Teaching Plan

Teacher Name Michelle Bright Date March 5th 2019

Subject Area Physics Grade 9 (microteach)
Topic Expanding Universe Time 12-15min

Students will be able to understand and explain how the universe expands
Learning Objectives on an elementary level, with the use of analogous examples.
What do you want your
students to learn?

Assessment
How will you know your
students have learned?
Materials
What resources will you need?
Students will answer an ‘exit slip’ quiz with a short answer question
allowing them to describe how the universe expands and a question that
has them identify examples that are analogous to the expansion of the
universe.
Balloons (at least 10)
String
markers/sharpies (if students don’t have)
‘exit slip’ quiz for each student

What is the Universe?

Introduction How do we know it’s expanding? History in Astronomy.
(how will you “hook” How is it expanding?
students? )
Allow for students to share if they already know or have an idea, if most
Time: 2min seem to know allow for ~30sec. chat with the students around them about
their ideas.

ED 2500 – Orientation to Teaching

Instructor: Deborah Yawney
 Prepare (30sec.)
1. Students form into groups of 2-5
2. Each group given a balloon, marker, and a piece of string

Explanation as the Students move through the Activity (5min)

3. Mark the string with any distance (within reason to the size of your
balloon) and use that marking to make at least 4 dots equaled
Body spaced on the balloon
Learning activity or 4. Blow up the balloon more and check the distances between the
sequence of activities. )
dots, mark the new distances on their string
Time: 8min 5. Repeat (number of repeats depending on time)

What Does this Mean for our Universe?

• talk to their group members (30sec.)
• talk as a class about their ideas and explain how the Universe
expands as a balloon would expand, the contents remain the same
and objects remain proportionally the same distance from one
another, but the space they occupy increases. (2min)

Exit Slip (4min)

Closure Hand out the ‘exit slip’ quizzes one for each student and have them answer
the questions on their own, hand in to me on the way out.
Time: 5min
Students can either throw away or keep the balloon and string used in the
experiment, markers returned to me with the exit slips.

Notes and Ideas organize the class into groups rather than letting them group themselves

ED 2500 – Orientation to Teaching

Instructor: Deborah Yawney