Unit 4: Transforming an Existing Lesson Plan

Case Study

Ms. Graphen is so excited to now have the tools and success criteria to provide her students when analyzing and interpreting data. The last step before she uses this in the classroom is to identify where data analysis fits into her lesson plans and create the lesson. Ms. Graphen has already chosen to engage her students in a problem-based learning unit centered around what's happening with the local bee population. She has decided to source her data from resources like annual bee counts from a local agriculture agency, pesticide use in nearby farming communities, and weather and temperature trends from National Weather Service. Once she has found applicable data, Ms.

Graphen will task her students with data analysis using the techniques presented in earlier units. She is so excited to engage her students in authentic and applicable data analysis!

In this unit, you will integrate the tools and resources from this course into a lesson plan for your students.

Mini-Lecture

While integrating SEP4 into your teaching practices may seem like it takes a major overhaul of your existing teaching practices, it doesn't have to be that way! There are so many ways that teachers can integrate SEP4 into existing projects and lesson plans without creating unnecessary work for themselves. The internet also houses additional resources for integrating data analysis and interpretation that were not includes in this course. Feel free to look to these resources as inspiration as well.

Performance Objectives

At the end of this unit, learners will be able to:

Identify lessons that can be modiﬁed to incorporate analyzing and interpreting data
Reframe the topic of a lesson into the context of analyzing and interpreting data
Integrate one of the tools and strategies for analyzing and interpreting data into an existing lesson plan

Activity

Now that you have learned the background for SEP4, techniques for implementation in the classroom and set clear and explicit instructions for your students, you will center a lesson plan around analyzing and interpreting data.

Before moving on, check out the existing lesson plans in the "Discission" area of this page. Access the "Discussion" space at the top of this page under the Unit 4 title.

Task: Develop a lesson plan that requires students to engage in SEP4 using one of the following options:

Transform an existing lesson plan from the course that you currently teach. Take what you already have and convert the learning activities to be centered around interpreting and analyzing data using the resources from Unit 2.
Create a new lesson plan that utilizes one of the resources from Unit 2. For example, this could be a standalone lesson to introduce SEP4 at the beginning of the school year, or a lesson amidst a new problem-based learning unit similar to Ms. Graphen's new bee unit.
Design a lesson for Ms. Graphen's students to investigate the decline in the local bee population. Be sure to revisit the case studies in each of the prior units to refresh your knowledge of Ms. Graphen's situation before getting started. Here's a link back to Unit 1.

Reﬂect: Along with your lesson plan link, add a few sentences that describe what you learned in this course and how you will apply it to your classroom.

Thank you!

I hope that this mini-course has positively contributed to your teaching journey. Revisit the resources in this course at any time and please share them with other science educators.