minutes
 Space: Students will receive initial instruction and conduct the initial experiment at their desks then
move the another area of the classroom where they will rotate through 3 stations.
 Materials:
o Book: Hawk, I’m Your Brother by Byrd Baylor, illustrated by Peter Parnall
o Student text (at least 1 copy for every 2 students)
o Student experiment worksheets (1 for every student to put in journal)
 both text and worksheets retrieved from NASA’s The Courage to Soar, An Educator’s
Guide.
o Books of uniform sizes
o Notebook paper
o Scissors
o For station experiments: (amounts listed are for one station, double if doing 6 station)
 1 piece of 6- by 2-inch paper (1/4 sheet of notebook paper)
 2 empty soda cans with tabs
 2 pieces of 14-inch string
 A 12-inch ruler
 Tape
 A 5- by 8-inch index card
 A 6-sided pencil (not round)
 A 12-inch ruler
 Tape
 Hair dryer
 Expectations and procedures: Establish process of students as reader, recorder, materials, and
scientist(s). Students are expected to act as professional scientists and to not mess around. If
students are not following procedures, provide reminder to stay on task and if necessary,
remove student(s) from the problematic group. Students are expected to move efficiently
from one station to another and from stations back to their desks.
Science Lesson Plan – Kara Tippey 2

III. Anticipatory Set

“How many of you have ever thought about flying? Maybe some of you have been able to fly because of a
plane. But what if we could fly on our own? That’s exactly what the boy in this story, Hawk, I’m Your
Brother, wants. Listen carefully to see what happens.” Read book with lots of expression. “What did
you think of this story?” Allow for student response.

IV. Purpose: “Planes are a way that we are actually able to fly! Today, we’ll discover the reason planes are
able to fly by conducting multiple experiments that will help us understand Bernoulli’s
Principle.”

PLAN FOR INSTRUCTION

I. Adaptation to Individual Differences and Diverse Learners (CAEP K-6 1.b)
- By having students work in reading pairs and letting students choose the reader for the experiments,
students who may have trouble with reading will not be distracted by reading ability and can focus
on the learning.

II. Lesson Presentation (CAEP K-6 3.f, d)

 Whole group experiment
o Student conduct first experiment in whole group. “We’re going to start by conducting an
experiment that will help us begin to understand the force of lift. I want you to take out your
science journals and open to a new page, that is where we will be taking notes today.”
o “Take out a piece of notebook paper and scissor and cut that piece of paper in half vertically, or
hot dog style just like this.” Demonstrate this. “Now grab your science textbook (or whatever
larger book all students have that are the same size) and insert your paper about 2 inches into
the book and let the rest of the paper hang over the book, just like this.” Demonstrate. “Now it’s
time to develop our hypothesis. What is a hypothesis?” Allow for response. “That’s right, it’s an
educated guess. The question I need an answer to is this: what will happen if you blow across
the top of the paper? Go ahead and write your hypothesis in your journal.” Allow about 2
minutes for this. “Now that you’ve had time to develop a hypothesis, hold your book up to your
mouth like this, and blow hard across the top of the paper.” Students follow instructions. “So
what happened?” Allow for response. “That’s right, the paper lifted up when you blew across it.
Why do you think that is? Tell your shoulder partner what you think.” Allow for response. “So
the paper lifted because of the force of lift. So the faster moving air has less pressure (it pushes
less) than the stable (static) air underneath. Since the stable air underneath pushes harder, it
caused the paper to lift up.”
 Further explanation

o Display this diagram on the board. “This diagram shows

how that experiment worked. The air pressure at the top of the paper was equal to the air
pressure at the bottom before you started blowing and so the paper hung down. When you blow
on the paper, the air pressure at the top was less than the air pressure at the bottom, so the
paper started to lift.”
o “I want you to think about a plane again. As a plane flies into the air, the air rushes by the wing,
but the air moves faster over the top of the wing than it does the bottom. So the slower moving
air on the bottom is able to push harder. This is the force of lift.”
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 Students read
o Students will read student text (attached on page 5) with their reading partners. “I have
some information for you all to read that will help inform you before we continue with our
experiments. Before we begin reading, I want to introduce some vocabulary that will make this
reading easier to understand.” Write these on the board as introduced. “First is ‘angle of
attack’ which has to do with the angle of the plane wing. Next ‘Bernoulli’s Principle’ explains
that as the speed of a moving fluid increases, the pressure within the fluid decreases. This
applies to all fluids, including water, air, and gases. If you have any questions as you’re reading,
raise your hand and I will come help. You will be reading with your reading partners so get
together and come get your reading texts.” Student come get their texts then find a spot to
read together. One student may read aloud while the other follows along. These partners
have been previously established based on ability to work together and level of reading.
Students should be done reading within 5 minutes. Have students who finish early, discuss.
 Small group experiments
o “Now that we have some new information, we will be conducting a few more experiments on
lift.” Scientific groups have been established with 3-5 students in each group. This grouping
is based on ability to work together. Each time there is one recorder, one in charge of
supplies, and one reader, this may be flexible. Encourage all students to participate equally
while doing their jobs. “I want you to find your scientific experiment group and I’ll give you one
minute to decide who is the recorder, who is in charge of materials, and who is the reader.”
Allow that time. “Remember, the recorder write everything that happens, including the
hypothesis. You will only have 5 minutes at each station, so stay on task and be efficient. Once
you get to your station, the reader will read the problem. Your group will discuss the hypothesis
and decide together what your hypothesis will be. The recorder will write the hypothesis on the
experiment worksheet (on pages 9-14). Then the reader will read the procedure as the others
perform each step. After all the steps are completed, the group will discuss the results and the
conclusion. The group should help the recorder fill in the results and conclusion. When your
group is finished, wait for me to signal before proceeding to the next station. Any questions?”
o There are 3 different experiments which are repeated so there are 6 stations and 3 rotations.
6 experiments have been attached that could be used to expand with more time, but stick to
1, 3, and 6.
 Lift Experiment 1 – Chin Ups:
- Problem: what will happen when you blow across the top of a piece of
paper held against your chin?
- Hypothesis: the paper will________
- Procedure: (1) hold the piece of paper against your chin (2) blow across the
top surface of the paper
- Results: the paper lifted up
- Conclusion: this happened because the moving air over the top surface of
the paper has less pressure than the static air below. This causes the paper
to be pushed upward by the greater pressure of the static air.
 Lift Experiment 2 (# 3 worksheet) – Can It:
- Problem: what will happen when you blow between two soda cans that are
hanging from a ruler?
- Hypothesis: the soda cans will_______
- Procedure (1) tie one piece of string to each tab of an empty soda can (2)
tape or tie the strings to the ruler about 6 inches apart (3) hold them up and
wait for the cans to stop moving (4) blow between the cans (5) try blowing
softly and then harder
- Results: the cans came together
- Conclusion: this happened because the air you blow between the can is
moving faster than the air around them. The pressure of moving air is less
than that of static air. The higher pressure around the objects pushes them
together. The harder you blow, the faster the air is moving and the less
Science Lesson Plan – Kara Tippey 4

pressure between the objects. So, they move together more quickly or with
more force.
 Lift Experiment 3 (#6 worksheet) – Wing It
- Problem: what will happen to a ruler with a curved card attached to it when
you blow air across the card?
- Hypothesis: the ruler will_________
- Procedure: (1) fold over the index card vertically but do not crease it. Tape
the two edges together (2) tape the edged-side of the card to the end of the
ruler at the 2-inch mark. Tape the bottom of the card to the ruler as well (3)
place the ruler on a six-sided pencil with the card end down (4) weight the
pencil down and very loosely tape the ruler to the pencil to keep it from
blowing away (5) hold the hair dryer facing the curved edge, and turn on
- Results: the ruler lifted up
- Conclusion: this happened because the faster moving air flowing over the
top of the paper has less pressure than the air under the ruler. The more
stable air under the ruler has more pressure, lifting the ruler up.
o Move to closure. “Everyone go back to your seats now.”

III. Check for understanding

 As students work with the experiments, watch to see if students are struggling with conducting
experiments. For those that may, review the scientific process as is shown on the work sheet. Make sure that
each role is assigned and make suggestions if needed.
 For students who may struggle with Bernoulli’s Principle, show them beginning demonstration again and
ask where they may not be understanding. Fill in those knowledge gaps.

IV. Review learning outcomes / Closure

- Students come back from stations. “Now that we’ve had time to explore, I have a few questions I think
you’ll be able to answer. First, what is airflow? Go ahead and check your findings if you need to.” Allow
for response (Airflow is the motion of air molecules as they flow around an object, such as a wing).
“What is air pressure?” Allow for response (Air pressure is the weight or force of air pressing on
surface). “And who can tell me what the Bernoulli Principle is?” Allow for response (When a fluid
moves faster, the molecules inside the fluid exert less pressure on the objects around them; as the
speed of a moving fluid increases, the pressure within the fluid decreases. This applies to all fluids,
including water, air, and gases). “Very good! I’m proud of all the investigation that happened today!”

PLAN FOR ASSESSMENT (CAEP K-6 3.a)

 Formative: Student science journals will serve as a way to check in and briefly assess understanding
and need to reteach.
 Summative: Science journals may also serve as form of assessment of learning. Journals may be
turned in for a grade. Not graded on accuracy but on effort.

REFLECTION AND POST-LESSON ANALYSIS (CAEP K-6 3.b)

1. How many students achieved the lesson objective? For those who did not, why not?
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses?
3. How should I alter this lesson?
4. How would I pace it differently?
5. Were all students actively participating? If not, why not?
6. What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
7. How could I further my questioning to allow for further exploration?
8. Did the experiments directly enhance student learning?