SUBJECT: Science
GRADE: Third Grade
TECHNOLOGY: Spreadsheets
BY: Allison Pollok

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

Target Subject: Science; specifically a unit on experimental design

Target Grade: This lesson is designed for a third grade class. This class is exceptionally diverse; students range from first grade to a fourth grade reading levels. This lesson features group work which is designed to encourage those students working on a higher level to assume leadership and assist other students. This particular class has trouble working cooperatively; this lesson plan is designed to help the students improve these skills. This class has been introduced to experimental design, but such lessons have been very teacher-driected. This lesson will provide guided practice that is more student-directed. This class has had very little experience in graphing, so this lesson will help introduce them to the concepts of graphing and the relationship between data and a graph. Finally, because this class has had little experience in intregrating technology and science, this lesson will help bridge that gap.
**Before introducing this lesson, I will have throughly introduced how to use spreadsheets to record and graph data. I will have modeled these skills and will place a sheet of reminders next to each computer in my classroom.

Objectives:
Students will be able to:
1. Brainstorm and conduct modifications that will increase the distance of a paper
airplane.
2. Hypothesize which plane in a group will fly the furthest.
3. Measure and record paper airplane distances.
4. Create a spreadsheet using recorded results.
5. Convert results in database into a graph.
6. Make conclusions based on graph.

Materials:
Students will need:
* Pieces of paper of standard size (81/2” by 11”) and standard weight from which
students will construct airplanes. Paper must be of standard size and weight to
aviod creating extraneous variables which would affect data.
* Tape, scissors, stapler, and paperclips for making modifications to airplanes.
* Rulers for making measurements of flight distances.
* Computers equiped with database and graphing capabilities.
* Students’ science notebooks for recording data and conclusions.

Lesson Plan:
Give each student a standard piece of paper (81/2” by 11”) of standard weight. Have each student write his name both on the lower right hand corner and the uppper left hand corner of the piece of paper. Instruct each student to fold their piece of paper into a paper airplane. Ask students how we could find out which paper airplane is the best. When someone suggests seeing which airplane flys the furthest, have each student line up against the front blackboard. Have every student fly thier paper airplanes in the same direction at the same time. Give each student a ruler. Have each student measure the distance from the blackboard to his airplane and record that distance.

Have the class brainstorm ways to improve the flight distances of their paper airplanes. Tell the students that the modifications they are going to do today will involve paper clips, staples, tape, and scissors. Tell the students that they are going to test four planes, each with one of the above modifications, and a control. Have the students hypothesize which modifications will be the most affective by rank ordering the five planes from the one that will fly the furthest to the one that will fly the least far.
Have the students record their hypotheses in thier science notebooks.

Assign students to groups of about four. Have them choose one of their planes to be the control. Bring out the materials for modifying their airplanes. Instruct the group to have each student create a new airplane and modify it differently. One airplane should be modified using paper clips, another using staples, another using tape, and the fourth using scissors.

Have each group fly each plane (the four planes with modifications and the control) ten times and record the distances in their science notebooks. Groups may have to spread out in the hallway in order to have enough space.

Have students work in their groups to create a spreadsheet on which to record their data. Students should put the words “control”, “paper clips”, “staples”, “tape”, and “scissors” down the left hand column. Students should label the next ten columns with the trial number and the last column with the average. Groups should then record the data gathered from each of the ten trials for each of the five airplanes tested. Students will then need to enter the formula for finding averages and have the computer compute the average distances for each plane in the last column.

Students will be asked to answer the following questions based on their graphs on the bottom of their data sheets:
1. Which plane tended to fly the furthest?
2. Which plane tended to fly the shortest distance?
3. Did the distnaces tend to remain constant throughout trials?
4. Which material would you prefer to use when making paper airplanes in the future?
Why?

Groups will then create two graphs. Students should use the average distances to create bar graphs displaying flight distances. Students should also create line graphs showing the results from individual trials.

Conclusion:
Students will have an opportunity to share their results and graphs with the class.

Evaluation:
During the brainstorming session, I will be observing which students contribute suggestions. When the students are creating thier paper airplanes and making modifications to them, I will circulate around the classroom observing and keeping students on task. I will observe students to make sure they are measuring correctly. I will collect their data sheets and check to make sure they included thier hypothesis as to which plane would fly the furthest, their flight data, and answers to questions. I will have students save thier spreadsheets and graphs to a disk and at a later time, go back and evaluate thier work for accuracy given the data they collected. I will look specifically to check that the formula for averages is entered correctly.