The Brain & the 5 Senses

Dawn BurhansPacheco Elementary

Spring 2001

Lesson Plan

Unit TimelineThe amount of time is determined by:

• Age of Student

• Ability of Students

• Accessibility

• Whole Class vs. Individual

I have 4th grade students who have had some keyboarding, and are familiar with accessing the Internet at the same time as other local software.

We started the unit with the students accessing the information videos at their own pace, but due to time constraints, went to a whole class presentation of the videos. We then went and worked in the Computer Lab to write their summaries into their slide shows.

It has taken 3 weeks so far, with approximately 3 hours a week between Class Activities and Computer Lab time. 30% of the students are finished, with the rest within 2 slides of completion.

There are no science standards for the Central Nervous System or the 5 senses, except that the 5 senses are to be used to learn about a student’s environment. Pacheco decided that the 4th grade would add such a unit to their curriculum. The following standards are general, and can actually be applied to any grade level.

Below are the official objectives of the unit. What I most wanted was that the students would have fun learning how to access the Internet in an educational manner, learn some basic skills with text in slide show presentations, and hopefully learn the basics of the system that allows them to learn about the world around them.

ActivitiesThere are 3 main areas that

the activities fall into.

1. Hands-on Crafts

2. Note-taking from videos

3. Writing summaries on slides.

Assessments & Rubrics

There are 2 areas to be assessed.

1. Writing – Pacheco Writing Rubric

2. Subject Material – Funbrain.com Quiz

Technology Integration

Without the Internet, this lesson wouldn’t exist. BrainPop.com was THE major source of information.

The students will be presenting their slideshows using our SmartBoard.

Hair Pulling time!!Where does one start?

After the first day, I had to go back and break down the 1st Step into 2. It made the kids much happier when I told them.

Most of the changes had to do with going from individual to whole class pacing. That and going back to fix links that I thought worked, and didn’t.

Actually Doing it!As previously mentioned, I had to

change how the students watched the videos. In retrospect, doing it as a class makes a lot of sense. 4th graders don’t take notes well, and doing it together allowed me to do a quick review, add info, clarify info, etc. with them. It gave them a lot more focus and if they wanted/needed to go back and re-watch the videos on their own, they had a better idea of what they should be listening for.

How’d they do?They pleasantly surprised me! My

class has a history of NOT tracking well, so of course getting started presented a great test of my patience. But, by the middle of the project, most of the students were truly self-guided. It was great to hear the noise-level reduce as they became focused on their tasks and to see them actually being able to manipulate the various windows needed on their own.

Their actual test scores could have been better, but I think the overall project was a success.

02468101214161820

Pre-Test

456789101114

Number Correct on Pre-Test

02468101214161820

Post-Test

891011121316

Number Correct on Post-Test

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

Post-Test02

468

101214

161820

Pre-Test

Before & After

Though the overall scores aren’t great, the tighter grouping of the Post-test tells me that information was learned. I also found out, based on the questions that were missed, that I need to go back and re-vamp the questions asked. Not all of the information I was looking for them to know was actually found within the sites I was having them go to.

What Did I Learn???That I really, really need to learn to not

procrastinate!

That having it all done BEFORE I have them start would have made my life slightly easier.

That I need to allow a lot more time for the unit if I want them to do more of the note-taking on their own, but for 4th grade, start at whole-class instruction first.

My most exciting thing I learned was that a unit can be developed and set-up so that 90% of it can be done in a computer lab.

What did they

learn?

Cesar

What did they

learn?

Jesse C.

What did they

learn?

Morgan

What did they

learn?

Jacob

What did they

learn?

Haley

What did they

learn?

Cassie

Thank you to my 2000-2001 4th Grade Class.

They did a wonderful job and I’m very proud of

all of them!