Science_Lesson

Inquiry Lesson Galaxies and the Formation of the Universe [pic] Inquiry Lesson Plan Galaxies and the Formation of the Universe Subject/Grade: Science/ 6th Curriculum Connections: • Six Weeks: 2nd • Length of Lesson: 2 – 3 days • Curriculum Guide Objective: GLE 0607.6.1 Analyze information about the major components of the universe. GLE 0607.6.2 Describe the relative distance of objects in the solar system from earth. • TCAP/Gateway Objectives: None • SPI: 0607.6.1 Use data to draw conclusions about the major components of the universe. 0607.6.2 Explain how the relative distance of objects from the earth affects how they appear. Guiding Question: How the universes have evolved since the theoretical Big Bang and create dramatizations of various eras in cosmic evolution. • Concepts: 1. The Big Bang theory. 2. Explore how the universe has evolved over the last 15 billion years by reading and discussing “Wending Through Time, a Cosmic Web.” 3. Stages of the universe's evolution since the Big Bang. 4. Portions of the timeline of the "cosmic web." • Vocabulary: genre, dramatis, personae, permeates, cosmology, cosmologist, algorithms, cartography, nodes, epochs, prolifically, tenuous, barren, dark matter, ultraviolet, ionize, denouement, congenial Motivation: • Type of Student Participation: Small group and Individual • Relate to Previous Learning: What is the Big Bang Theory' What are some examples of evolution (answer examples: people, countries, regions, and landforms)' Do you think space has changed or evolved over the past 15 billion years' How has Earth specifically evolved (answer examples: plate tectonics, global warming, ice age)' • Relate to Student Experience: Prior to students' arrival in class, fill a balloon with colored confetti, blow up the balloon and tie it. When students arrive, stand in the front of the balloon, hold it high so all students can see it, and pop it. Then, students respond to the journal worksheet • Discuss safety rules for lab project: See attached sheet References attached: Safety Rules, and Motivation Journal Worksheet Strategies/Activities/Distributed Practice/Intervention: 1. Question or Problem Identification • Divide students into seven small groups. • Explain to students that each group will be investigating one stage in the development of the "cosmic web," exploring that part of the history of the universe and developing and performing a skit about it. • Assign each group one of the following stages in the history of the universe as explained in the New York Times graphic "Timeline of the Universe" o Inflation Period, Big Bang, Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, Cosmic Dark Ages, Cosmic Renaissance, Stars and Galaxies, and Large-Scale Structures. • Using all available resources, each group should research the approximate dates and critical events of this stage in the universe's history. 2. Hypothesis Generation • Review as a class the New York Times graphic "Timeline of the Universe" (http://www.nytimes.com/images/2001/08/14/science/sci_COSMOS_010814_00.html) • As a class, read and discuss “Wending Through Time, a Cosmic Web,” • Focus on and complete the “The Wending Through Time, a Cosmic Web” questions worksheet • Complete and write a hypothesis about how the universe and the galaxy formed in your notebooks References attached: Article Sheet, Questions worksheet 3. Data Gathering • Library • Classroom resource • Laptop carts • Text book • Article reference 4. Hypothesis Assessment • Look back at your student notebooks where you wrote your hypothesis. • Is it right based off the new information' • If no, what needs to be changed and why' • Write answers in the space below your original hypothesis Reference attached: Hypothesis Assessment Journal Questions 5. Generalizing • As a class discuss what we have learned from the research • How does this relate to your hypothesis and the universe' Assessment: • Reflective Assessments: Motivation Journals, Hypothesis Journals, Cosmic Web Questions, Closure Questions • Pictorial Assessments: Pointillism Galaxies Picture • Hands-on Assessments: Skit of Cosmic Timeline and Hypothesis Closure: • See the attached closure questions worksheet Extend and Refine Knowledge/Homework: • Refresh students memory of the three types of galaxies; spiral, elliptical, and irregular • Teach Pointillism art: Tiny detached strokes, or points of color too small to be distinguished when looking at the entire work. • Have students use their creativity to create visual representation of their galaxy using pointillism art. Using thousands of dots is a representation of the thousands of stars in the universe. • Include a name of the galaxy and grade. Assessment/Student Products and Performances/Technology: • Motivation Journal • Hypothesis Journal • Closure Questions • Pointillism Art project Interdisciplinary Connection: • Current Events - Examine the current research that is being done to explore the universe, particularly by the NASA. What types of experiments are being explored onboard the space shuttle and the International Space Station' Create a newspaper section with at least three articles you have written on the topic. • Geography- Read creation myths from cultures around the world, and compare and contrast the similarities and difference of those researched. • Global History- Research scientists such as Copernicus, Democritus, Einstein, Galileo, Hawking, Hubbell, Kepler, and Newton who have made significant contributions to our understanding of the universe. Then, write a Letter to the Editor from one or more of these scientists to The New York Times in response to the featured article. • Language Arts- Read the book "Inherit the Wind" by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee and research the Scopes Trial on which it is based. Do you think that the authors of the novel are proponents of one side of the story' How do the issues in the novel relate to the Big Bang theory' • Media Studies- Watch a television show or a science fiction movie that portrays the universe/outer space, such as "Star Trek" or "Star Wars". Look for the portrayal of the vastness of the universe. Was it portrayed accurately' Did you see any contradictions from what you just read about or researched' Write a movie or television review that delves into the subject matter of how accurately space is depicted. Resources • Martin, R., Sexton, C., Franklin, T., (2009). Teaching Science for all Children: An inquiry Approach. 5th edition. Boston: Pearson. • Holt McDougal. Tennessee 6th grade Holt Science and Technology. (2010). Austin, Texas: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • New York Times graphic "Timeline of the Universe" (http://www.nytimes.com/images/2001/08/14/science/sci_COSMOS_010814_00.html) • Introduction to Cosmology (http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni.html) is a foundational site from NASA. • Big Bang Cosmology (http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry//ask/acosmexp.html) is a series of questions and answers from Ask the Space Scientist. • NASA's Origins Program (http://origins.jpl.nasa.gov/) outlines the search for the origins of our universe and the search for extra-solar planets capable of supporting life. • Rebecca Brasket, The Bank Street College of Education in New York City • Andrea Perelman, The Bank Street College of Education in New York City • Article Page from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20010814tuesday.html [pic] Hypothesis Assessment Journal Question Directions: Complete journal question on this sheet in one to two paragraphs. Remember Paragraphs have 3 to 5 sentences. How do these skits clarify what is referred to in the Times article read in class as the "cosmic web"' [pic] “What a Cosmic Web We Weave” Motivation Journal Questions 1. "How does the demonstration you just saw relate to the Big Bang theory' 2. What do you know about this theory'" 3. Develop what would be a class definition of the "Big Bang theory" (Answer: a theory that a cosmic explosion marked the beginning of the universe). 4. Why is this considered a theory' |August 14, 2001 New York Times |[| |Wending Through Time, a Cosmic Web |p| |  |i| | |c| | |]| | | | |By JAMES GLANZ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |[pic] | | | | | |Courtesy Dr. Jeremiah P. Ostriker, Dr. Renyue Cen, Princeton | | | | | |A model of cosmic evolution. | | |[pic] | | | | | |If the story of the universe were made into a summer movie, starting with the biggest explosion ever and building up to the glorious development| | |of stars, galaxies and human life, what sort of flick would it be' | | |Whatever its genre, it would more than satisfy Samuel Goldwyn's famous demand for a story that "starts with an earthquake and works its way up | | |to a climax," because an earthquake looks like a mosquito's hiccup next to the Big Bang explosion in which the universe was born. On the other | | |hand, the complexity of the tale would make it longer than "Apocalypse Now Redux," brainier than "A.I.," more populated with dramatis personae | | |than "The Anniversary Party." | | |Despite the challenge of the material, what could put the movie over the top are its stunning visuals and the subtle but unbroken thread that | | |connects virtually every important event in the story. Those advantages are the result of a gorgeous feature of the universe that determines its| | |destiny and permeates space like a vast, three-dimensional system of rivers, tributaries, streams, creeks and rivulets: the cosmic web. | | |Though it is little known outside the circle of cosmologists who study it, it is a central part of explanations of how the force of gravity has | | |created all structure in the cosmos — from swarms of galaxies to the building blocks of life — since those first fiery moments of creation. | | |Increasing computing power and advances in the development of algorithms, or computer codes representing subtle physics, have deepened | | |scientists' understanding of the web and revealed its links to recent observational discoveries in the cosmos. | | |"It's like the cartography of the universe," said Dr. Wayne Hu, a cosmologist at the University of Chicago. "Things start collapsing by gravity | | |and start forming this giant pattern." | | |Once they begin forming, early in cosmic history, the rivers of the cosmic web flow with ordinary gas and more exotic stuff called dark matter. | | |Where the rivers intersect, material slowly collects, over billions of years, into giant agglomerations akin to lakes. | | |Gradually, stars and galaxies form out of that raw material, popping up like towns and cities along the branches of the cosmic web, and even | | |more prolifically where the branches intersect. Between the branches and nodes there develop great dark regions called voids. Remarkably, the | | |web itself remains mostly invisible, except to special telescopes and in computer simulations of cosmic evolution. | | |"It's pretty clear that if you could see the cosmic web in its full glory, it would be quite visually stunning," said Dr. Craig Hogan, an | | |astrophysicist at the University of Washington. The computer simulations, Dr. Hogan said, reveal that "the web itself makes great cinema." | | |And it is the thematic tapestry that links a whole series of recent astronomical discoveries involving various epochs of cosmic history. | | |Those discoveries involve things like the cosmic microwave background radiation, the faint afterglow of the Big Bang; the cosmic dark ages, the | | |time before stars and galaxies began shining in the heavens; the cosmic renaissance, which occurred as light from the first stars began to | | |appear; and the huge structures, like clusters of galaxies, that formed later in cosmic history and dominate the skies today. | | |But the most impressive aspect of the cosmic web may be its sheer scale, sprawling over billions of light-years of space and, even now, | | |expanding along with the universe like a smiley face on an inflating balloon. | | |"It's the largest scale on which structure exists today," said Dr. Adrian Melott, an astrophysicist at the University of Kansas, adding that the| | |pattern was simply "a reflection of the laws of gravity." | | |If the story of the web were made into a movie, it would begin as the universe emerged from the Big Bang as a nearly featureless soup of hot | | |expanding gas some 13 billion years ago. Then, it passed through an age of darkness and eventually began twinkling with stars and galaxies that | | |now fill the heavens with their light. Near the end of the tale — the climax, if one thinks in Goldwynian terms — humans appear on the third | | |rock from one of those stars, the Sun. | | |What made things interesting is that, like any explosion, the Big Bang did make a noise, albeit a tiny one, said Dr. Nickolay Y. Gnedin, an | | |astrophysicist at the University of Colorado. Troubling the gas were faint sound waves "smaller than any whisper we can hear," Dr. Gnedin said. | | |That whisper would become the seeds of the cosmic web. | | |For the first half-million years or so, however, the universe remained hot and dense, merely stretching out those sound waves as it expanded. | | |Then the gases cooled enough to allow electrons and hydrogen nuclei to combine into neutral atoms, and the universe became transparent to low- | | |frequency infrared radiation bearing an imprint of the faint ripples of sound. | | |Like a mysterious character who appears only in the first and last scenes of a drama, that radiation, its wavelength gradually stretched by | | |cosmic expansion, would travel through the universe almost undisturbed for billions of years, carrying an imprint of the cosmos at roughly | | |500,000 years after the Big Bang. | | |"That's the earliest epoch we can see from Earth," said Dr. Renyue Cen, an astrophysicist at Princeton. | | |Called the cosmic microwave background radiation, it was discovered accidentally in 1965. Last May, several teams of astronomers announced that | | |they had used the radiation to get the most detailed map of those primordial ripples ever made. | | |"What we see today in terms of great voids and this cosmic web is a direct consequence of those early seeds," Dr. Cen said. | | |To understand why, return to the opening scene of the story, when the background radiation was set free. | | |The release itself froze the sound waves in place, silencing the young universe but leaving a slight lumpiness in the gases, mostly neutral | | |hydrogen, Dr. Cen said. The sound waves stop vibrating but leave behind their density patterns, which stretch with the universe. | | |The increasingly cold and tenuous universe, continuing in its eternal expansion, then entered a barren, quiet and dark phase that was hundreds | | |of millions of years long. Scientists call that forbidding period, quite appropriately, the dark ages. | | |But thanks to the primordial lumpiness, scientists believe, there was a stirring in the cosmic darkness. Because the lumps had a little extra | | |gravitational pull, they began gathering more matter, at the expense of their surroundings. | | |"With time, the slightly more concentrated regions acquire more mass and become more and more concentrated," said Dr. Lars Hernquist, an | | |astronomy professor at Harvard. | | |As this concentration proceeded, a striking pattern began to emerge. Just as a bedsheet, if pinched and lifted at several points, will develop a| | |network of wrinkles that connect the highest points, the cosmic gases formed a web of somewhat concentrated filaments running between the lumps.| | |Several effects slowly deepened the pattern, said Dr. Jeremiah P. Ostriker, a cosmologist who is provost of Princeton. Some of the mathematics | | |behind the pattern were first worked out in Moscow in the 1970's by Yakov Zeldovich, a physicist who deduced that roundish lumps should tend to | | |collapse into pancakes. Intersecting pancakes form filaments, and intersecting filaments make more lumps. | | |The filaments of the web, Dr. Ostriker said, then act like rivers, collecting material from the surrounding regions, or voids, that are less | | |concentrated and funneling it to the lumpy places. | | |Over billions of years, Dr. Ostriker said, this process "empties out the voids in between and then it tends to empty out the filaments." | | |Scientists believe that at first, two distinct types of matter moved in step along the pattern. Other evidence has shown that roughly 90 percent| | |of the mass in the universe is so- called dark matter, probably mysterious particles that interact with one another and the rest of the universe| | |only through gravitational forces. The rest is the ordinary matter of which today's stars, planets and people are made. | | |During the early dark ages, however, there were no stars (and certainly no planets or people). But as the concentrations of matter grew, the | | |ordinary matter began to do what ordinary matter does, radiating away some of its heat as it was compressed. That allowed it to collapse | | |further, forming the first stars — possibly when the universe was no more than 100 million years old. | | |"The first stars to form will form in special areas, these densest areas of the web," said Dr. August E. Evrard, an astrophysicist at the | | |University of Michigan. Later in cosmic history, Dr. Evrard said, "there's a remembrance of things past," and huge clusters of galaxies will | | |begin to form at those same spots. | | |But those first twinklings probably did little to pierce the gloom of the dark ages because the neutral hydrogen permeating the universe was | | |opaque to the mostly ultraviolet light of those hot young stars, which were probably much more massive than the Sun. Only in small, bubblelike | | |regions around the stars would their radiation be able to ionize the hydrogen, creating regions free of the cosmic fog. | | |As hundreds of millions of years passed, more and more stars formed; at some critical moment their bubbles began to merge, and the fog suddenly | | |lifted. Just this month, two teams of astronomers said they had pinpointed that moment, the end of the dark ages, at about 900 million years | | |after the Big Bang. | | |At that point in cosmic history, the picture would move briskly toward its denouement. Elements much heavier than hydrogen are generated in the | | |nuclear furnaces of stars and spread through the cosmos in stellar explosions, becoming building blocks for life in at least one particularly | | |congenial planetary system. | | |Dr. Dmitri Y. Pogosyan, an astrophysicist at the University of Toronto's Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, said scientists had | | |mostly satisfied themselves that computer simulations starting with the early seeds revealed by the cosmic microwave background did reproduce | | |the cosmic web as it is observed in the skies today. | | |He said, however, that a number of outstanding questions remained, like the details of galaxy formation and just how "webby" the real sky is. | | |Exhaustive maps of galaxy distributions now being produced by projects like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the 2-Degree Field survey may | | |answer those questions, Dr. Pogosyan said. | | |Until those issues are finally settled, said Dr. Melott, of the University of Kansas, the cosmic web may remain something more like a "made for | | |cable TV" production than a full-length feature because, he said, the story is still "kind of patched together." | | |That may be true. But didn't "Pearl Harbor" prove that an imperfect story line is no barrier to putting viewers in the seats as long as the | | |graphics are good' | | THE INQUIRY TEACHING MODEL 1. Question or problem identification 2. Hypothesis generation 3. Data gathering 4. Hypothesis Assessment 5. Generalizing In the procedure section of your lesson plan or the presenter’s lesson, one should see the five steps of the Inquiry Model of Teaching. Please check it off as it is indicated in the column under “The Student Will.” The Inquiry model is a student-centered model, so the students should perform the actions. |Steps |Actions by students/The Student will: | |Question or problem identification | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Hypothesis generation | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Data gathering and plan of testing | | | | | | | | | | | |Hypothesis Assessment | | | | | | | | | | | |Generalizing | | | | | | | | | | | [pic] “Wending Through Time, a Cosmic Web” Closure Questions Directions: Write answers to the following questions using the article “Wending through Time, a Cosmic Web.” 1. How and why does the author compare the story of the universe to popular movies' 2. What does a cosmologist do' 3. What is meant by the term "cosmic web"' 4. What substances were originally found in the cosmic web' 5. What are the current substances found in the cosmic web' 6. How large is the cosmic web' 7. When did the Big Bang occur, according to the Big Bang theory' 8. What kind of noise did the Big Bang make' 9. As the gases from the Big Bang cooled, what substances combined to form neutral atoms' 10. What are the two types of matter, and how do they differ' 11. When in the history of the universe did stars begin to form' 12. What star is the closest to the Earth' Galaxies and the Formation of the Universe Lab Safety Rules Responsibilities: Student General Lab Safety Guidelines Students should… • Follow all written and verbal instructions carefully. If students do not understand a direction or part of a procedure, they should ask the instructor before proceeding. • Never work alone. No student may work in the laboratory without an instructor present. • Not touch any equipment, chemicals, or other materials in the laboratory area until they are instructed to do so. • Not eat food, drink beverages, or chew gum in the laboratory. Nor should they use laboratory glassware as containers for food or beverages. • Perform only those experiments authorized by the instructor. Students should never do anything in the laboratory that is not called for in the laboratory procedures or by your instructor. • Know the locations and operating procedures of all safety equipment including the first aid kit, eyewash station, safety shower, fire extinguisher, and fire blanket. • Know where the fire alarm and the exits are located. • Return all equipment clean and in working order to the proper storage area. • Not wander around the room, distract other students, or interfere with the laboratory experiments of others. • Report any accident (spill, breakage, etc.) or injury (cut, burn, etc.) to the instructor immediately, no matter how trivial it may appear. • Flush immediately with running water from the sink if the chemical touches the eyes or skin, eyewash station or safety shower for at least 20 minutes and notify the instructor immediately. Clothing, Hair, etc. Students should… • Not wear a coat or jacket during a lab. Necklaces and bulky jewelry should be removed. • Not wear contact lenses in the laboratory without permission from the instructor. • Tie back long hair. • Not wear sandals. Shoes must completely cover the entire foot. Sharp Objects Students should… • Always carry with tips and points pointing down and away, when using knives and other sharp instruments. • Always cut away from their body. • Grasp sharp instruments only by the handles. Handling Glassware and Equipment Students should… • Never use chipped or broken glass. • Never handle broken glassware with their hands. The instructor should use a dustpan and broom to sweep up broken glass. Small pieces can be wiped up using a wet paper towel. • Place broken glass in the proper container - either a can for broken glass or a sharps container. • Not immerse hot glassware in cold water; it may shatter. • Carry glass tubing, especially long pieces, in a vertical position to minimize the likelihood of breakage and injury. • Always lubricate glassware (tubing, thistle tubes, thermometers, etc.) before attempting to insert it in a stopper. • Always protect their hands with towels or cotton gloves when inserting glass tubing into, or removing it from, a rubber stopper. • Grasp the plug when removing an electrical plug from its socket, not the electrical cord. • Dry hands must be completely before touching an electrical switch, plug, or outlet. • Report damaged electrical equipment immediately. • Not use damaged electrical equipment. • Wear goggles and an apron anytime they are working with dangerous chemicals, hot liquids or solids, and other potential sources of splashes, splattering or spills • Never smell a chemical without instructions. To smell something a student should hold it away from their nose and wave their hand over it towards their nose. Flush any chemical spill on your skin with plenty of water. The rule of thumb is 15 minutes. • Not lay the glass stopper from a reagent bottle on the lab table. Students should hold the handle of the stopper between two fingers while pouring from the bottle. • Always pour the acid into the water, never water into acid. Remember, A&W (root beer) • Remember that all chemicals in the laboratory are to be considered dangerous. • Never return unused chemicals to their original containers unless instructed to do so by the teacher. • Never use mouth suction to fill a pipette. Use a rubber bulb or pipette pump. Consequences for Infractions 1) A student will be warned verbally the first time a safety rule is broken. 2) The second time a student breaks a safety rule, they will serve 10 min detention. 3) The third time a student breaks a safety rule they will be removed from the lab area, serve 20 min detention and a letter will be sent home to the student’s parents. 4) The fourth time a student breaks a safety rule, they will be removed from the lab area, serve 30 min detention, a letter will be sent home and a meeting with the principal will be held. 5) If any student intentionally endangers the welfare of another student, they will be removed from the lab period, receive a failing grade for that lab period, and a letter will be sent home. 6) If a student intentionally endangers the welfare of another student a second time, the above pertains and a meeting will be held with the principal and parents. 7) Unauthorized experiments will result in a failing grade for that laboratory period. 8) If an unauthorized experiment is conducted twice, the student will be removed from the laboratory and receive a failing grade for that laboratory period.