JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY

LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

Name: Kaitlin Morrissey

Cooperating/Mentor Teacher and School: Laura Rapsawich, Central Middle School

Date lesson is to be presented: September 20, 2017

Date of submission: September 18, 2017

LESSON TITLE & UNIT TITLE

Permeability, Porosity, and How Water Travels Throughout the Earth: Permeability Lab

CONTEXT OF THE CLASSROOM

For the lesson to be observed, the seventh-grade class has twenty-four students, thirteen males and eleven
females. The group is comprised of students who have varying interests and personalities. As a whole, the
group generally gets along well and works well in small groups, which will be important for the
Permeability Lab. There are occasions when instructions need to be understood fully, so the delivery of
the class overview instructions must be heard by all and fully comprehended the first time.

CONTEXT OF THE LESSON

The Permeability Lab will allow students to dig deeper into the context of the lessons that they have been
working on during the week. Students are looking into permeability, porosity, and how water travels
throughout the earth. Thus, this lab will allow students to visually and physically understand the
vocabulary and situations that they will have been taught before this lesson. After having completed this
lab, students will then be able to better apply their knowledge on the topic to real-world contexts and
develop further and more complex responses to how this content can be applied elsewhere.

Students also have experience in the lab setting and thus do not need extensive instruction on how the lab
setting is run. The students have worked with the stop watches and have practiced the use of beakers and
flasks and understand the expense and caution required when working with the equipment. They are also
familiar and comfortable in the lab setting and are aware of where the resources in the room are.
EDUCATION STANDARDS

• ESS.1.1.a: Thermal energy is transferred as water changes state throughout the cycle. The cycling
of water in the atmosphere is an important part of weather patterns on Earth. The rate at which
water flows through soil and rock is dependent upon the porosity and permeability of the soil or
rock.

OBJECTIVES

1. Students can recognize what permeability and porosity are and apply them to water and their
movement through substances.
2. Students can experiment with substances (sand, gravel, and clay) to understand how water flows
and why this may be important for how water flows throughout the earth.
3. Students can evaluate data results and draw conclusion about what the results mean in the real-
world context that they will be questioned about.

1. Students may have misunderstanding about the definition and meaning of permeability or
porosity which may affect their comprehension of the lesson if not addressed early on.

From this lesson, students will be able to recall and explain the meaning or definition of permeability and
porosity as well as be able to describe why water flows throughout the earth in specific ways.

ACADEMIC LANGUAGE

The specific, lesson-related vocabulary terms students will learn and be able to use fluently will include
the following: permeability, porosity, substrate, surface water. These words will be addressed directly but
students should have gone over these and should be familiar with them. The teacher will continue to
review as the lesson is introduced and the lab is described. The students will specifically work more with
these words in their lab packets which ask questions that require students to use the vocabulary.

The key verbs that represent the specific tasks students to perform include the following: compare,
analyze, experiment, and evaluate.
ASSESSING LEARNING

To assess students’ knowledge before we begin the lab, the students and teacher will discuss the current
events and past examples involving flooding (Texas, Florida, and Louisiana). The discussion should
indicate to the teacher what the students understand and have difficulties with in regards to permeability
and porosity.

During the lab, students will complete the “Permeability Lab Sheet,” which will show the teacher how
comfortable students are with the activity. The teacher will walk and speak with each group at their tables
and, through observation and conversation, recognize how effective the lab is with activating the
connection of the lab to the real world.

After students have completed the lab, they should be able to completely write the lab, including the
conclusion questions, and use the lab worksheet to make inferences on the implications of their new
knowledge. Students should also feel more comfortable with doing a lab and properly working in their lab
groups as well as better be able to independently run the lab. This lab process also includes cleaning up
their tables properly—rinsing their equipment with water and keeping them on the back tables for the next
class. Upon leaving the classroom, students will also be asked to answer the question: “In terms of the
ground-type in areas that often experience flooding more frequently, do you believe, according to your
results from the lab, that the substance the ground was made of in those areas was most similar to rocks,
sand, or clay?” The students will then write their name and answer (rocks, sand, or clay) on a sticky note
and stick them to the board as the exit the room.

INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES, MATERIALS, & TECHNOLOGY

For this lesson, the following materials are required for each of the eight potential groups:

• Three plastic cups with holes punched in the bottom

• Coffee filters for each cup
• Three types of substrate (sand, gravel, and clay)
• A stop-watch
• Two beakers
• Permeability Lab packets

The lesson will also require the smart board in order to introduce the lesson with pictures. It will also be
used to display the specific lesson directions and expectations as students work on the lab. Sticky notes
will be needed upon the completion of the lab.
INSTRUCTION

1. Preparation of the learning environment (if required): The tables should be in their typical
formation. The lab materials must be prepared and ready to be distributed after the introduction to
the lesson. This includes all of the items they will need for the lab to be successful. The pictures
of the flooding from the news should be ready on the computer to be projected as soon as that
portion is ready for students to discuss.
2. Introduction to the lesson: Students will be introduced to the lesson first with a reference to the
explicit goals of the day written on the board. This will include the students understanding
permeability and porosity and connecting that knowledge to the lab, which they will complete.
This will first be brought up by asking students if they can remember what they learned about
those terms and any examples they can recall. The teacher will then reference any examples given
the previous day in case students are not able to recall the discussion. The lesson will not
commence until the teacher feels confident in the students’ understanding of those terms, at least
in general, because they are vital to the lab. When all students understand the vocabulary, the
teacher will begin the discussion of the recent news coverage of the flooding and devastation in
Texas and Florida, with reference to the destruction of Katrina in Louisiana. This discussion
should take approximately four minutes.
3. Body of the lesson: After the discussion on real events, the teacher will then begin to go over the
lab. The teacher will ask a few students to read the procedure steps to the whole class. These can
be reviewed with individual groups, if needed, but for the sake of time, the whole class will
preview the lab as a whole. After outlining the expectations and providing a demonstration of
how the water should be poured, the teacher will have students break into their small table
groups. This portion of the lesson will take approximately 10 minutes.
4. Feedback: During the small group work specifically, the teacher will walk around and work with
groups to make sure students are on task and comprehending the lab. As they go through their lab
worksheet, the teacher will check in to make sure students are comprehending the questions and
procedure. When groups have completed the lab worksheet and the activity itself, students will be
asked to work on their conclusion questions. If the majority of the class is having trouble with the
same problem or ideas, the teacher will address them as a whole class. When students
comprehend something correctly, the teacher will praise and tell them that they are doing well. If
students have questions, the teacher will work with the students to better come up with their own
answers while guiding them to what they need to know. This will take
5. Closure: When there is approximately seven minutes remaining in the class, the teacher will tell
the students that they must wrap up their answers and labs. Students will be allowed to work on
the conclusion questions later if needed. For the final five minutes of class, students will be asked
to clean up their tables and supplies if they have not already done so. Students will be guided with
the questions but the teacher will ask them to think about how the lab could contribute their
understanding of flooding and natural disasters that involve water. They will be asked at the end
 of the unit and after later lessons to apply this information to a writing prompt so their
understanding of this content is important.

DIFFERENTIATION

As a whole, the class has students with different needs and who work at different paces. The groups that
they are currently in are established to group them so that students who may have a harder time are
working with peers that they either work well with to overcome and challenges or with students who
excel at the class and with the material.

Specifically, (using pseudonyms*), Lucy* is a hard-working student who often finishes the lessons early
and wants to then read a book or talk with her friends. Devonte* is a student who is interested in science
but often struggles with the content and the activities in class. Lucy and Devonte are in the same table
group because Lucy is able to support Devonte while also becoming more independent in the content and
reaching a mastery level rather than finishing early and working on other things. They have gone back
and forth with questioning the material and both challenge each other in ways that they would not be
challenged if they worked in different groups.

RATIONALE/THEORETICAL REASONING/RESEARCH

The lesson is a lab, which allows students to be hands on with the activities and learn by doing. As the
Center for Teaching Innovation at Cornell University highlights, “students learn more effectively from
hands-on experience and practical tasks”. The activity allows students to be guided into an activity that
will shed light on the concepts and ideas they have discussed prior and gives them an opportunity to
manipulate and discover for themselves. Especially given their age, seventh-grade can be a challenge
because they are becoming more independent while still needed some support and guidance. By doing an
activity like a lab, they are able to have time to work with peers and come to their own conclusions while
still having the lab packet to help guide the lab procedure and discussion.

TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION

Technology does not play a significant role in this lesson because students are actually doing the
experiment by hand. The only use of technology for the lesson is to show the pictures that they will use as
a reference when doing the lab activity. This lab does not require extensive need for technology because
the materials help students to do it themselves.
INTEGRATION OF PRIOR MENTOR FEEDBACK

While this is my first lesson for this class, I have had experience in front of a class before and have some
items that I want to improve upon for this lesson. First, I want to make sure that the wording that I use is
as precise and accurate as possible. Sometimes in trying to not confuse the students, I will make use of
other words or make it more confusing than it needs to be, so sticking to the academic script is a goal. My
second goal is to allow students some time to think about the topic or answer before feeding them what I
am looking for. When there is silence or no one wants to participate, there is the temptation to simply give
the answer, but I hope to work on letting the students come to their own conclusions because it will help
them in the long run. Given these weaknesses, I intend to have students think more for themselves but
provide them the clearest possible questions or guidelines to frame their thinking.

REFERENCES
Teaching Labs. (n.d.). Retrieved September 16, 2017, from https://www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-
ideas/labs-studios-discussions/teaching-labs.html#1