Context: This unit was created for CI 4000, Curriculum and Instruction. It was created under the advisement of Dr. Beth Marks.
This unit is going to be taught in Mrs. Harrelson’s third grade classroom at Davenport Elementary.

Impact:

The skeletal activity 3: Bone Makeup”
•Students will make a clay model and label the different parts.

Students will be able to recognize that hollow bones have more strength.
Activity 4: “Hollow Strength”
•Students will see that hollow bones are stronger by rolling up a sheet of paper so that there is a 1 inch hollow part. They will then place a paper plate over top and add weight (wooden blocks). They will record how much weight the plate had on it before it collapses. The students will then tightly roll up three sheets of paper so that there is no hollow part. They will put the same paper plate on top and add weight, it will then collapse. They will observe that the hollow sheet of paper was stronger then the three sheets that were tightly rolled up.

Students will comprehend that depletion of calcium in bones causes them to become weak.
Activity 5: “Deboning”
•Students will see that calcium is important to keep their bones strong. By observing chicken legs that have been soaked in vinegar and chicken legs that have not been soaked in vinegar, they will see that the bones soaked in vinegar are weaker and more flexible then the bones that were not. The teacher will then tell them that vinegar is an acid that dissolves calcium.

Students will be able to describe what the backbone is made up of.
Activity 6: “Get a Backbone”
•Students will assemble a makeshift backbone by tying two large, two medium, and two small thread spools together. They will also trace and cut out the bottom of a large and a medium spool twice and trace the bottom of a small spool once. These cardboard pieces will illustrate the cartilage that acts as a shock absorber in the backbone. The small spools will be the cervical membrane, the medium will show the thoracic membrane, and the large spools will represent the lumbar membrane. The students will also understand that because the spools are not fixed together it allows us to bent and stretch slightly.

Language Arts Standard 2.02
Interact with the text before, during, and after reading, listening, or viewing by:
-setting a purpose.
-previewing the text.
-making predictions.
-asking questions.
-locating information for specific purposes.
-making connections.
-using story structure and text organization to comprehend.
•Students will look at an x-ray of a broken bone and write a story about how it got that way.

Alignment: This assignment met the following North Carolina Standards for Elementary School teachers.

Standard 3: Elementary teachers have broad knowledge and understanding of the major concepts in science:

Indicator 1: Teachers have knowledge of basic life science concepts including:

Health and human growth

I met this indicator by your body may change as you get older.

Indicator 2: Teachers have knowledge of basic physical science concepts including:

Factors affecting chemical reactions

I met this indicator by having the students observe and write down what happened to bones that were soaked in vinegar and why, what they observed happened.

Standard 7: Elementary teachers use developmentally appropriate strategies to design and deliver instruction in all areas of the elementary curriculum.

•Indicator 1: Teachers develop and implement the pacing and alignment of curriculum that is consistent with the NCSCOS, LEA, standards and pacing guides, and national standards in all subject areas.
This indicator is met by using lesson plans that have already been implemented by other educators and meet health, science, and writing standards

•Indicator 2: Teachers understand and use an interdisciplinary approach to teaching by connecting and integrating languages arts, mathematics, science, social studies, healthful living, and arts concepts and processes, with appropriate technologies to enhance their teaching.
This indicator is met by integrating writing with healthful living and science. By having the students look at an x-ray of a broken bone and write a story about how it got that way.

•Indicator 3: Teachers promote new learning by using students’ prior knowledge, misconceptions, and interests when designing lessons.
This indicator is met using the “Hollow Bone” activity. Most students would think that the hollow bone would be weaker. The activity will illustrate that hollow bones are strong.

•Indicator 6: Teachers modify instruction and assessments to meet the needs of individual students.
This indicator is met by observing each student interacts with their fellow classmates and how they perform during a variety of activities.

•Indicator 7: Teachers develop and use a variety of formal and alternative assessment strategies as an integral part of instruction and learning appropriate for assessing individual, peer, team, and collaborative skills.
This indicator is met by having the students do one or two worksheets to go along with a lecture and by their end products of the various bone activities.

Standard 10: Teachers provide active inquiry experiences in the teaching of science by using various questioning skills and developing science processes skills (predicting, classifying, measuring, inferring, interpreting, and synthesizing)

I met this standard by having the students try to figure out why vinegar make the bone weaker then water did.