Magnets

I will read the objective to the students: "Today you will be able to use the phrases "I notice that..." and "I predict that..." to make observations and predictions." Because the objectives contain new language, we will also go over new vocabulary during this time, and I will use one of the magnets the students will be use to demonstrate what we will be learning. I will also write the vocabulary on chart paper.

I will then explain to the class that we are going to be studying magnets the way scientists do, with a process called Scientific Inquiry, but that before we can begin, we need to learn what that process is. I will write the term "Scientific Inquiry" on paper projected over the document camera, and go through the Concept Attainment strategy. Afterwards, I can add this term to the vocabulary list on the white board.

At the end of the Concept Attainment activity, students will be given the definition of Scientific Inquiry, "an organized way to do science experiments which includes the following steps: making predictions, testing those predictions, making observations, collecting and organizing data, and deciding if your prediction was right." This will be read aloud, and the graphic organizer of the steps to Inquiry will be projected with the document camera. I will go over the steps and let them know that we will start with the first step. Next I will pass out one object to each student, and in their groups they will work together to make predictions.

Students will make predictions by placing their items into two piles on the table ("will stick" and "will not stick"). I will ask students to use the sentence frames listed above in the Objectives section as they work. Then I will pass out magnets to each group and they will test their predictions by having each student try and stick their item to the magnet. They will observe what happens. I will be explicit in calling each step of the activity by its scientific name. If there is extra time, students may test other objects from their desks.

AT the end, we will look again at the Scientific Inquiry graphic organizer and discuss the steps that the students just completed, then we will review the language and content objectives and decide as a class whether or not we have met them.