Landforms- 4th grade

Lesson 4: Designing a Solution for Erosion

(FOSS - Investigation 2, Part 1)

Teacher: Ainsley Gettis, Carly Johnson, & Colby Hollands

Standards
Performance Expectation:
4-ESS3-2: Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on
humans.

3-5-ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for
success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

Science Practice(s): Disciplinary Core Idea(s): Cross-Cutting Concept(s):

Planning and Carrying Out
Investigations
● Plan and conduct an
investigation collaboratively
to produce data to serve as
the basis for evidence, using
fair tests in which variables
are controlled and the
number of trials considered.
● Evaluate appropriate methods
and/or tools for collecting data.
ETS1.B: Designing Solutions Influence of Science,
to Engineering Problems: Engineering, and Technology
● Testing a solution on Society and the Natural
involves investigating World
how well it performs ● People’s needs and wants
under a range of likely change over time, as do
conditions. their demands for new
and improved
technologies. (3-5-ETS1-
1)
● Engineers improve
existing technologies or
develop new ones to
increase their benefits,
decrease known risks,
and meet societal
demands. (3-5-ETS1-2)

Learning Goals

● I will design and test a solution for a erosion problem.

● I will use my data to evaluate and revise my solution plan.

Materials, Resources, & Advance Preparation

 For each Group:
● Model built from previous lesson
● Scientific Journals
● Bag of basic materials to use in solution:
○ TBD
For the Class:
● Handouts of the engineering process.
● White boards
● Post-its
● Access to video

Engage Phase

Let's talk about Engineers

The first thing we are going to do today is talk about engineers
In groups of 4, I want you to brainstorm some ideas of who engineers are and what they do.
After a few minutes, have students share what their groups talk about.
Explain that now we are going to watch a video about engineers and what they do. Students add ideas to their
whiteboards as they watch the video. Commented [1]: Good active listening strategy similar
Watch: The Engineering Process to our use of the Water's Journey book!
Turn and Talk in your groups and discuss, based on your ideas and the ideas from the video, what is an engineer
and what do they do?
● Let groups discuss and then share ideas with class.
● Believe it or not, we all have been going through the engineering process.
○ Explain how we have:
■ Defined the problem
■ Researched the problem
■ Developed possible solutions
● Tell the students that we are going to be a type of engineers called environmental engineers.
○ Environmental engineers use engineering principles to solve problems in the environment.
○ Have you seen any problems in the environment around here?
● That’s right, in your groups have designed a model of a problem.

Exploration Phase

Part 1: Planning the Investigation

Pass back drawings back to students from last lesson.
● In your groups, share the plans that you drew from our last class. Talk about:
○ What makes each plan unique.
○ What are the pros and cons of each plan?
○ And decide one or a combination of the plans to test as a group.
● Now, in groups, you will create a detailed plan for each solution. This should include:
 ○ The steps you will take
○ The materials you will need
○ And how you will collect data
● How will you know if you plan works?
○ How will you know if it an improvement from before?
● Discuss the idea of collecting baseline data before plan implementation Commented [2]: This particular part should be
● Once everyone is done with their plans, move to part 2. discussed as a group-- students will likely need support
on this part

Part 2: Implement and test ideas Commented [3]: Some sort of planning sheet might be
useful for students to guide their groups in this part of
● Now that we have finished planning our ideas, it is time for us to test our designs to see if our solutions the process.
work.
○ Let students collect baseline data with their original models.
● Once everyone collects their baseline data, it will be time for students to test their ideas and implement
their solutions.
● Now it is time to put our ideas to the test. Let students make the preparations for their models. Students
will test their models again, now with their prevention plans implemented.

Explanation Phase

● Now that we have tested our solutions on our models, how do we know if they worked?
○ Turn and talk to your group and talk about if your model worked? HOW do you know? (what
evidence)
○ If it didn't work, what parts of your plan didn't work? Why do you think they didnt work?
○ I want each group to come up with one success and one challenge. Write them on your
whiteboard and put the whiteboard next to your model. Commented [4]: Good scaffold for peer feedback!
● Once students discuss, have them do a gallery walk of all the models.
○ Use sticky notes to leave comments about things you liked, suggestions you may have to improve
the plan or help with the groups challenge, and/or questions about the plan that were confusing.
○ As you are walking around, you should be thinking about how each group is solving their erosion
problem and any ways to fix your group’s challenge.
● Come back together and allow students to talk about the feedback their peers have given them and the
things they observed.
● Then the class will discuss:
○ What did you notice about the different models and solutions?
○ Did you notice any patterns?
○ What did you learn from the feedback you received? Commented [5]: Great metacognitive queston!
● So now, we have completed the engineering process steps:
○ Design a solution
○ Build a prototype
○ Test it
○ And Evaluate your solutions
● We completed all the steps so we are done, right? Commented [6]: No... :)
 Extension Phase

1. Testing the solution ideas on the models

2. Collecting data
● Now we are going to do it all again.
○ Engineers often times have to try an idea, learn what they can do to make their idea better,
replan, and try another idea. Sometimes they have to do this 5-6 times. But in the end, their idea
works a lot better than the first form of the idea they tried.
○ We are going to use what we learned from our first test of our ideas, to improve our solutions and
then we will test them again.
● Students should sketch their revised solutions and revise the steps for implementing their plan.
● Once everyone is done revising, students should test their models the same way they did before and
collect data on the results.
● Come back together as class to discuss if their new plans worked better than before.
○ Did you notice any improvements? Why did the results improve from last time?
○ Let the students share their process of revising their plan to make improvements if the students
are willing.

Evaluation Phase
1. Writing letter to PTA outlining the problem and plan for solution.
Before, we talked about who was going to benefit from fixing the problem you chose to model. What
were some of the ideas we had?
The next step in our process is actually fixing the problems we modeled using the plans we designed. But
before we can do that, we need to convince people that these problems are important and that our plans
are good and will reduce the erosion that is happening.

You will be writing a letter to the Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) of our school. In your letter, you need
to:
● Explain why the example of erosion is, in fact, erosion.
● Why it is important to fix the problem.
● And how you you would go about fixing the problem (the plan you designed)
Do you think we can just show them a picture and tell them it is a problem worth fixing?
● How are they going to know that we are experts on this topic?
● How are they going to know that the plans we designed worked? Commented [7]: See "Making Thinking Visible" and the
CORE strategy in the article for further developing the
writing prompt for students-- it also provides some
suggestions for helping students plan their writing.
(3.0)
Letter includes all the required parts and uses at least one piece of evidence for each part. Commented [8]: Could evidence include a photo they
● Detailed explanation of erosion problem and at least one piece of evidence to support the idea that it is took?
erosion.
● Convincing argument that the problem is important and should be fixed. Argument should contain
consequences of not fixing the problem.
● Detailed outline on plan to reduce erosion. Should explain their experience going through the engineering
process (Build, test, evaluate, revise, repeat).
(2.0)
Letter includes all the required parts and uses evidence for each part.
● Detailed explanation of erosion problem and uses evidence to support the idea that it is erosion.
● Convincing argument that the problem is important and should be fixed. Argument should contain
consequences of not fixing the problem.
● Detailed outline on plan to reduce erosion. Should explain their experience going through the engineering
process (Build, test, evaluate, revise, repeat).
(1.0)
Letter is missing some of the required parts and/or does not use evidence in all the parts.
● Detailed explanation of erosion problem and uses evidence to support the idea that it is erosion.
● Convincing argument that the problem is important and should be fixed. Argument should contain
consequences of not fixing the problem.
● Detailed outline on plan to reduce erosion. Should explain their experience going through the engineering
process (Build, test, evaluate, revise, repeat). Commented [9]: We are going to work on refining our
evaluation criteria in Fall-- this is a great first draft, and
I see some ways I can help you improve!
Grade
Criteria Comments
The lesson plan includes all required
components. Design of the lesson is highly
aligned with the NGSS, 5E learning cycle
framework, elements of effective science Well-designed lesson! While there are
A instruction, and has a coherent conceptual
storyline. Details are provided to make
aspects that need further development,
these are things we’ll revisit in Fall prior
(4) clear what will take place throughout the to teaching.
lesson, in terms of both teacher and
student actions, specific questions, etc.

The lesson plan includes all required

components. Design of the lesson is
aligned with the NGSS, 5E learning cycle
framework, elements of effective science
B instruction, and has a coherent conceptual
storyline. Details are provided to make
(3) clear what will take place throughout the
lesson, in terms of both teacher and
student actions, specific questions, etc.
though some aspects may need further
elaboration.

The lesson plan includes all required

components. Design of the lesson is
generally aligned with the NGSS 5E
learning cycle framework, elements of
C effective science instruction, with few
exceptions. The lesson, in general, has a
(2) coherent conceptual storyline. Additional
details are needed to make clear what will
take place throughout the lesson, in terms
of both teacher and student actions,
specific questions, etc.

The lesson plan is missing some required

components. Design of the lesson is out of
alignment with the NGSS, 5E learning cycle
framework, elements of effective science
D instruction, or has an incoherent conceptual
storyline. It is not clear what will take place
(1) throughout the lesson, in terms of both
teacher and student actions, specific
questions, etc.

F The lesson plan does not include most of

the required components or was not
(0) completed.