Indiana Wesleyan University

Science Inquiry Lesson Plan

Abigail Stallkamp
LESSON RATIONALE
This lesson introduces the idea of pollution and specifically focuses on water pollution. It is
essential for students to have this lesson as it is the base lesson for discussing pollution and what
we can do to help protect our environment. It also gives them great time to be in groups and have
good experiences with teamwork, which lends itself to mt big idea. This is also a content topic
that will come up again and again in future grades, so this lesson provides a good base for
students to build upon.

READINESS
I. Goal/Objective/Standard(s)
a. Goal(s):
i. Students will understand the definition of pollution.
ii. Students will complete an experiment using the scientific method.
b. Objective(s):
i. After the minilesson, the students will complete an experiment on water
pollution.
ii. Before the experiment, the students will develop a hypothesis on which
sample of water is the most polluted.
iii. During the experiment, the students make and record observations.
iv. After the experiment, the students will identify if their hypothesis was
correct or incorrect and will explain their reasoning.
c. Standard(s):
i. 1.ESS.4: Develop solutions that could be implemented to reduce the
impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other things in the local
environment
II. Management Plan:
a. Time: 43-53 minutes
i. Anticipatory Set: 3 minutes
ii. Minilesson: 5-10 minutes
iii. Purpose Statement: 1 minute
iv. Experiment: 25-30 minutes
v. Closure: 10 minutes
b. Space:
c. Materials:
i. Four water samples in clear, clean jars (I am going to use tap water,
bottled water, rainwater, and river water) (per group)
ii. Four large wide-mouth jars (per group)
iii. Masking tape
iv. Sharpie
v. Cone-shaped paper coffee filters (four per group)
vi. Magnifying glass (one per group)
vii. Recording Sheet
d. Behavior:
 i. During the minilesson and experiment demonstration, the students will be
expected to quietly listen to the teacher and participate in appropriate
places. The students are expected to fulfill their roles throughout the
experiment. They are also expected to treat the experiment materials with
the care and safety previously discussed. The students are then expected to
work well in groups and collaborate together when coming up with
answers and conclusions from their experiment.
III. Anticipatory Set:
a. Have a bunch of pictures of trash or garbage hanging around the room. Some of
them don’t have to be so obvious, like a banana peel, and other can be a little
more obvious with an actual trash can. Hello friends! When I say go, you will
have one minute to walk around the room, look at the pictures and think in your
head, “What do all of these pictures have in common?”. Ready, set, go. Have a
timer set for one minute. When the timer goes off direct the students back to their
seats. Talk with your groups about the similarities between the pictures. Allow
time for student discussion. What were some of the similarities you came up with?
Write them down on the board. Affirm the similarities and then move into the
minilesson.
IV. Purpose Statement: (I would actually say this after the minilesson because it would make
more sense there)
a. Today we will be learning about the pollution of water, and we will be looking at
different water sources to see which one is the most polluted. This information
will help us to learn how to reduce our own pollution of water.
PLAN FOR INSTRUCTION
V. Adaption for Individual Differences and Diverse Learners:
a. In my lesson the steps or directions for my experiment are presented verbally, two
different ways visually (a demonstration and picture steps), and in written form.
This will help students who have a written or verbal processing disorder, as there
are many different ways for the experiment directions to be obtained. This will
also help students who have a specific learning disability in reading. The students
are also up and moving around, as well as collaborating with each other. This
gives students brains both dopamine and norepinephrine. This does help all
students to focus on the task at hand, but specifically it helps students who have
ADHD, whose brains require more dopamine to focus, and students who have
trauma, as norepinephrine is a chemical that helps students to feel safe and loved
in an environment.
VI. Lesson Presentation:
a. Has anyone ever heard the word pollution? Talk with your neighbor, about if you
have heard the word, and what you think you know about the word. Allow time
for student response. Raise your hand if you have heard the word pollution. Allow
time for student response. So, some of have heard it and some of us have not, and
that’s okay! Think back to when we talked about the environment. Does anyone
remember what we said the environment is? Allow time for student response.
Have students raise their hand to answer the question. Call on a student and hear
their answer. If it needs refining, call on some more students to try to help refine
the answer, or ask them questions like, “what do we do in the environment” or
 “what is in the environment” to guide their thinking. That’s right! The
environment is the outside world, and everything in the world. So, pollution
happens with the environment, or the outside world, is made dirty by waste,
chemicals or other harmful substances. There are three different types of
pollution: air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution. Today we are going
to be focusing on water pollution. Turn to a partner and try to come up with
example of how water might be dirtied by waste, chemicals or other harmful
substances. Allow time for students to do a think, pair, share. Will some friends
raise their hand and tell me some of the ways you think water might be polluted?
Allow time for student sharing. Write their answers up on the board. If they are
ones that you are going to touch on specifically circle them. You guys came up
with so many ways water could be polluted. One way water gets polluted is when
people dump their garbage or trash into rivers, creeks, ponds, lakes or the ocean.
In the classroom we throw our trash away because it keeps our classroom clean.
Well, if we would dump our trash into the river near the school, then it would
make the water all dirty! Do you think that is good or bad for the fish in the
river? Turn to a partner and tell them if you think it is good or bad and why.
Allow time for students to talk with their partner. Would anyone like to share
what they said? Allow time for student response. It would not be good for the fish
in fact it could really hurt the fish if the water they live in gets really dirty. Which
leads me to what we are going to be doing today. (PURPOSE STATEMENT
WILL GO HERE)
b. Today we are going to do an experiment. We are going to look at 4 different
water samples and try to figure out which one is the most polluted. So, take a look
up here at the front. I have four different samples, water from our classroom sink,
water from an Aquafina bottled water, rainwater, and water from the river near
the school. Do you remember when we talked about what scientists do before they
do an experiment, and how they make their best guess about what they think will
happen at the end of the experiment. Does anyone remember what that is called?
Allow time for student response. Yes! It is called a hypothesis! And we all sound
so scientific when we say it! Can everyone say it with me? Hypothesis! Great job!
Okay so the question that I want you to think about for this experiment is, “Which
sample will have the most pollution?”. You will be working with your table
groups. So, turn to your table, and talk, out of all four samples up here, which
one do you think will be the most polluted and why? Allow time for students to
discuss. Now that you have had some time to discuss, I want the spokesperson at
each table to raise their hand and tell me which sample you think will have the
most pollution and why. Allow time for student response. Make sure to write each
group’s answer up on the board. Students will already have assigned roles that
they are familiar with, and that rotate every experiment: spokesperson, custodian,
recorder, and manager. The spokesperson talks for the group to the teacher, if they
have a question, or if they are answering the teacher’s question to them. The
custodian will be in charge of obtaining all of the materials at the beginning of the
experiment and putting away all of the materials at the end of the experiment. The
recorder will be responsible for collecting the data, recording the hypothesis, and
recoding their ending result. And the manager will be in charge of making sure
 the steps of the experiment are being completed properly. Okay now that you all
have a hypothesis, I am going to show you how to do the experiment. Demonstrate
as you are talking about it. I am first going to label my coffee filter with the
sample that I am going to use. So, I am going to do the water from the sink first
so I will put a little piece of masking tape on the outside of the filter and on it
write “sink water”. Then put the coffee filter onto one of the empty jars. The pour
the sink water, slowly, through the coffee filter, and into the empty glass. You are
going to do this with each one. Then I am going to open each filter and look at it
through my magnifying glass. And then, everyone will do this part, on your
recording sheet draw a picture of what the filter looks like. Once you have done
this have the manager raise their hand and come get me! When I say go, get into
your groups, and you can start your experiment! Recorders do not forget to write
down your group’s hypothesis. Ready, set, go!
c. Allow students time to do the experiment, the procedure that was stated above
will be done for each of the samples provided. The teacher will be walking around
checking in on each group. The students should fill out the recording sheet and
have a drawing of what the coffee filter looked like for each of the four samples.
The directions/steps for the experiment will set out in pictures as well as words.
When the students have all 4 pictures drawn then they will call the teacher over.
d. Talking individually to the different groups. These are all questions that the
teacher can ask to help guide the students learning. Okay, now looking at the
pictures that you drew based on what you saw in your coffee filters, do you think
your hypothesis was correct? Now looking at them, which one do you think is
most polluted? Why do you think this one is most polluted? Does this match your
hypothesis? So now that you have finished the experiment do you think that your
hypothesis was correct, why or why not? Discuss in your group, and decide if
your hypothesis was correct or not, and why you think if it is correct or not. Have
the recorder write down what you guys decide. Allow time for each group to
discuss and decide whether their hypothesis is correct or not, and why.
VII. Check for Understanding:
a. Students will be filling out a recording sheet that will be checked by the teacher
once they have finished the experiment, but before they have decided whether
their hypothesis was correct or not. Then at the closure the teacher will have each
group determine which sample was the most polluted, why they thought that, and
if it matched their original hypothesis.
VIII. Review Learning Outcomes/Closure:
a. You guys have done such a good job at doing the experiment today! Now I want
the spokesperson to raise your hand and tell me which one did you decide was the
most polluted? Allow time for student response. Then ask why they thought it was
the most polluted, and if it matched their original hypothesis. Do this for each
group. This allows students to hear their peers thinking, and perhaps help them to
put their own thoughts into words. So, we can see that our hypotheses are not
always correct, and that is okay, because scientist’s hypotheses are not always
correct either. They expect their hypotheses to be wrong because it helps us learn
more! Turn and share with your partner one thing that surprised you about the
experiment today. Allow time for student response. Before we leave for today,
 does anyone remember what pollution means? Allow time for student response.
That’s right! Pollution is when the environment is made dirty by waste,
chemicals, or other harmful substances.
PLAN FOR ASSESSMENT
The students will be doing a lot of turn and talking, and group work, so part of the
assessment will be based on the teacher listening into their conversations. Then the
teacher will check their recording sheets to make sure that they have completed
everything and are on the right track before they actually decide if their hypothesis was
correct. Then each group will share which sample they found to be most polluted, why
they thought it was the most polluted, and if it matched their hypothesis. This will help
the teacher to determine if they understood that the more particles and discoloration of
the coffee filter results in a more polluted sample. If the students did not understand this
then the teacher may need to do some reteaching or clearing up misconceptions, either as
the lesson is progressing or the next day.
REFECTION AND POST-LESSON ANALYSIS
1. How many students achieved the lesson objective(s)? For those who did not, why not?
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses?
3. How should I alter this lesson?
4. How would I pace it differently?
5. Were all students actively participating? If not, why not?
6. What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
7. How did the students do logistically with the experiment?
8. How did the students handle the recording sheet?
9. How did the students handle the different roles?