This module is designed to introduce space science concepts in a way which students are producers of knowledge. Students will engage with peers, simulations, coding, and experience space science in way which is suitable to them. This module is meant for middle school science students.
Peer Interaction, Differentiation, Simulation, Coding, Multimodality
This school year, I have transitioned from being a high school physics teacher to a middle school science teacher. I have had the opportunity and challenge of teaching content I have never taught previously with this transition. This learning module will present one of these new content areas, space science. Space science, traditionally, is a content area that asks students to be consumers of knowledge. Memorizing facts and figures about planets, types of galaxies, and various objects in space dominates a traditional space science curriculum. Dr. Cope and Dr. Kalantzis (2012) would define this structure as mimetic pedagogy; the learner "receives" knowledge and is meant to reproduce or demonstrate the acquisition of knowledge through repetition. Space science is much more than knowing the order of the planets or looking at a picture of a galaxy and saying if it is a spiral, elliptical, irregular galaxy. Space science is about making observations, identifying patterns, seeing cause and effect, and understanding how a large, natural system works. Therefore, this learning module will leverage reflexive pedagogy, where students will become producers of knowledge and engage with phenomena as real scientists do.
While teaching physics and AP classes, I emphasized students discovering and understanding the world around them through phenomenon investigations. I found these investigations tapped into students' natural curiosity, and they more clearly saw the relevance of science in their everyday lives. Dr. Cope and Dr. Kalantzis (2012) state, "Deep, disciplinary knowledge is most effectively acquired in contexts that focus on whole, socially realistic and meaningful tasks" (p. 274). The phenomena presented to students were and are relatable; they connect to students lives and their experiences. This is a practice I have continued in my new position, with the new content I am now meant to teach. This will be a pedagogical strategy utilized throughout this learning module.
Phenomenon investigations place the students, more authentically, in the role of scientists. Students must ask questions, seek out information, make observations, to ultimately come to know and understand. In this way, the lessons presented in this learning module are driven by a series of everyday phenomena students can relate to based on prior knowledge. However, through these investigations, students are ultimately placed in a knowledge-producing position as reflexive pedagogy is harnessed in every lesson's design. Students will engage with peers in a social media-like atmosphere through the use of CGScholar and Flipgrid. These engagements with peers will embody what Dr. Cope and Dr. Kalantzis (n.d.) consider "productive diversity." Discussions become more than right or wrong answers, but analyzing and reflecting on differing perspectives is of significant value. Additionally, students will use and synthesize resources at their disposal to make sense of the relevant concepts and, therefore, make connections to the phenomena. Students will give and receive feedback from their peers throughout the module. Finally, students will use many modes (e.g., visual, oral, written) and technological tools (e.g. simulations and coding programs) to build and demonstrate their understanding (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012).
One of the ways students will engage with a variety of modes is through interacting and creating models. "A model may be a device, a plan, a drawing, an equation, a computer program or even just a mental image" (Pringle, 2004, p. 30). The creation of such models is an application of Seymour Papert's constructionism, where students generate meaning by making. Constructionism suggests that to ensure intellectual structures are formed there must be an active construction of something outside of one's head, something tangible, something shareable (Stager, 2001). The models students will create exemplify what Papert calls "objects to think with." Papert defines OTTWs as, “objects in which there is an intersection of cultural presence, embedded knowledge, and the possibility for personal identification” (Papert, 1980, p. 11). Models, therefore, become cognitive tools that allow students to observe their own thoughts, others thoughts, manipulate thought processes, and more completely challenge their understanding of the world around them (Holbert & Wilensky, 2019). Relating to reflexivity, the models as objects to think with become "knowledge representations that are useful tools for understanding, knowledge making and knowledge communication" (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012, p. 274).
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to...
Each lesson will begin with an essential question which reflects these student outcomes.
This module is being designed for a middle school (seventh grade) science classroom; the module's duration could span 3 to 6 weeks due to the extensive amount of obtaining information from external resources to be done by students and the model creation done in several lessons. The course is split between semesters; the first semester deals with earth and space science concepts, and the second semester focuses on life science. Earth science is the first unit of the year, followed by space science. This learning module will use external resources and resources from the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt HMH Science: Space Science curriculum.
Module Science Standards (from Next Generation Science Standards):
NOTE: Abbreviations seen in the standards below refer to the following, MS - Middle School, ESS - Earth and Space Science)
To begin this learning module, you will be asked to take a short diagnostic assessment for you and your teacher to understand what knowledge you have before diving into this module. Please take the diagnostic assessment to the best of your ability based on your current understanding of space science concepts.
The learning module diagnostic is not a graded assessment. The diagnostic focuses on prerequisite knowledge through a multiple-choice and short answer assessment. The diagnostic results will give a snapshot of student preparedness for the content and tasks students will take part in throughout the learning module. The results of this assessment could offer scaffolding opportunities for teachers, identify misconceptions (there are many present in space science), or give insight into more robust alterations that may need to be done to pre-existing lessons.
Essential Questions:
It is common for us to think of day and night based on our daily activities. You might associate daytime as being in school and nighttime as being home with your family or sleeping. However, day and night's scientific meanings are much deeper than that, not depending on our daily activities at all! Take a look at the picture below. Think to yourself, why is one part of the Earth "lit up" and a part of Earth dark?
During the day, you'll notice that the sun travels in an arc through the sky, from east to west. You can see this arcing motion in the image below. The perspective in the image is the northern hemisphere looking south.
Now, it is not that the sun is moving through the sky. The sun's apparent motion is actually a result of the Earth's motion, specifically its rotation around its axis. Please watch the video below to understand what the Earth's rotation is. Additionally, you will be introduced to the idea of revolution.
Crash Course Kids. (2015, April 25). Earth's rotation & revolution. [Video File]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ABSjKS0hic&vl=en-US
Update #1: Based on the short reading and the video in this lesson, leave a comment which addresses the following...
Respond to three of your peers' updates by starting with @ and followed by that person's name. Possible things to comment on:
Purpose: This lesson is the most didactic or mimetic in its design. Students are being given information regarding the two types of motion our Earth goes through, rotation and revolution. These words are often misused or used interchangeably by students, so the direct instruction is meant to combat this misconception. However, students will engage in a reflexive discussion activity that will ask them to apply and extend their understanding of rotation versus revolution to a scientific question or phenomenon that students often struggle to understand. Additionally, students must think about how to demonstrate rotation and revolution using the spatial and (to a lesser degree) the gestural mode by manipulating one's body. This is a unique opportunity for students to engage with a mode often overlooked in generating scientific literacy.
It should be noted that the discussion students engage with will yield drastically different responses, and there are a variety of responses that could be deemed "appropriate." The beauty of this style of discourse is that it breaks free from the traditional I-R-E format. The discussion presented in this lesson becomes much more than giving the perfect, correct answer; the discussion is driven by the differences in perspective (Kalantzis & Cope, n.d.). "In this respect, it is paradigmatically the opposite of classical classroom discourse. It is reflexive: every student is in dialogue. It is inclusive: the differences can be heard, and the richness of the dialogue is in the differences" (Kalantzis & Cope, n.d., p. 317).
Teacher Notes: Students, at this point in the school year, have been exposed heavily to the CER (claim, evidence, reasoning) framework for answering scientific questions. However, some points to be reiterated are:
Again, the goal of CER (and the discussion students are engaging in) is not to give the perfect, absolute correct answer. CER is about being able to generate a cohesive argument backed up soundly with evidence and reasoning.
Science Practices (NGSS):
Essential Questions:
In the previous lesson, you were introduced to the idea of Earth's rotation versus Earth's revolution. In the video you watched, these two motions caused two drastically different things. With this said, the two can also be looked at in conjunction to explain and understand why we have seasons here on Earth. In this lesson, we will be using a familiar phenomenon to generate knowledge around the reasons for the seasons. The phenomenon and your performance task can be seen below.
The simulation attached could offer you an opportunity to make observations and solidify information found in stage 2 of this phenomenon investigation.
To create your model, you may use any of the following digital platforms:
After completing your visual model (step 3) and your explanation (step 5), you will be creating a Flipgrid video to convey your understanding of the given phenomenon and its relation to what causes the seasons we experience here on Earth. Use this link to access the Flipgrid topic page to record your video. NOTE: Remember, as you created your model digitally, you can screen share and speak over your visual model!
After creating your own Flipgrid video, you will respond to three of your peers' videos in the form of a video or written comment in Flipgrid. Your comment should address the following:
Purpose: This is the first full-blown phenomenon investigation of this learning module. Students are given an anchoring phenomenon that they are familiar with (particularly in Wisconsin!). The phenomena investigations throughout this learning module are designed using reflexive pedagogy; students come to know through engaging with resources, interacting with their peers, and communicating understanding through a variety of modes. In addition, students will utilize a simulation to more fully visualize the inner-workings of this phenomenon that cannot easily be seen. The simulation will introduce or support information found through research following a principle laid out by Dr. James Gee (2003) around learning through video games and simulations, "The learner is given explicit information both on-demand and just-in-time, when the learner needs it or just at the point where the information can best be understood and used in practice."
Teacher Notes: Step two of this performance task is crucial for students to develop knowledge relating to the given phenomenon and why we have seasons. Some students prefer researching and then engaging with the simulation; other students prefer exploring the simulation and then doing research. Allow students to uncover and discover meaning in a way which they are comfortable.
When looking at the performance task, the specific colors in the various steps represent specific things regarding the Next Generation Science Standards. Blue text represents science and engineering practices to be used in the performance task and green text represents cross-cutting concepts that bridge scientific boundaries. "Crosscutting concepts have value because they provide students with connections and intellectual tools that are related across the differing areas of disciplinary content and can enrich their application of practices and their understanding of core ideas" (NGSS Lead States, 2013, p. 233).
It should be reiterated to students that there is no one correct way to create a visual model. It can include diagrams, pictures, words, and symbols. However, the model must visually show an explanation of the phenomenon being investigated. An outsider should be able to look at the model and be able to draw meaning from it without the use of written or oral explanations.
Science Practices (NGSS):
Essential Questions:
The Earth revolving around our sun follows a particular type of motion called circular motion. Circular motion can be seen in a variety of ways in our everyday lives. Have you ever ridden a rollercoaster that has a big loop; the roller coaster moving through that loop is an example of circular motion. In this lesson, we will take a closer look at circular motion, its causes, and later what it means for Earth's motion (and other planets/objects) in our solar system. To begin this lesson, please watch the video below.
Shaha, A. (2015, November 25). Circular motion demonstration with a sparkler. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID0R43My4Co
Update #2: Based on your observations from the video above, leave an update that addresses the following...
Respond to three of your peers' updates by starting with @ and followed by that person's name. Possible things to comment on:
Purpose: Like the rotation versus revolution lesson, this lesson utilizes traditional, mimetic pedagogy to give students information about circular motion. However, this background information is necessary for students to apply to unit-specific content later in the learning module, namely orbital motion.
The discussion to be done by students will ask them to use observations they made from the given video and connect them to an analogous phenomenon, a tetherball. This opportunity will allow students to understand that the marble and hoop phenomenon is not unique and can (and always will) occur. These two phenomena gives students a visualization of circular motion that is relatable and what the results are when a centripetal force is no longer present. This is an example of students experiencing the known and therefore conceptualizing by naming to develop working definitions for centripetal force and circular motion (Kalantzis & Cope, 2020).
Teacher Notes: The conceptual idea of inertia could be more formally and explicitly introduced in this lesson. Due to the marble's inertia and the tetherball's inertia, they travel in straight lines after the unique centripetal forces are removed. With this said, the idea of inertia will be discovered and research by students in the next lesson when circular motion is used to explain the orbital motion of planets.
To make the idea of inertia more experiential, questions could be asked of the students like:
Science Practices (NGSS):
Essential Questions:
G, P. (2015, September 22). Circular motion - when the centripetal force is removed. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxmedyNZ_8s
In the video above, you can see the tetherball phenomenon in action. Notice, the ball moves in a straight line, a line tangent to its circular path when it was cut. This will be the phenomenon that drives our investigation in this lesson.
In this lesson, we will uncover how phenomena such as the ball and the hoop, and the tetherball can be manipulated to explain why objects in our solar system orbit the sun in circular, stable paths.
The following links may be helpful to begin your investigation/research.
The attached simulation will allow you to make observations to solidify the information you collect through your investigation/research in step 2.
To create your model, you may use any of the following digital platforms:
After completing your visual model (step 3) and your explanation (step 4), you will be creating a Flipgrid video to convey your understanding of the given phenomenon and its relation to how planets in our solar system orbit around the sun due to the force of gravity (step 5). Use this link to access the Flipgrid topic page to record your video. NOTE: Remember, as you created your model digitally, you can screen share and speak over your visual model!
After creating your own Flipgrid video, you will respond to three of your peers' videos in the form of a video or written comment in Flipgrid. Your comment should address the following:
Purpose: This is the second phenomenon investigation of this learning module. After being introduced to the concept of circular motion, students are being asked to make connections between everyday, relatable phenomena to phenomena that are more abstract and not easily seen (the orbital motion of planets. Again, in this lesson, students come to know by engaging with resources, interacting with their peers, and communicating understanding through various modes. In this investigation, students are once again asked to interact with a simulation that can support knowledge found through research. Unlike the simulation in the Reasons for the Seasons lesson, this simulation has a variety of functions that can be manipulated by the student. Through these manipulations, students are to make and document observations to help understand how orbital motion is defined by circular motion. These manipulations can also allow students to make predictions and correct thinking based on the simulation outcomes. This is an example of Dr. James Gee's (2003) probing principle, "Learning is a cycle of probing the world (doing something); reflecting in and on this action and, on this basis, forming a hypothesis; reprobing the world to test this hypothesis; and then accepting or rethinking the hypothesis."
Ultimately, again, students will generate a visual model and explanation for the given phenomenon. This leverages a principle of reflexive pedagogy, multimodality.
Teacher Notes: It should be noted that the orbits of planets around the sun are not actually circular; they are elliptical. However, analyzing elliptical orbits is outside the learning outcomes for the students engaging with this lesson (and learning module as a whole). Again, the purpose of this lesson is for students to recognize the relationship between a planet's inertia and the force of gravity acting between that planet and the sun. Elliptical orbits are described and follow separate laws, Kepler's Laws, which are often covered in introductory or advanced placement physics courses.
Science Practices (NGSS):
Essential Questions:
In this lesson, you will engage in a coding activity that will have you be the creator of an interactive model of our solar system. Your model will show the relative sizes of the planets in our solar system, their orbital speed around the sun, their distance from the sun (and other planets), and include facts you find interesting about the planets in our solar system!
To begin your creation, please click this link. After you click the link, follow the directions below:
In the tutorial's final stages, you will be asked to label your planets upon clicking them in the live model. This code can be seen below.
You will also include two interesting facts about each planet and the sun within this code section. This can be done by simply clicking the white Mercury box in the sample above and adding additional text (your interesting facts).
Update #3: After finishing your coding complete the following...
Respond to three of your peers' updates by starting with @ and followed by that person's name. Possible things to leave in your responses:
Purpose: Through creating the solar system, students become the creators of a fairly accurate model (this link provides a completed example I made). This lesson becomes a set up for the next lesson. Students should notice and observe some particular things in their created solar system, namely the differences in motion of the planets. The created solar system model allows students to experience the new, allowing them to visualize and see something impossible otherwise (Kalantzis & Cope, 2020).
Asking students to engage in code could be considered "busy" work to some. However, Dr. James Gee argues that design is a crucial aspect of the learning process. Dr. Gee (2003) states, "Learning about and coming to appreciate design and design principles is core to the learning experience." It would be effortless for a teacher to display their own computer-generated solar system on a SmartBoard or place a video in front of the students showing the same thing the coded solar system does; however, students working with code to generate their own models, to make their own observations becomes an active and critical, not passive learning experience (Gee, 2003).
Teacher Notes: Coding may be new for some students. Reiterate to students to follow the tutorial given to them. Students who pick the coding process up quickly could be tasked to add moons and their orbits to different planets. This could provide additional challenges but also make the coded model even more realistic.
It should be noted that the coded model is not perfect. For example, the planets' scale, in terms of their distance from one another, is significantly off. However, the big observations for students to make is the drastic difference between the motion of the planets (e.g., speed and time to make one revolution). The coded model does a nice job of showing this.
Science Practices (NGSS):
Essential Question:
In the previous lesson, you created an interactive model of our solar system. One of the major observations you should have made was how different the planets' motion is around the sun, namely the speed and the time it takes to make one full revolution. In this lesson, you will once again be doing an investigation around why planets have different orbital periods and orbital speeds. Your performance task is laid out in the image below.
In step 4, you are asked to gather and organize relevant data. To begin this process, use the following link.
In step 5, you are asked to make predictions and make observations using a simulation. That simulation can be found here. This was the same simulation you used in the lesson "Orbits - Earth and Sun."
To create your model, you may use any of the following digital platforms:
After completing your visual model (step 7) and constructing your explanation (step 8), you will be creating a Flipgrid video to convey your understanding of the given phenomenon and explaining how specific physical variables cause drastic differences in orbital motion. Use this link to access the Flipgrid topic page to record your video. NOTE: Remember, as you created your model digitally, you can screen share and speak over your visual model!
After creating your own Flipgrid video, you will respond to three of your peers' videos in the form of a video comment in Flipgrid. Your comment should address the following:
Purpose: This is the final phenomenon investigation in this learning module. This one is more challenging due to the increased number of science practices (and knowledge processes) students will need to use. In previous investigations, students have not been asked to analyze and interpret numerical data. This will be an important component of this investigation as patterns in the data will be crucial to support observations made (through the given simulation) and information found through research. For example, using the website linked for students, they should notice that as the planetary distance from the sun increases, the orbital period increases, but orbital velocity decreases. What does this mean? Seeing the relationships between these important physical variables/factors asks students to analyze critically, make sense of the data, and therefore apply it appropriately to explain the given phenomenon (Kalantzis & Cope, 2020).
Teacher Notes: The linked data set provided to students contains much data irrelevant to the students' investigation. Therefore, a scaffold for this investigation could be to hone students in on the data that will aid in their understanding and development of an explanation (e.g., distance from sun, orbital period, orbital velocity)
Science Practices (NGSS):
Essential Questions:
The final lesson of this learning module is a project. There will be three stages to this project: draft stage (1 week), feedback stage (1 week), and revision stage (1 week).
This project's driving question is: Why is there not an eclipse (solar or lunar) during every full and new moon?
Requirements/Things to Include:
Once you submit your first draft, you will conduct a peer review for three assigned peers. These peer review requests will be sent to you automatically through CGScholar. You will provide, at minimum, ten annotations and complete the given rubric for this project for each review. Provide your peer constructive and positive feedback. Reflect on your work and the work your peer did. After you receive your reviews, you will be able to incorporate your peer's suggestions, edit your paper, and submit a final work.
The rubric which will be used in your peer review can be found below.
Purpose: This project or work is meant for students to apply things they have learned throughout the module to come to understand moon phases and eclipses, but more importantly, construct an explanation for a scientific question which troubles many people. There are several aspects of reflexive pedagogy woven into this project, namely peer to peer feedback through peer review, recursivity through revision and improving performance, and multimodality through conveying understanding through writing and multimedia sources (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012).
This is a more demanding task for students. Many different concepts previously discovered in the learning module must be utilized, connected, and applied to make sense of the given question. Therefore, this project offers students the opportunity to engage in a variety of knowledge processes. For example, students will experience the new by looking at a phenomenon (in this case, in the form of a scientific question) that is unfamiliar to them, keeping in mind their own prior knowledge and knowledge learned throughout the learning module. Additionally, students will apply appropriately by coming to a sound understanding of the differences between moon phases and eclipses (Kalantzis & Cope, 2020).
Teacher Notes: The driving question of this project is a challenge due to moon phases and eclipses, both relying on the relationship between the sun, Earth, and moon. This is a vital relationship for students to understand. Therefore, it may be beneficial to engage students in the visual and spatial mode by having them see a physical model of the relationship before assigning this project.
The other challenging aspect of this project is that the moon's orbit around the Earth is not on the same plane as the Earth's around the sun, but this is the most important factor in explaining the driving question. This could be important to emphasize in the physical model. Students will encounter the term "ecliptic" in their investigation. It is important that students understand this term as this is the term scientists use to describe the motion of the moon's orbit around the Earth relative to the sun. If the Earth orbits the sun at a "horizontal" plane, the moon orbits the Earth on a plane that is skewed five degrees. This is the major explanation students must include in their work to explain why eclipses do not occur at every new and full moon.
Science Practices (NGSS):
Code example [Online image]. (n.d.). https://www.tynker.com/ide/?p=54dac02f84aafa2013000042
Crash Course Kids. (2015, April 25). Earth's rotation & revolution. [Video File]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ABSjKS0hic&vl=en-US
Earth and sun [Online image]. (n.d.). https://universavvy.com/which-is-bigger-earth-or-sun
Gee, J. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.2, 14, 203-210.
G, P. (2015, September 22). Circular motion - when the centripetal force is removed. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxmedyNZ_8s
HMH Science. (2018). The daily path of the sun. [Digital image]. Houghton Mifflin Court.
Holbert, N., & Wilensky, U. (2019). Designing educational video games to be objects-to-think-with. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 28(1), 32–72.
Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2012). New learning: Elements of a science of education (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (n.d.). New media and productive diversity in learning. 310-325.
Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2020). The knowledge processes. New Learning Online. https://newlearningonline.com/learning-by-design/the-knowledge-processes
NGSS Lead States. 2013. Next generation science standards: For states, by states. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, computers and powerful ideas. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Pringle, R. M. (2004). Making it visual: Creating a model of the atom. Science Activities, 40(4), 30–33. https://doi.org/10.3200/SATS.40.4.30-33
Shaha, A. (2015, November 25). Circular motion demonstration with a sparkler. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID0R43My4Co
Stager, G. S. (2001). Constructionism as a high-tech intervention strategy for at-risk learners. For full text: http://confreg. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED462949
Welch, W. (2020). Orbits - earth and sun. [Digital image].
Welch, W. (2020). Reasons for the seasons. [Digital image].
Welch, W. (2020). Orbits - period and speed. [Digital image].