EDUC 22200 - Educational Technology Lesson Plan Template

Stars & Constellations Unit

JORIAN GEORGE
5TH GRADE SCIENCE 
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Common Core Standards

Science
 5.ESS.2 -  The sun is one of many stars that exist in the universe.
 5.ESS.3 - Most of the cycles and patterns of motion between the Earth and sun are
predictable.

Fine Arts - Visual Arts

 6PE - Select and access contemporary digital tools media arts to investigate ideas and
inform art making.

Lesson Summary

During this lesson students will be to observe constellations and Earth's movement. The
purpose of this lesson is to give students the ability to show their understanding of our Sun and
other stars in the universe. They will also be able to identify the patterns within our
constellations. After completing this lesson, the students will be able to explain why they are
able to observe specific constellations in the night sky during certain times of the year. Students
will also be able to name a constellation and describe its history. 

Estimated Duration: This lesson will take about 5 hours. I plan to spread out the lesson into 5
days. Each class will last 50 minutes. 

Commentary: 

I plan to get my students hooked into the lesson by offering different digital materials to draw
their attention and get them engaged. They will be able to watch videos to help draw
connections to their background knowledge and new information. We will also use a Sky
Stellarium Star Map app to view the constellations outside during the day as well as at night.
This will help to provide an authentic task for my students to relate the content to their life and
environment. 

I anticipate that my students may face challenges with their wide menu options for project
completion. I also think they may have trouble researching and sourcing credible and valid
websites. 

Instructional Procedures:

Day 1 - 
 
Show a Stars & Constellation Crash Course video to capture students attention (5 mins) 
Guide a class discussion and prompt students to describe what they see when they look up into
the sky at night. I would ask questions like “When you look up at the stars, what can you
observe?” and “Do you think people on the other side of the Earth see what we do? Why or why
not? (15 minutes)

I will introduce and review key vocabulary. (15 minutes)

We will go outside as a class and we will view the location of the stars and identify certain
constellations on the Sky Guide app during the day. This will be practice for when they are
asked to complete an assignment at home. (15 minutes)
 
Day 2 - 

I will begin class by having each student come up with their own definition of the word
‘constellation’ and upload their response to Google Forms. This definition will be described in
the form of imagery and words. (10 minutes)

 After, we will use the website, Etymology, to break the word down into its word parts to further
understand the origins of where the word came from and the prefix, base, and suffix that
provides meaning to the word. (5 minutes) 

I will have students watch I Want To Know: Stars and Constellations by Lucerne Media on
YouTube. I will instruct that each student will be choosing one constellation from the group of
constellations that we mapped from Day 1. This student will be responsible for visually
representing the constellation, describing where it is located in the sky, if it is only visible for
specific points of the year, and the history behind it.The students will be asked to take a picture
of their constellations that evening for homework. Students will be given time to work in class on
this assignment. (25 minutes) 

To wrap up class, students will be asked to complete a digital exit slip on Google Forms. They
will be asked to list something interesting or notable that they found while researching their
constellation. (5 minutes) 

Day 3 - 

Review the key terms as a class by playing a game of Kahoot (10 minutes)

Access The Night Sky at Different Times site as a class and observe the changes that take
place. (10 minutes)

 Students will be tasked with creating personal artwork to show their constellation. Students may
use materials of their choice to show their constellation. This could be completed digitally or with
physical materials. (30 minutes) 

Day 4 - 

Students will use the majority of class to continue to work on their constellation project. I will
model for the students how to do research on a star and how to determine if their research
source is ethical and valid. I will also provide examples of trustworthy websites as well as non-
credible websites. Infographics on identifying reliable and ethical sources will be posted on our
Google classroom, as well as my website. (25 minutes)

Day 5 - 

Students will work to finish and submit their constellation project. I will meet with any students
during this time that have questions or need assistance. (35 minutes)

Students will complete a brief and formal quiz that will evaluate their comprehension of the
lesson. (15 minutes)

Pre-Assessment:
 
I will have my students get into small groups and discuss what they notice about the night sky.
These discussions will be guided by a few sentence starters (Example: When I look up at the
night sky, I notice..” After a few minutes of discussion, students will share out and summarize
what their groups talked about. I will analyze what they can recall by the ideas and topics that
they bring up. 

I will also provide a short evaluation to have students match vocabulary words with diagrams or
definitions. This will not be graded and will inform me of what is most commonly known in the
classroom and what I could focus more in-depth on in my instruction.

Post-Assessment: 

After we have completed the lesson, I will evaluate each student's constellation project. This
project will be submitted using Google Slides. The project criteria instructs the students to:
 Name a constellation
 Describe it’s relative location in the sky
 Note why it is viewable at a certain time of the day/year
 Paragraph summary of the history of their constellation. . 

SCORING GUIDELINES: The student is to score above an 80% on the project. 

 Adhere to the project criteria listed above. 
 Submit a Google Presentation document digitally.
 Use at least 2 digital sources for research.
 Submit an original piece of artwork detailing their constellation.

Differentiated Instructional Support:

My instruction can be differentiated to meet the needs of my gifted or accelerated students by

having them create an infographic or video explaining the relevance of the earth's rotation and
revolution on its axis and the significance of its locations to the sun. 

My instruction can be adjusted to meet the needs of my students struggling with the material by
having my more advanced students work in groups with these students to complete the project.
By partnering both students, they are able to efficiently communicate and collaborate on
research, concepts, and tackle any challenges they may face using my requested technology.
Extension: 

ODE Standards: http://ims.ode.state.oh.us/ODE/IMS/ACS/

Stellarium Star Map: https://stellarium-web.org/
 With access to the star map, students are able to use it on their computer or download
the app on their mobile device. The app can be adjusted to their relative location. This
site is beneficial for my students to access because they can explore:
  Star constellations and their relative locations.
  Constellation art, where they can see what each constellation looks like in art
form.
 Sky view with it without landscape orientation

Homework Options & Home Connections:

Students will be asked to use the Stellarium Star Map app to complete research on their chosen
constellation. This app can be used to locate their constellation in the sky to collect an image.
The student can take a picture of their “digital” sky through the app or they can use a camera to
take a picture of their night sky.

If not finished in class, students will be asked to complete their research at home. I will
encourage parent involvement at home by creating a survey that students will need to fill out
with their parents. This survey will be short and simple but it will encourage students to ask their
parents questions about our night sky and what their favorite constellation is and why. This
parental survey will be incorporated into the students final project as extra credit. 

Interdisciplinary Connections: 

History: Gain knowledge on some of the constellations & their respective history of origin.
Students will be able to describe why their constellation came to be and how people from the
past came to discover and name constellations. 

Art: Create our own digital/physical constellations 

Ethics: Process on researching credible sites and sources

Materials & Resources: 

 Instructor materials
 Video on the history of constellations 
 Google drive for each student group 
 Digital Exit slip - Google Forms
 Paper
 Coloring supplies
 Pre-assembled paper prompts (class discussion)
 Student materials
 Laptop
 Google Drive account
 Stellarium Sky Map account
 Paper
 Coloring supplies 
Key Vocabulary: 
 Key terms prior to lesson: 
 Star
 Galaxy
 Sun
 Constellation 
 As part of instruction:
 Constellation
 Axis
 Revolve
 Rotate
 Southern Hemisphere
 Northern Hemisphere