Summary and Evaluation of Teaching Unit

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=56 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="011a0a03.jpg"> <div> Summary and Evaluation of Teaching Unit</div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=135 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="21fa0c01dduajq.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Educators Science and Math Institute Ser"><U><B>Educators' Science and Math Institute Series</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About the Series"><U><B>About the Series</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id117.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Goals"><U><B>Goals</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Institutes"><U><B>Institutes</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="lesson_plans_prepared_by_esmis_participants_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lesson Plans"><U><B>Lesson 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the year exams approaching fast, I needed to highly modify this unit.  The lesson was not hands-on in nature but rather a class discussion of how the Great Lakes and its surrounding region were formed.  </div> <div>      The focus of this unit was to have students understand how the Great Lakes and its surrounding region were formed using ice age theory.  This is one of the main content standards at the high school level for earth science.  I first administered a pre-test to my students to evaluate their previous knowledge of how the Great Lakes and the surrounding region were formed.  The test included questions about how the great lakes were formed, how the great lakes basin was formed, definitions of common earth science terms, and what specific glacier was responsible for the Great Lakes.  I then proceeded with a two-day class discussion of how the Great Lakes were formed.  When we finished the discussion, I administered a post-test to evaluate what they had learned.  The post-test was given as a surprise so they did not have time to study and it was given 4 days after the end of the class discussion.</div> <div>      The class began with the teacher initiating the discussion of how the Great Lakes Basin was formed.  Most students shared the belief that the basin was formed by the glaciers carving out the basin and its surrounding regions.  With this information, I realized that I must start back just a bit further.  I asked students if they new what the supercontinent was.  Many responded positively with knowledge of the former Pangea.  I explained to them that at this time, there was no Great Lakes Basin.  I then posed the question, how could this Basin form if I were to tell you that a glacier was not initially responsible for the formation of this region but that it later helped shape it further.  After a few minutes of thinking about this, a couple of students responded to the question with the idea that volcanic activity shaped the Great Lakes Basin.  I then began to explain to them that the Great Lakes Basin was formed by ancient volcanic activity through the mid-continental rift zone.  The way this basin was formed was by the lithosphere uplifting and cracking and allowing volcanic magma to flow through, then the earth's crust sank to a level lower than it had been originally creating this basin.  I explained to them that the rocks found in this region such as basalts and conglomerates were evidence to show that volcanic activity existed before in this region.</div> <div>      While I was participating in this discussion with the class, I had displayed a model of a glacier at the front of the class and asked students to make observations in their journal about what happens to the glacier over the course of two days.  The glacier was made by mixing water, sand, dirt, clay, big and small rocks and freezing it in a cake pan.  I then took this frozen chunk out of the pan and placed it on a gradual incline in front of the class to melt.  </div> <div>      Once we had all agreed on and discussed the formation of the Great Lakes Basin, we began to discuss the effect of the Glaciers on the region.  We discussed the advance and retreat of the glaciers several times over the region and in its final pass, the Wisconsin Glacier went as far south as Missouri before it finally receded for good.  We discussed the effects of this continual advance and retreat on the soft basaltic basins that were present and how the glacier carved the basins deeper and deeper.  We also discussed how it picked up sediments as it moved through and then when it melted, sediment deposits were left behind.  Students were curious about the sand dunes.  I asked them to look at a cross-section of the glacier model I created  as the ice melted.  Students observed that the sand particles were left behind first.  I then explained to them briefly how particle sorting occurs and that smaller particles tend to sift through everything else and fall to the bottom together.  This allowed a for a geographic phenomenon known as the sand dunes to be created by  sand build up at certain spots.  With the help of the wind and water, they accumulated as large mounds along the shores of the Great Lakes.  We finally ended the unit with the students concluding that the actual water that was in the lakes was a direct result of the glacier melting as it receded for the last time.</div> <div>      I think this brief unit on the Ice Age theory of the Great Lakes region was successful in increasing the students' awareness of how the Great Lakes and its region was truly formed.  The short lesson seemed to expand on their current understanding of how the Great Lakes were formed.  Many students knew the glaciers were involved but they did not have any in-depth understanding as to the actual complexity of the processes involved.  I definitely think given more time and resources a much better unit could be created to aid in the understanding of Ice Age theory.  </div> <div>      I considered my unit a success such that in looking over the pre-test and post-test results, there was a definite increase in the scores of the students as a whole.  The average score on the pre-test was a 6.7 out of a possible 25 points which is a 27% average.  The average score on the post-test, which had a slight variation in the questions but the major ideas were still covered, was a 15.8 out of a possible 25 points which is a 63% average.  Rubrics were created to delineate specific point values for different parts of an answer given correctly in context.  From a percentage standpoint, a 63% is far below what a teacher would accept as successful.  However, in relation to their prior knowledge, the percent increase is quite large.  What I did notice on the post-test was that many students did not score as high as I would've liked on the first ten-point essay question.  This question was critical in the analysis because it asked students to describe in detail how the Great Lakes Basin was formed and how the Great Lakes themselves were formed.  Most students showed an increase in their understanding of the full processes involved, however, their were still many of them who left out key points like the fact that the basin was already present when the glacier moved through and it was just carved out deeper because of the soft rock on the top.  </div> <div>      All in all, I think that this lesson was a good lesson in increasing the understanding of the Ice Age theory for the amount of time that was allowed and for the amount of resources available.  I think given more time and resources this could easily be developed into a unit just like the one I had originally planned for the Island Hopping Across the Curriculum course.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>