Technology Lesson Plan

Working with the Scientific Method

MD300 – Introduction to Educational Technology

Submitted by: Martin Spinella

Subject: Biology

Grade Level Range: 9-12

Date: 4/1/08

Overview of Lesson Plan

1) Students will be (re)introduced to the scientific method through an online video. The video
approaches the scientific method from a very rudimentary standpoint and goes over the basic
procedure of creating a hypothesis, proposing possible outcomes to tests, testing the
hypothesis, and recording results.

2) They will then go over the main points of the scientific method through an online lesson and
quiz to test their knowledge on bio4kids.com. This will solidify basic concepts learned from the
video and walkthrough site. Students will learn the basic steps of forming a hypothesis and
observe how people may go about testing.

3) Finally, students will apply this knowledge through an online NASA activity where students will
review relevant information to an experiment that has been conducted by NASA and formulate
their own hypotheses. Students will review relevant information regarding the basic anatomy of
Drosophila and the effects of living things in space. Students will then visit the experiment
section of the same site and read up on current testing by NASA on drosophila. Students will
be prompted to input their own hypothesis about the effects of living in space on the flies.

4) Students will then have a group activity where they will individually review case studies of
human health in space. The teacher will ask the students to formulate their own experiment
with humans in space as a group and make a hypothesis and a hypothetical testing regiment.

Suggested Time Allowance

1) Students will watch the video lasting approximately 3 minutes.

2) Students will then have 30 minutes to read through relevant information concerning the scientific
method on a website (Bio4Kids) and do the following quiz exercise.

3) Students will have another 30 minutes to read information offered about flies in space through the
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NASA website provided and come up with their own hypothesis.

4) Students will then come together for an assignment concerning human immunity in space.
Students will read case studies provided on human immunology in space and develop a class
hypothesis with help from the teacher. This will take another 30 minutes.

Objectives
Students will be tested on the basic steps of the scientific method. This area of the exercise is fairly
strait forward and will be testing students on concepts that they should already be familiar with. After
students perform well on a small online quiz testing them in these concepts they will be tested for
their proficiency in carrying out the scientific method and then tested using the NASA website.
Students will be able to theorize possible outcomes of experiments that will be utilized in the final part
of the assignment where students form hypotheses concerning human immunology in space in
studies that do not have conclusive results. Students will test their critical thinking skills in first
formulating a hypothesis based on current experiments and then formulate an entire testing
curriculum based on test studies of human health in space. Full class participation should be present
in the last part of the experiment to see how well students are able to analyzed information and create
interesting experiments to test their own educated guesses about what will happen to test subjects.

Resources/Materials
1)Youtube.com
Students will watch a video for kids based on the steps of the scientific method.

2) Biology4kids.com
Biology4kids.com will have quiz and walkthrough material for the first two exercises. This will test
students on basic concepts before they tackle the critical thinking portion of the exercise. Almost
everything for this lesson plan follows the outlined material on each websites presented below.
Students have all information of the scientific method in biology4kids.com.

3) NASA.gov/projects
Students will read up on everything they need to know about Drosophila and experimentation in
space on the NASA websites including the section where they make up their own hypothesis and
send it in to the NASA team online.

4) Washington Post (online)

The final part of the experiment will have students reading from case studies and questions in case
studies by the Washington Post and will fill out assessment sheets that I have attached to the back of
this assessment that will test their ability to create their own hypothesis once again, in an area related
to but incorporating different elements than the first exercises.

Activities/Procedure
1) Students will watch the video on Youtube about the basic steps of the scientific method.

2) Students will read a scientific method related lesson on biology4kids.com that continues to outline
the basic guiding principles of the scientific method and the important steps that take place. Before
moving on they will take the sample quiz at the bottom of the site to solidify concepts learned.

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3) Students will read information regarding drosophila on the NASA website,
nasa.gov/projects/flies/drosophila.htm. They will then provide their own hypothesis relating to the
experiment that is being carried out by NASA on the nasa.gov/projects/flies/exp1/htm website. This
will be done individually. However students may ask for help and the teacher will go around to each
students workspace to review their proposed hypothesis before it is submitted.

4) Students will then apply their critical thinking skills when they are asked to design their own
experiment concerning human immunology in space after reading case studies provided (Washington
post site listed below). This exercise can be done as a class or individually. Teachers will have
students follow instructions online for the first two exercises and will then should come together for
the last assignment. The teacher will explain the content on the case studies on the Washington Post
to the students and help them create their own lesson plans and ask the students for ideas. Teachers
should look for the “Haymarket, Va” question that has to do with human stomach infection and how it
affects people in space. Students will fill out a sheet with their own hypothesis and experimental
design, based on what they think will happen to the strength and susceptibility of people to the illness.

Evaluation/Assessment
Students will be evaluated on a constant basis throughout the lesson. Students will answer an online
quiz provided on the biology4kids website, and provide their own hypothesis regarding NASA data
and experiment exercises. Students must complete the online quiz with the majority of their answers
being correct before they are allowed to move on to the NASA experiment. Students will have their
hypotheses reviewed before they are submitted. Students will then come together and use their
critical thinking skills to create their own experiment plan for case studies area of human health and
astrobiology. This will be done as a class and require participation from everyone.

Web Sites
http://www.biology4kids.com/files/studies_scimethod.html
http://quest.nasa.gov/projects/flies/drosophila.html
http://quest.nasa.gov/projects/flies/exp1.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/12/07/DI2007120701933.html
http://tinyurl.com/2lfgw9

Technology
The technology used in this experiment will mostly be internet based and will include an online quiz
application, web 2.0 technology incorporated on the NASA website where students will submit their
own hypothesis and predictions to the NASA team. Students will also watch an online video to
introduce them to concepts of the scientific method. Students will have their own copies of the
Haymarket case study from the Washington Post website to fill out one their own after the class goes
over the experiment and that sheet will be handed in at the end.
Interdisciplinary Connections
This lesson will test students in areas of basic biology through use of the scientific method and
astrobiology in the NASA exercise. Students will then apply their knowledge to real world problems
currently being studied by creating their own experiments for case studies in human immunology
relating to the drosophila experiment and drawing from their own experiences.

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National Standards
This exercise emphasizes creativity and innovation through the students reading real case studies
and using their previous knowledge base to create their own experiments. Students will communicate
and collaborate in order to come up with this experiment, using information from different fields of
study. This will test students based on critical thinking skills as outlined in the national standard of
creative thinking. Students will practice research fluency through the research they do through
several different websites covering different topics. Several websites are provided that include basic
information on the scientific method and different case studies based on experiments in current
events that students will review. Students will use critical thinking skills to come up with their own
hypotheses and experimental designs. Students will learn through technology, so they will use
different websites and information sources online and submit their ideas to research teams at NASA.

State Standards
This lesson provides learning incentive as well as critical thinking skills to solve real world issues that
are currently being studied.
This exercise uses technology to submit ideas through the internet to NASA and take online exercises
that test the student’s learning capabilities throughout the lesson.
The exercise uses collaboration through the use of different areas of research, mainly basic biology,
astrobiology and human health, and examines how they can all be related. Students will come
together to create their own experiment based on learning samples and will use concepts in anatomy
of animals in space to propose methods of solving human health concerns. Students will learn
through scientific standards in:
-Organization of living systems
-Behavior of organisms
-Abilities of technological design
-Understandings about science and technology
-Human health
-Environmental quality
-Natural and human induced hazards.

ISTE Connections
This lesson includes creativity and innovation through the process of making experimental designs,
communication and research to be able to formulate the experimental designs, research skills, critical
thinking to address real world problems, and technology operation through internet fluency and using
online self assessment applications.

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For more case studies see http://tinyurl.com/3c86gx

Haymarket, Va.: Enteric microbes are essential to normal functioning of the human gastrointestinal tract and 
probably serve in other, as yet undetermined, roles. What effect would long term space flight have on the 
population of gut­dwelling organisms? (I am a physician with a PhD in biophysics/physiology and found your 
article very interesting ­ this may ultimately be a showstopper for prolonged human space flight.)

Marc Kaufman: I think the answer is that researchers don't know yet. Several Russian cosmonauts have 
remained in space for long periods and survived to tell about it, but very few space travelers have been up for 
more than three months. Remarkably, I'm told by NASA that assembling the international space station has been 
such a priority that the small crews have had little time to engage in research on human responses to space (as 
well as other science.) That's supposed to change in the years ahead, but right now the research on this subject is 
limited and because of budget cuts to basic science programs on the station, will remain limited for some time. 
That said, the European lab now scheduled to go up to the space station in January has some impressive 
capacity to test human responses to space.

Exercise: Develop a hypothesis about what you think will happen to the population of gut dwelling organisms in 
astronauts. Will the astronauts all be susceptible to the virus once in space? Think back to the drosophila in 
space and what you hypothesized about their susceptibility to fungi viruses. Would a virus that affects the 
intestinal tract of one astronaut affect others? 

Hypothesis:

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Explain how you will test the fitness of the gut­dwelling organisms in astronauts. How will this be observed 
through the health of the astronaut(s).

Experimental Design: 

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