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 will be researching and experimenting, providing them with needed experience in
researching and time to discover through experimenting. Some of the students will fail in their experiments
and that will emphasize the true process engineers go through as they discover the best and truest way to do
something.

READINESS (CAEP K-6 3.c)

I. Goals/Objectives/Standard
A. Goal: Students will find solutions to a problem and test those solutions.
B. Objective: Students will construct ways to prevent the egg from breaking when dropped while using
the Engineering Design Process.
C. Standard: 3-5.E.2 Construct and compare multiple plausible solutions to a problem based on how
well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

II. Management Plan

 Time: 3 days of work
o Day 1: 60 minutes
o Day 2: 60 minutes
o Day 3: 60 minutes
o Each day will have group work where students will be working together and they will have
the full hour to work.
 Space: Students will receive initial instruction at the front of the classroom. They will research at
their desks in groups and will be allowed to move around as they plan on the bulletin boards.
 Materials:
o 1 raw egg (buy extras)
o Tape – 2 feet
o White glue (Elmer’s Glue)
o A drop target
o Measuring device
o 10 sheets of paper
o 1 large black plastic trash bag
o 10 pipe cleaners
o 15 cotton balls
o 3 wide rubber bands
o 10 popsicle sticks
o Yarn – 6 feet
o Clear bucket with trash bag.
o Have students bring any other materials they think may be helpful
o Plastic eggs for the practice drops
o Worksheets attached
 Expectations and procedures: 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
area to another and areas back to their desks.

III. Anticipatory Set

- (As students transition to science.) Grab raw egg and make a big deal of the process of grabbing and
holding the egg. Spark curiosity. Use dramatics to entice students. “What are you talking about? Is it
odd to have an egg? Well, if you insist, I suppose I’ll tell you why I have this egg. We are going to use this
very egg in an experiment.”
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IV. Purpose: “We will be working as real engineers, going through the exact same processes engineers go
through and conducting some experiments to protect an egg in a drop.”

PLAN FOR INSTRUCTION

I. Adaptation to Individual Differences and Diverse Learners (CAEP K-6 1.b)
- Students will be working in their scientific groups. These groups are designed with different levels of
learners to allow some students to further understanding through teaching and other students to
benefit from that teaching from peers.
- If writing will hinder student ability to conduct the experiment, they may verbally record their notes
and findings.

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

 Day 1
o Students come to front of room and gather around clear bucket with trash bag. Make sure
students are a safe distance away and pull out raw egg. “Now, I have this raw egg and this
bucket. What do you predict will happen to the egg if I drop it from above my head? What is
your hypothesis?” Allow think time and for 1-2 students to share. “Observe as I drop this egg.”
Drop egg, it will break and ooze in the bucket. “What just happened? Why did it break?” Allow
for student response. “Did the egg do anything as it was falling?” Students reply that it spun,
dropped straight down, sped up as it got closer to the ground… “What do you think we could
have done to keep it from breaking?” Allow for response. “We will now watch a video to give us
a better idea of what engineering is.” Play video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE-
z_TJyziI&list=PL-2CXCHr1_JwcLMcQ_hiLo6jq82_-C7vL
o Students return to their seats. “Now I want you to imagine that you just received a job at NASA
and they need you to design a capsule for astronauts who are returning to Earth after a long
space mission. Those astronauts will be in a capsule hurtling towards Earth. How will the
capsule you design protect you from getting injured when it lands on Earth?” “Now that you’ve
had a second to think about that, you will all be designing a capsule that will protect an
astronaut, an egg, from getting injured when it lands on Earth. You will be working in your
science groups as you go through the Engineering Design Process as you create the best capsule
for your astronaut.”

o “During today’s class period, we will be working on research and planning. Next time we will
work to build the prototypes and test those and if needed, we will work on improving or re-
designing capsules during a third class period. So go ahead and get with your science groups.”
Scientific groups have been established with 4-6 students in each group. These groups
remain the same for science.
o “We will start with the ‘Ask’ part of the process. Engineers ask critical questions about what
they want to create, whether it’s a skyscraper, amusement park ride, bicycle, or smartphone.
These questions might include: What is the problem to solve? What do we want to design? Who
is it for? What do we want to accomplish? What are the project requirements? What are the
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limitations? What is our goal?” Write these on the board as shared. “Go ahead and write these
questions in your science notebooks along with any other questions you might need to answer.
Some other questions could be: how big can the capsule be? What materials will we be allowed
to use? What heights will we be dropping this from?”
o “The purpose of your research it to gather information about what would be the best capsule to
design for your egg. You will have the rest of the class period to do this research as you work to
create an original design. You may use your Chromebooks to search some of your questions. Go
ahead and start by searching ‘egg drop experiment’ and take notes as you go in your notebooks
 Day 2
o “Now that you have had a day to do some research on landing capsules, you will start to draw
diagrams of your capsules.” Have students work on anchor charts on sections of the bulletin
boards around the room to organize their work. Show students the Engineering Design
Process graphic again so they can see what steps they are doing.
o “Here is the criteria for you design: It cannot be bigger than a shoe boxy (no larger than 15cm
by 15cm), only nonperishable items may be used in the design (no food products, shaving
cream, etc.), I should be able to check the egg after it is dropped without having to take the
whole thing apart, a parachute may be attached, keep in mind that the drop will be done
outside, and think of balance, support, wind, etc.”
o “Take time now to come up with 2 design ideas together in your group and draw these two
designs on your Egg Drop proposal – final worksheet. Students do this.
o “Now work with your group to decide which will be the best design.” Students do this.
o Students will design their prototype before they get to build and test out the capsule. They
start by gathering their materials and build their model and practice dropping the prototype.
Each group will have plastic egg to practice with so they don’t waste eggs.
 Day 3
o “We are now in the Engineering Design Process of Testing and Evaluating our prototypes.”
Reference graphic. “Go ahead and get out the capsules you’ve been working on and your notes.”
o Students test and evaluate capsules. Students fill out the Egg Drop Experiment Data
Collection sheet to evaluate the success or failure of their capsule. “As you fill out your data
sheet, you will make note of the movement of their capsule while it is dropping (did it twist or
turn, did the parachute work, was there any wind movement that made the capsule move?),
whether or not the capsule broke, and whether or not the egg broke. All this data is
observational. You may make any sketches that might help improve your design and make any
notes of ‘failure points’ from you design”
o “Take time not to make final adjustments to your designs.” Allow time for this.
o “I will be the official ‘Egg Dropper’.” First test will be from a height just above my head (about
6 feet). Have a drop zone set up with trash bag and tape for the target. If eggs don’t break on
the first round, next drop them from about 9 feet using ladder and work up to about 12 feet.
Eggs that survive all three rounds have won!
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 engineering process as is shown on the graphic. Make
suggestions if needed or offer simple reminders of what they should be doing.
 For students struggling with research, provide these websites to start with: www.eggdropproject.org
www.weirdsciencekids.com/EggDropExperiment.html, and www.teachengineering.org

IV. Review learning outcomes / Closure

- Students come back to classroom to debrief. “All of you worked very hard to create your capsules. And
some were successful and some may have failed. Those who may have failed, know that it is entirely
okay as that is how engineers and scientists work most of the time. They have to keep trying different
things or changing different variables to get a better result.”

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

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 Formative: Note student work as they are working in groups. Are they on task? Do they seem lost in
what they are doing? Use these observations to find what may need to be retaught or explained
again.
 Summative: Science journals and final projects may serve as form of assessment of learning. Journals
and final projects 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?
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Teacher’s signature for approval:

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