UMF Unit-Wide Lesson Plan Template

Name: Sarah Blomerth, Daniel Picard Program: Course:

Lesson Topic / Title: STEM By The Numbers

Lesson Date: Lesson Length: Grade/Age:

11/14/2019 (1) 60 min block Middle School
Learning Objectives & Content Standard Alignment - Selects, creates, and sequences learning
experiences and performance tasks that support learners in reaching rigorous curriculum goals
based on content standards.
Learning Objective(s) Instructional Decisions / Reasoning
-Students will know and understand the words mean, As students continue in this unit, this
median, range, population, sample, and dot plot. knowledge is crucial. It will also help
-Students will be able to find the mean, median, and range them to understand data and statistics
of given data. when given in everyday situations, such
-Students will have a foundation of knowledge needed to as in a news article.
continue in their statistics unit.
-Students will understand a single number can represent
a summary of a data set

Content Standard(s) Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.SP.A.3: Recognize that a Although only the first part of this
measure of center for a numerical data set summarizes standard is put here, it is relevant to
all of its values with a single number, while a measure of students learning the mean and median
variation describes how its values vary with a single of a set of data.
number.

Assessment - Uses assessment flexibly to expand and deepen understanding of learner performance
and determines best supports for continued learner growth.
Assessment Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

-Formative: Students will participate in a plickers quiz to -This will allow students to be engaged
demonstrate their understanding of mean, median, range, in a semi-competitive activity that
population, sample, and dot plot. assesses their knowledge and
understanding of what was taught that
day. This will help shape instruction in
future lessons in case students need
 more review, or can advance more
quickly than anticipated.

Instructional Materials and Resources - Stays current in content knowledge and expands expertise in
reviewing instructional materials from the perspectives of both the discipline and individual learner
needs.
Materials, Resources, and / or Technology Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

Materials: This information is relevant to their

-Handout with dot plot and numbers real life. It is a good introduction to
-Pencils statistics, graphs, and interpreting
-Tape graphs and statistics, as well as finding
-Graphic organizers with definitions means, medians, and ranges.
-Highlighters
-Expo markers

Resources:
5 Numbers About Stem Diversity
STEM Education Trends

Technology:
Plickers
Slideshow

Instructional Methods: Selects, creates, and sequences learning experiences and performance tasks
by using a variety of instructional approaches, strategies, and technologies that make learning
accessible to all learners and support learners in reaching rigorous curriculum goals.
Teaching and Learning Sequence

Room Setup:
-Desks/tables will be set up to allow for groups of 3-6 This will get students interested in the
people depending on class size. content. It is an introduction to vague
-Day’s objectives written on board before students arrive statistics, but also ties in the real world
-Table for Finding Mean/Median/Mode of STEM careers of diversity in various careers.
written on the board before students arrive

Hook: 5 Numbers (5 min)

-The teacher will begin with the slideshow
-While the second slide (first non-title slide) is up the teacher
will ensure that students know what STEM is. After discussion,
the teacher will switch to the third slide to ensure each student
understands the meaning of STEM.
-The teacher will explain these statistics are from 2015.
-The teacher will click through the slideshow showing the 5
important statistics about diversity in STEM careers. The teacher
will pause before bringing up what each number means and
allow time for the students to think about what this means. The
teacher will state each number and explanation aloud. Students will become familiar with the
-After the last slide the teacher will ask if students have any necessary vocabulary. The need for
questions or wish to comment on what they just saw. them to restate the definition will form
-The teacher will then explain that today the students will look at
a deeper understanding of its meaning
and application.
statistics about different genders and races in STEM fields.

Definitions/Graphic Organizer (10 minutes):

-The teacher will bring up slides 9 and 10.
-The teacher will pass out the graphic organizers and explain that Students will get the opportunity to see
students are to write “their own” definition of the word they’re data represented in various ways, as
given, as well as give/draw an example. They are allowed to ask well as to see more information about
peers and faculty for help. diversity in the STEM fields.
-This would be a great opportunity to ask a student to hand
out This gives the opportunity for students
papers if it is recognized the student needs to get up and to play it safe, or to share their
move
understanding.
-Teacher will give a two and one minute warning
-One student will share out for each definition. They should share
either their definition or the given definition, and the example.

Exploring Graphs (3 Minutes)

-Teacher will pull up the nsf.org graphs (linked to slide 11 as Students will be shown the process
well) and discuss what they say and mean. Talk about the step-by-step to find the mean, median,
different types of graphs as well as the trends. and range of a small set of data. By
doing this class-wide with the
Finding Mean/Median/Range (17 minutes) opportunity to provide answers,
-The teacher will return to slide 12 on the slideshow students may feel less pressured and
-The teacher will explain that we will as a class find the mean, will have their peers to support them.
median, and range of percentage of female Social
Scientists/Psychologists from 1993 to 2010.
-Before clicking, the teacher will ask how we find the mean.
-Click one: total of all the numbers. Teacher will ask what’s
next?
- Click two: Teacher will ask how many to divide by
- Click three: reveals “8” to be the right answer
- Click four: shows mean. Teacher should discuss rounding
-Slide 13: Finding range
-Before clicking teacher asks how to find the range
- Click one: highlights the highest and lowest value
- Click two: shows their subtraction
-Click three: shows the range
-Slide 14: Finding median
-Before clicking the teacher explains it’s easier to find the median
when the data is arranged numerically
- Click one: rearranges data.
- Click two: teacher asks how to find the median
- Click three: teacher asks how many pieces of data are in the set
Students will get to practice applying
- Click four: Teacher asks where the middle of the set is
the skills they have just
- Click five: shows that the middle is actually between two
learned/reviewed. They will have peer
points
support, making it more interactive and
-Clicks six and seven: show math behind finding the median supported than if they were to do this
- Click eight: shows the final median on their own. It will start them
discusses distribution and spreads of
-Teacher then switches to slide 15 and hands out the sheet with graphs and data sets without them
the graph and data on a table, and tells students to break up into truly knowing.
pairs or groups of three, depending on how many students are
present. Each group will pick two careers and find the mean,
median, and range. Students will have highlighters available to
them to highlight across their careers in order to make the data
easier to see. They will discuss how each looks on the graph and
how their numbers are different.

The class will come back together and each group will share their
findings and discuss. Students will plot their answers on the table
the teacher put on the board. Teacher will fill in any missing
Students get to participate and
careers. Teacher can switch to slide 16 to show the mean,
demonstrate their
median, and range for each career. Class will discuss what these
knowledge/understanding in a semi-
numbers mean and how they vary for each career. competitive manner. The multiple
choice questions support them as they
Assessment: Plickers (10 min): are still becoming familiar with the
-Teacher will hand out plicker cards and scratch paper content. This will allow the teacher to
-Students will participate in a formative assessment via the understand student knowledge at the
plickers website end of this lesson. It can be used to
inform the instruction of future lessons
as the teacher will better know the
understanding of students on this
content.

Meeting students’ needs (differentiation, extensions, Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

modifications, accommodations)

Students will be given highlighters to better see their row

of data within the table.

Field Courses Only – Post lesson

Reflection

I believe the implementation of the lesson went fairly well. We did have to make
some adjustments for time and the situation. This did come off as unclear
instructions or miscommunication at some points. For example, when trying to
wrap up the students finding the mean, median, and range for the different careers,
we first asked if anyone was working on three specific careers, but then instead
decided to assign a career to each of the tables to try and keep things moving and
have everyone involved. What caught me off guard the most was a student who said
“that’s racist” when I brought up a statistic about white and Asian males in STEM
careers. I did not think I may need to be prepared to talk about how we can discuss
issues regarding race without being racist. Now I know that is something I may need
to be prepared for in teaching this lesson again. I also was not satisfied with how the
screen sharing went. It is not something I have done before, but we used to try for
the presenter's notes on the powerpoint. I think it would have been better
Reflecting on my own performance and the comments received from the observers,
I overall feel good about how it went. I say this recognizing that I am still a pre-
service teacher with limited experience in front of the classroom. I was glad to see a
few comments saying that I handled the race comment well. I also realized that I
should have made more of an effort to walk around and interact with students. I was
taking a position further back watching over everyone, but several people
commented on how well Dan was going around and talking with students. I think I
chose to stay back when he took the lead doing that so they did not feel pressured or
overwhelmed with educators looking over their shoulder, but it is still something I
will remember to work on. I was also disappointed that we did not get to talk about
what the numbers we had them calculate really meant. I felt that it was pressed for
time but perhaps with restructuring the lesson it could have been ensured this was
addressed and discussed. It felt difficult to be fully prepared for how things may go
given we were unsure exactly how long we would have due to the arrival of the
students.

Again, I think the lesson went fairly well overall. If using this lesson again, I would
make sure that the plan is more thorough in terms of addressing issues, questions,
and why things are relevant. I would not use split screen, and would make sure to
walk around and check on students more.

Teaching Standards and Rationale