Grade: 6-8 Grade

Week: 1 Topic: Modeling the Solar Eclipse

Lesson Objectives:

-Students will be able to visualize the solar eclipse and model it with various resources.

Timeline

Lesson Description

Getting to know the students; name tags and introducing ourselves; getting settled

Introducing the solar eclipse and watching youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyf5JF_VxwM

Lamp/ball model - to gain a better visual of what the eclipse looks like. (use students to hold the beach ball and tennis ball representing the earth and moon)

Bathroom and snack break

Explain the box model, show how it works, and have students gather materials

Students build their models in pairs and teachers assist for help

Have students quickly share their models, review what we learned, give them an idea of what they will be learning the following week

• Optional - Exit ticket: What is one take away you got from today and what is one question or concern you have?

9:30-9:45

9:45-10:00

10:00-10:10

10:10-10:20

10:20-10:35

10:35-11:20

11:20-11:30

Grade: 6-8 Grade

Week: 2 Topic: Layers of the Sun and Solar Eclipse Safety

Lesson Objectives:

-Students will be able to identify the layers of the sun.

-Students will be able to properly participate in the solar eclipse.

-Students will learn about safety regarding the solar eclipse.

Timeline

Lesson Description

9:30-9:35

Students arrive and get settled.

9:35-9:40

Review what we went over last week.

10:00-10:05

Watch a video explaining the layers of the sun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFxJ_8ob6BM

10:05-10:20

Chalk activity and clean up.

10:20-10:30

Bathroom break

10:30-11:00

Introduce and explain box observation activity.

11:00-11:05

Give a safety reminder about not looking directly at the sun and the

damages that it can cause.

11:05-11:10

Take students outside to the front of the education building.

11:10-11:20

Have students observe the sun safely through their box observers.

11:20-11:25

Head back to the classroom.

11:25-11:30

Quick review from the material and a look into next week.

Materials List (please be detailed; include exact quantities)

-cereal boxes (one per student)

-duck tape (one roll)

-blank computer paper or scrap paper (one per student)

-aluminum foil (one piece per student - 3 in. on each side)

-glue stick and/or glue (one per student)

-scissors (one per student)

-chalk (a couple per student)

-black construction paper (one per student)

-white computer paper (one per student)

-pencil (one per student)

‌Grade: 6-8 Grade

Week: 3 Topic: Reflecting on the Solar Eclipse Experience

Lesson Objectives:

-Students will be able to reflect on their experience watching the solar eclipse.

-Students will be to define the influence of an object that blocks sunlight on the local temperature.

-Students will be able to use technology to graph data of changes in a motor speed and LED

brightness.

Timeline

Lesson Description

9:30-9:35

Students arrive.

9:35-9:55

Discuss how their experience was watching the solar eclipse.

-Make a sense chart (hear, smell, see, etc.) on the whiteboard and

students can fill in what they experienced.

10:00-10:10

Have students gather around the front table for temperature modeling.

We will show them the temperature sand model and explain what we have

set up

(Use Veriner Lab Quest, plug into laptop, set up 1 recording every 5

seconds, get 2 temperature probes, put one in sunlight and one in the

shadows, both need to be buried flat in the sand, explain set up to

students, check out the temperature data at the end of the day and

discuss)

10:10-10:20

Bathroom break and snack

10:20-11:20

Introducing energy modeling activity. Break students into groups of 3 or 4

to follow along to build their model.

Walk them through the model first with the lights, then the motor and

popsicle sticks, then, have them do a small planet, medium sized planet,

then end with a large planet. Discuss with them what they noticed

11:20-11:30

Discuss the results of the temperature modeling activity from earlier.

‌Grade: 4-8 Grade

Week: 4 Topic: Exoplanet Detection Modeling

Lesson Objectives:

-Students will be able to detect planets outside of our solar system with stellar transits.

Timeline

Lesson Description

9:30-9:35

Students arrive and get settled

9:35-9:40

Review last weeks material and ask if anyone knows what exoplanets are

9:45-9:50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZOhJe_7GrE

9:50-10:05

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/teach/activity/exploring-exoplanets-with-

kepler/

10:05-10:10

Bathroom break

10:10-10:25

Set up exoplanet activity and explain

10:25-11:00

Run activity with small planet and large planet and then run it with small

and large planet at a slower speed (one student is holding light cord during

this)

11:00-11:15

Look and data and discuss

-what do you notice about the graph?

-why are there dips?

-what determines how wide the width of the dip is?

11:15-11:30

Discuss what we learned over the last 4 weeks and review

If there is time left over, we can end with a game to celebrate 4 weeks of

learning