Lesson Plan Template

Title of activity: Its the Heat of the Moment

Concept covered in activity: Specific Heat
Grade level or other prerequisites for activity: High School students, only prerequisite would be
to have notes from lecture on specific heat.
Standard:
Colorado Standard: 1.5.b
Learning objectives:
When presented with a lab, students will be able to accurately measure the specific heat
of sand, water and air. Collected data will be interpreted with 100% accuracy.
When data about specific heat has been gathered and analyzed. Students will be able to
discuss how specific heat is the driving force for climate with 90% accuracy.
Materials:
Balloons

Heat lamps

Ring stands

Clamps

Candle

Trays

Sand

Water

Matches

Thermometer

Specific Heat Lab Packets

Safety Goggles

Instructional planning:
Make sure that I have enough Lab packets printed prior to the day of the lab. Also check
to make sure that I have enough of the other supplies and that the heat lamps are all properly
working. Buy more sand if needed at Lowes. Insure that trays are not damaged and are still able
to hold water and sand. No major use of technology is needed for this lab so no worries about
technology failures. Warn students about brief outside demonstration, they need to dress
appropriately.

Balgopal_5E lesson plan template

Procedure/activity
Student Activity
Engage

Observe demonstration.
Answer the warm up question in
science note book.
Warm up question: Explain why the
water balloon did not pop but the air
balloon did. Focus on the whole
process. What do you know about heat
and specific heat?

Teacher Activity
Show demonstration that a balloon
with air will pop when held to a
flame, but a water balloon will not.
Handout quizzes during video.
Cover proficiency scores from quiz
last lesson.
Introduce lab briefly. Demo set up
and cover lab safety.

Watch example YouTube video over

energy transfers. Watch other videos on Assign jobs: ones get the lamps,
own time, summarize videos and hand twos get containers of sand and
water, threes get thermometers.
in for extra credit on quiz.
Explore

Work through the lab. Start collecting

data and building graphs.

Facilitate discussion;
Have students explain what they are
seeing in their data.
What trends do they start to see in
the data?
Why do they think water has a high
specific heat?

Explain

Interpret their data after creating graph

of their data.

Lead discussion with small groups

as students finish up

Discussion towards end of class with

small groups.

What conclusions can be made

from their data?
Why do they think the data shows
what it does?

Balgopal_5E lesson plan template

Predict what the specific heat of

mud would look like? What would
affect the specific heat of the mud?
Elaborate

What is specific heat the driving force

for in our everyday lives?
Answer climate and weather

Evaluate

Get student to take what they have

learned and try to push it to the next
level. Real critical thinking should
be taking place on their part here.

Have students discuss in small groups

how this process effects the climate.

Pass out exit tickets for answers.

Complete exit ticket and hand in

completed lab reports. Finish report for
homework if needed.

Wrap up the lesson Collect work

from students. Answer any last
minute questions.
Address the important take home
message which is that land heats up
faster than water and that this is the
major driving force for climate and
weather.

Assessment
Formative (informal and/or formal)
Informal:
Talking to students during work time. Small group discussions
Formal:
Lab packet
Summative
Ticket to leave (see below)
Rubrics for grading:
N/A
Anticipated misconceptions/alternative conceptions

Balgopal_5E lesson plan template

I think students will have a hard time understanding why the water balloon does not pop.
I do not think they are going to understand that the water in absorbing all the energy from the
flame thus protecting the balloon from being damaged. I think they are going to assume that I did
something to the balloon that is preventing it from popping. To prevent this I will have students
pick the balloons for me out of the bag.
Accommodations/modifications
If students need to for the short answers on the lab they could simply draw a picture
explaining the answer versus writing out the full answer. If needed students could use preregenerated data versus collecting their own during the lab.
If students need to be pushed harder I would challenge them to predict what the graph of
a mixture of water and sand would look like and to justify in detail their answers. They could
even run a small brief experiment.

Balgopal_5E lesson plan template

ket Tic Exit

Based on your observations and data today how do you

think specific heat relates to climate? (Think Hawaii vs.
Colorado)

Balgopal_5E lesson plan template