Blended Learning Lesson Plan

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Lesson Title: To Infinity and Beyond! Our Solar System

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Objectives:

• Students will be able to identify the names of the 8 planets in the our solar system.

• Students will be able to recite the correct order of planets from the Sun

• Students will be able to recall information about the planets and solar system.
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State Standards:

Standard 8.E.4: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the universe and the
predictable patterns caused by Earth’s movement in the solar system.

Performance Indicators:

8.E.4A.1 Obtain and communicate information to model the position of the Sun in the
universe, the shapes and composition of galaxies, and the measurement unit needed to
identify star and galaxy locations.

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Context:

In the last standard, the students focused on the first of four core areas they’ll be learning in
grade four; which is, weather and climate. This standard developed their understating about
water cycles and weather/climate patterns. After 4-2 is completed, the students will learn about
the current standard of 4-3. This standard will help students achieve an understanding of the
locations, movements, and patterns of stars and objects in the solar system. The standard after the
current one is 4-4; which, turns into physical science instead of earth science. The next lesson is
about understanding the properties of light and sound as forms of energy.

In this lesson, we will focus on being able to understand the differences between each of the
eight planets and their locations by using various multimedia options to create a better learning
experience.

Materials:

Pencil/Paper
Computers

Videos:

—Solar System 101 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=libKVRa01L8

—Introduction to the Solar System https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKM0P3XlMNA

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Interactive Media:

—Solar System Exploration https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/overview/

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Procedures:

Introduction (10 minutes):

I will start the lesson by introducing what the students will be learning about; which is, the solar
system. I’ll proceed by asking the class if they know of any planets or anything about the solar
system they could share. After this, I’ll explain what is going to happen at each of the three
stations. Then, I’ll assign groups to each station and tell them where they’re going to rotate after
the time is up. This should take about 10 minutes.

Teacher Directed (20 minutes):

I will begin the teacher directed station by showing the group of students a video about the solar
system called Solar System 101 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=libKVRa01L8&t=7s). This
video will introduce what the solar system is, and the names of certain objects within it;
furthermore, the names of the eight planets. I’ll introduce an easy way to remember the order of
the planets by using the sentence Many Very Elderly Men Just Snooze Under Newspapers. The
beginning letter of each word correlates with a planet. This should help the students memorize
the order easier. This should only take approximately 15 minutes.

Collaborative (20 minutes)

In the collaborative station, the students will be put into pairs to do research on the eight planets
of the solar system. The pairs will go to the Solar System Exploration: NASA Science website to
do research on Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune (https://
solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/overview/). The students will write down three facts about each
planet on a piece of paper. This paper will be turned into me at the end of class. This station
should take about 20 minutes.

Independent Digital (20 minutes):

In this station, students will independently watch an educational video on YouTube about the
solar system (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKM0P3XlMNA). After finishing the video,
the students will write a reflection paragraph on what they’ve learned in the video. The
paragraph should be at least 5 sentences, and they’ll turn the paper in at the end of class. This
will take about 20 minutes.

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Closure (10 minutes):

I will end the lesson by asking each of the students to pick their favorite planet and to explain
why it’s their favorite in front of the class using the information they learned throughout the
lesson. This will wrap up the class period and should take about ten minutes.

Rationale:

Video Clip: Solar System 101

• This multimedia is used in the teacher directed station. It supports the lesson by introducing the
solar system in a simple and quick way. It even goes beyond our solar system and briefly
explains the Milky Way and other systems within it. This video is credible because it’s
produced by National Geographic.

Video Clip: Introduction to the Solar System: Crash Course Astronomy #9

• This multimedia is used during the independent digital station. This media was selected
because it explains the solar system in a lot more depth than the previous video. This video is
very credible because Crash Course is used in many classrooms around the world.

NASA Science: Solar System Exploration/Planets

• This multimedia is used during the collaborative station. I chose this website because it offers a
lot of information on the various planets in our solar system. It’s also very credible because it
comes from NASA; which, solely focuses on researching outer space.