SINGLE SUBJECT CREDENTIAL PROGRAM

EDSC LESSON PLAN

TEMPLATE Revised 4.15
For directions on how to complete this form, see EDSC Lesson Plan Directions and Scoring Guide in the SSCP Handbook at
www.sscphandbook.org.

Name

CWID

Craig Francis

890866122

Class Title
ATMS Chemistry

Subject Area

Lesson Title
M&M Half Life Lab

Chemistry
Unit Title
Nuclear
Reactions

Grade Levels
10

Total Minutes
40

CLASS DESCRIPTION
The class is composed of 34 sophomore students who share multiple classes as members of an Advanced Technology,
Science and Math cohort. There are several very bright students who exhibit self-control issues which impact their own
learning as well as the learning of those around them. At least one of these students may be an unidentified Gifted and
Talented (GATE) student
STANDARDS AND LESSON OBJECTIVES
CCSS Math, CCSS ELA & Literacy History/Social
Studies, Science and Technical Subjects, NGSS, and
English Language Development Standards (ELD)
Content Standards
HS-PS1-8. Develop models to illustrate the changes in the composition
of the nucleus of the atom and the energy released during the
processes of fission, fusion, and radioactive decay.
Offering and justifying opinions, negotiating with and persuading others
HS-PS1-7. Use mathematical representations to support
in communicative exchanges
the claim that atoms, and therefore mass, are
conserved during a chemical reaction.
Lesson Objective(s)
Evidence
Objective: Students will explain alpha decay as the
Students will complete worksheet associated with M&M
formation of new more stable elements by the
lab and graph the decreasing abundance of a theoretical
release of a He atom from the nucleus of a more
radioactive substance.
massive atom and explain the concept of half-live
for radioactive elements.
Students will use the evidence from the lesson to address
the big question How do we know the age of the earth?
Language Objective: (Function) Students share
when discussed in terms of C14 dating.
opinions of the age of the planet and how we know
and how they would go about measuring that age
within their groups.
Content Purpose: You will determine the half-life of
a given isotope and determine the masses of the
remaining substance based on the calculated halflife and the event time.
STUDENT ASSESSMENT
Purpose/Focus of
Type
Assessment

EL

Answer the Big Question

PM

Teacher will move from

group to group listening
to conversation and
monitoring progress.

Completion of M&M
worksheet

Implementation

Feedback Strategy

Students, within their

groups, will Think Write
Share

Teacher will use

facilitative questions to
guide students to the
entry point of the
concept.

Teacher monitoring

Teacher will correct

misconceptions
conversationally within
small group.

The M&M worksheet has

questions which guide
students to the half-live

Teacher will evaluate

worksheet for
understanding

How Informs Teaching

If student already have a
knowledge of the
concept of half-life and
spontaneous decay,
lesson will move directly
to M&M lab after a short
level setting discussion.
If significant (>30%) of
the class are having
significant problem,
teacher will take seminar
approach to discuss the
concept (using Socratic
interaction)
If significant (>30%) of
the class are having
significant problem,

teacher will take seminar

approach to discuss the
concept (using Socratic
interaction)

concept based on
observations.

INSTRUCTION
Instructional Strategies
Students will be engaged in a physical social demonstration of spontaneous alpha decay using a house party analogy.
Students will then engage in a laboratory where they collect data which demonstrates the concept of diminishing
relative abundance of radioactive isotopes.
Lesson Introduction/Anticipatory Set
Time
Teacher Does
Student Does
Students Read learning objective. Determine the
half-life of a given isotope and determine the masses
of the remaining substance based on the calculated
half-life and the event time
Teacher invites students to read learning objective
for the lesson from the white board.

8 min

Teacher invites students to pronounce vocabulary

from the whiteboard. They ae instructed to write
their own definition of the vocabulary at the end of
the class based on context.
Teacher asks students the Big Question and instructs
students to Think Write and Share within their
groups. Teacher asks students to come to consensus
within the group and choose a representative to give
the groups opinion.

Vocabulary:

Nuclear Fission

Nuclear Fusion

Isotope

Decay

Half-Life

Stable

Relative Abundance

Radioactive

Proton

Velocity

Evict
Students Think Write Share the big question
1. How old do you think the planet is?
2. How do you know?
3. How would you go about measuring the age of
something so old?

Lesson Body
Time
Teacher Does
40 min

Introduction to spontaneous radioactive decay

o House Party Demonstration
o (Ask for volunteers, explain that there will
be close contact)

Divide students into Protons and

neutrons

Protons have hand in the air

Draw a 4ft square

Add protons

Too close

Add neutrons to buffer

Keep adding students in proton neutron

pairs

Too crowded Two Protons leave with

two neutrons
o (What element?)
o So crowded that you leave at
high velocity

Half-Life
o A bunch of house parties on your street
o Half Live is the amount of time that it takes
for half of the parties to evict someone

If you start with 100 parties, how long

does it take for 50 parties to evict a He

M&M Probability Lab

o 50 M&M in a bag
o Youre going to have to be quick about this so youre
going to need a data table

In the table two columns and one line labeled

Student Does
Introduction to spontaneous radioactive decay
o Students volunteer for demonstration

Warned that will involve close contact

o Volunteers divided into protons and neutrons
o Students observe as Nucleus becomes
unstable
o He is thrown out of the party
M&M Probability Lab
o Students complete the lab and record results
o Students create graph based on results
o Students address questions associated with
the lab handout

Event Time: 20 sec

Event Number

Number of radioactive M&Ms

Two Paper towels

Safety:
o Dont eat M&Ms that have touched the
table or the floor!!!!
o

Execution
Event 1

Count the total number of M&Ms

Place all M&M in bag and shake for 10 seconds

Pour all M&M in table

Count/Record number of M side down (These are

Radioactive)

Move all non-radioactive M&Ms aside (you can

eat these, Theyre safe now!)

Pick out all radioactive M&M and put back into

bag
Event 2

Pour Remaining M&Ms on table

Count/Record number of radioactive M&Ms

Move all Non-Radioactive M&Ms to the pile of

M&Ms (Dont eat these yet!)

Pick out all radioactive M&Ms and replace in the

bag
Continue until all M&Ms have decayed
Calculation

Graph the number of Radioactive M&Ms vs.

Event # (This is usually time, choose a time of 10
minutes)

Label Axiss

Label Graphs

Answer Questions

Lesson Closure
Time
Teacher Does
Student Does
Asks students to Think Write Share the Big Question
Students present groups consensus for Big Questions
Asks students to write vocabulary definitions based
Students supply definitions based on lesson context.
on lesson context
Students provide +/- feedback for the class.
7 Min
Asks students to write 3 things that they liked about
the class and three things that they would change
about the class
Instructional Materials, Equipment, and Multimedia
M&M worksheets, dry erase marker, 5 lb bag of M&Ms, paper towels, paper drinking cups (for shakers)
Co-Teaching Strategies
Monitoring and small group teaching
DIFFERENTIATION
English Learners
Specific content vocabulary
will be provided to English
learning students. Students
will be prompted prior to
the lesson to pay attention
to the vocabulary when
used in the context of the
lesson. Students with
emerging English skills will
be provided sentence

Striving Readers
The lesson is presented
with a physical, interactive
format where students
observe a representation of
the phenomenon in both
the decay model and the
M&M lab.

Students with Special

Needs
Accommodation for
students with special needs
will be addressed in one of
two ways. The first is to
follow the students IEP, the
second is through the
composition of the research
groups. Each research
group is composed of at
least 1 high achieving

Advanced Students
Advanced students will be
afforded the opportunity to
have leadership
responsibilities within the
class. They will be grouped
with lower performing
students within their
research groups where they
can help those students
with understanding during

fragments for definitions of

the vocabulary. Students
with bridging skills will not
student, and one student
be provided with sentence
who has problems
fragments, but be informed
maintaining the pace of the
to write their student
class (including the special
friendly definitions of the
needs students) this allows
group work.
vocabulary as they are
students with special needs
used in context. This
access to the
follows the research
understanding of the
conducted by Krashen that
advanced students.
indicates that students
acquire language through
comprehensible exposure.
REFLECTION: SUMMARY, RATIONALE, AND IMPLEMENTATION
Steinberg indicates that adolescents seek social interaction. Given that the class is composed of a close cohort,
students will work in groups to learn together and create knowledge based on observation. The Framework document
also indicates that students learn concepts from hands on experimentation. This lesson engages students to draw
conclusions based on observations from results that they themselves produced.