KUTZTOWN UNIVERSITY

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

LESSON PLAN FORMAT
Teacher Candidate: Nicole Bowman
Cooperating Teacher: Mr. John Kaszmetskie
Group Size: Whole class
Subject or Topic: Science- Lesson 2

Date: Thursday, November 6th, 2014

Coop. Initials:
Grade Level: Third
Allotted Time: 45 minutes

STANDARD(s):
S3.D.1.2.3: Describe the ways living things benefit from the uses of water resources.
S3.C.1.1.1: Describe matter in terms of its observable properties (e.g., weight, mass, shape,
size, color, texture, state).
I.

Performance Objectives

The third grade student will be able to

Observe the properties of water on different materials.
Discuss water and the properties of water.
Observe and understand surface tension.
II. Instructional Materials

50 clean pennies
2 droppers, per group
2 paper towels, per group
2 cups of water, per group
1 tray, per group
1 cup of salt water, per group
1 cup of soapy water, per group
III. Subject Matter/ Content
Prerequisite skills:
Key vocabulary:
o Water: a liquid earth material
o Earth Material: a substance that makes up or comes from the earth
o Property: a characteristic of a material or an object, something that you can observe such as
color, smell and taste
o Absorbed: when water soaks into another material
o Beads: when water creates small drops on some materials
o Surface tension: the skin-like surface on water (and other liquids) that pulls it together into
the smallest possible area.
o Dome: the shape a drop of water takes when it is on a flat surface. It is like a flattened
hemisphere.
Big idea:
o Making observations about properties of water.
New content:
o Surface tension: the skin-like surface on water (and other liquids) that pulls it together into
the smallest possible area.
o Dome: the shape a drop of water takes when it is on a flat surface. It is like a flattened
hemisphere.
IV. Implementation
A. Introduction
The teacher will ask the students about the observations that have previously made about water
and the properties of water (reminding them of past experiments with tin foil, paper and waxed
paper).
Explain todays experiment, noting that the students will be focusing on a new topic, called
surface tension.

B. Development
Teacher will ask, "How many full drops of water do you think you can fit on a penny? Five
drops, ten drops or more?"
Write responses on the board.
Describe the placing of drops of water onto the pennies:
o place a dry penny on a paper towel
o use a dropper to place drops on the penny, one at a time
o hold the dropper straight up and down and release the drops from about 1 cm
above the penny
Break students up into groups, four to a group.
Give students materials.
Allow students to begin, clarifying that they should be drying off their pennies after each
attempt.
Walk around classroom and observe students, making note on assessment chart, paying
close attention to a general understanding of surface tension through thorough explanations
of observations.
Flick lights and have students return to their seats.
Ask the students what their observations were, recording their answers on the board and
ask, "What shape was the surface of the water on the penny before it spilled?"
Ask for a student volunteer to draw what they observed on the board.
Introduce surface tension by saying, "The curved surface of the water shows us an
interesting property of water. Scientists call this property surface tension. Surface tension
causes water to stick together and try to form a ball."
Explain that the water may have appeared to have a skin, that surface tension is the ability of
a liquid to pull itself together into the smallest possible area, forming a skin-like surface. It
forms a dome like shape.
Propose repeating the penny activity, but this time with soapy water.
Ask, "What will happen if the soapy water is added to a water dome on a penny?"
Describe the soapy procedure:
o Set up as before with a dry penny on a paper towel
o Put 15 drops of plain water on a penny to make a dome.
o While observing the dome from the side, add one drop of soapy water to the dome.
o Count the number of additional drops of soapy water as needed to spill the dome.
Distribute soapy water to stations.
After making more observations, flick lights for students to return to their seats.
Ask, "Does soap affect surface tension? How do you know?"
After some discussion, and making note of their results on the board, explain that now they
will test it with salt water.
Distribute salt water to stations.
Use the same procedures for observing the salt water.
After a few minutes of observations, have students return to their seats.
C. Closure
Ask students the following questions to check for understanding:
o What shape does water make on a flat surface?
o Why does water form a dome on flat surfaces?
o How did you change the surface tension of plain water?
Restate the objective of the lesson.
D. Accommodations / Differentiation
Teacher will walk around the classroom, constantly monitoring groups.
Teacher will purposefully group students, to create a mix of high and lower students.
When students have finished before others, allow the students to continue the experiment and try
to make as many observations as they can.

E. Assessment/Evaluation plan
1. Formative:
a. Teacher observation checklist
2. Summative
V. Reflective Response
A. Report of Students Performance in Terms of States Objectives

B. Personal Reflection
1.
2.
3.

How did the lesson go?

What did I do well?
What could I have done differently?

VI. Resources
Investigation 1: Water Observations. (2007). In FOSS Science resources: Grade 3(California ed.). Nashua, NH:
Delta Education.