Lesson Plan Template

USC Upstate School of Education

Spring 2015
Pre-service Teacher: Shannon Ferris
Coop. Teacher: Ms. Gathers/
Ms. Vineyard

School: Lone Oak

Elementary

Grade Level: 5th

Subject: Science

Time:

Date: April 1, 2015

Lesson Title: Gravity: What is it?

Materials Newspaper, chair, 2 oranges, grape, computer, worksheets for each student, word search
sheet for each student, KWL charts for each student

Curriculum Standards Standard 5-5 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the nature of
force and motion. (Physical Science)
5-5.1 Illustrate the effects of force (including magnetism, gravity, and friction) on motion.

Instructional Strategies: Visual, Auditory, KWL, Lecture, Independent practice

Safety Requirements None

Lesson Objective Statement The fifth grade students will demonstrate an understanding of the
nature of force and motion in regards to gravity.
Essential Questions What is gravity and how does it work?

Engagement- Free Fall discrepant event. The teacher will have a random student come to the
front of the class and stand on a chair. The teacher will then hand the student 2 oranges, one for each
hand. The teacher will instruct the student to drop both oranges at the same time to see what happens.
Afterwards, the teacher will give the student an orange and a grape. The teacher will ask the students
what they think will happen when both are dropped at the same time. The teacher will then instruct the
student to drop the orange and the grape at the same time. The class will discuss what happens.

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Exploration Gravity (also called gravitation) is a natural phenomenon by which all physical
bodies attract each other. On Earth, gravity gives weight to physical objects employing a downward
force to keep them grounded.
In modern physics, gravity is most accurately described by the general theory of relativity (proposed by
Einstein) which describes gravity as a consequence of the curvature of space-time. For most
applications gravity is well approximated by Newton's law of universal gravitation, which postulates
that the gravitational force of two bodies of mass is directly proportional to the product of their masses
and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
Gravity
A pull that attracts objects to each other
This attraction is not noticeable unless one of the objects is very large, for example a planet, a
moon, or the sun.
The force of gravity between Earth and anything on it is extremely noticeable because the mass
of Earth is so large. The pull of Earths gravity makes any object fall to the ground.
As the moon goes around the Earth, its gravity pulls on Earth causing water in the oceans to
move toward the Moon.

Explanation Brain Pop video on gravity

https://www.brainpop.com/science/motionsforcesandtime/gravity/

Expansion The students will be given a word search puzzle to complete after the brain pop video
and the worksheet are completed. The students will see how many words they can find within the
puzzle.

Evaluation The students will be given a worksheet to fill out while watching the brain pop video
for the second time. The first time watching the students will be instructed to just listen and pay
attention. The students are expected to fill out the worksheet with 85% accuracy. The worksheet will be
used as an assessment.
Accommodations Early finishers will be able to draw and/or color examples of gravity. Students
who need assistance with word search and/or worksheet assessment will be placed with a higher level
student or the instructor.
Reference(s) https://www.brainpop.com/science/motionsforcesandtime/gravity/
http://www.puzzle-maker.com/cgi-bin/wswo.cgi

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Science lesson Reflection

After watching my science lesson, I have to say I feel very confident about becoming a
teacher now. I have never had to experience before of watching myself after I have taught a
lesson, and that really showed me what my strengths and weaknesses are. At the start of the
lesson I explained to the students what we would be talking about and how to fill out a KWL
chart. Most of the students knew how to complete these charts, but I went over it again just in
case some students had never filled one out before. I gave the students time to fill out the K part
of the chart and allowed some of the students to share what they had written down. One student
said that there is no gravity on the earth. Instead of me telling him that he was wrong and moving
on, I gave an example to show him that there was gravity on the earth. I jumped up in the air and
asked him what happened. He told me I came back down. When I asked him what that meant he
said that it was because there was gravity on the earth. I also provided the students with an
example of gravity by using my discrepant event in my lesson. One student came to the front of
the room and stood on a chair. The student dropped two oranges at the same time and then
dropped an orange and a grape at the same time. We discussed as a class why the grape and
orange hit the ground at the same time. The students really enjoyed this demonstration. I was
very nervous about the student standing up in the chair. Before I started the lesson I even debated
just standing up in the chair myself so I wouldnt have to worry about a student falling off the
chair. Thankfully the student did not fall, but in the future I dont know if I would use a student
for the example again.
Once all of the students had a chance to share their answers from the KWL chart and I
had explained the example, I played the video for them. While the video was playing I tried to
make the most of my time by passing out the papers while they were watching the video. The
students watched the video a second time, this time they filled out the worksheet while watching
it. I wanted the students to watch the video twice because the first time I just wanted them to pay
attention to what they were watching and the second time I wanted them to listen for the answers
to the worksheet. I made sure to go over the worksheet that way if any student missed an answer
or wrote down a wrong answer they would be able to change it. I related some of the answers
back to the discrepant event demonstration and my jumping example, which I feel helped the
information really stick with the students.
Before I took up the worksheet I made sure to read over what they had put down so I
could provide instant feedback if they had been misinformed about something. There were only a
couple of students I had to help with changing their answer, and all the other students seemed to
understand the information. The students were really engaged throughout the entire lesson, and
none of the students acted out while I was teaching. I plan to use this lesson in the future because
of how successful it was with the students.

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