What do I have? What is missing? How am I supporting diverse student needs? Are their multiple access points for engagement?

What resources in my curriculum are useful here? What is missing from my curriculum resources? Where can I find resources to support the curriculum I already have? Do I need to develop this lesson using resources outside of my curriculum guide? Where can I make connections to other subject areas and find the resources to do so?

What is my plan for instructional delivery? How am I choosing my instructional method? How do these resources fit into this plan?

Read the NOAA article about hurricanes.

Next, inform the students of the dangers of natural disasters to life when structures are not able to withstand them.

Then watch the video outlining an example structure made of spaghetti noodles and marshmallows.

Students want to create a structure that will win the three available contests and be strong against the hurricane. 

Students will review the ways to build/ various materials article and conduct research of their own.

What are the objectives of my lesson? What do students need before coming into this lesson? What is the relationship between relevance and rigor in this lesson?

Students will use the ways to build/ various materials article as a starting point for their research. They will be researching positive building practices, materials, and natural disasters. Their research will help them choose their preferred materials as a group, as well as come up with individual sketches to portray their thinking prior to talking about the design with their groups.

Students will work independently to sketch their preferred design on their papers, then collaborate with their peers to decide which materials they will be using. 

They will then begin building their structure as a group. 

Students will create a structure as a group to enter one or all of the three contests available. They may choose a combination of materials or just one, but they must enter one of the contests.

Students will present their structures to the class and then their structures will be judged in the contests they have chosen.

Students will observe other structures in the contests as they are being judged and write down what they liked about those structures. They will also come up with ways their structure could have been made better. After they have all been judged based on their structure and selected contest, they will be able to go back and revise their designs, entering them into contests for a second round of judging.

The gaps in the resources that I have collected and categorized are highlighted in yellow.

The example video provided a good reference/ jumping point for possible structure designs.  Missing from the video is the use of other materials aside from marshmallows and spaghetti noodles.

The NOAA article provides the history and background knowledge necessary when discussing hurricanes. While this text is a great resource, it does not use very kid-friendly language and needs to be skimmed with the teacher rather than read verbatim. 

The various materials article outlines how the various materials may be used to create a solid structure; however it provides too many different ways to build a tower and does not focus on the integral support system within the structure or on the fact that the structure will have to pass tests/ enter contests.

I think the Observations worksheet is a great resource because I created it; however, I would go back and add more space for student reflection as the students are working instead of focusing on before and after.

The teacher will be knowledgeable and conduct her own research on natural disasters and building strategies and materials prior to this lesson.

Yes. I will have conducted my own research. I may even model the entire process by researching and projecting it on the board for the students to see, creating my own structure to enter into the contests. This would have to be done with a very specific group of students who could handle it, though.

The students can easily get off task if I am not circulating and prompting them with questions. I need to be a resource. 

I will act as a resource and use good classroom management strategies like Dojo.

Yes. The materials necessary are mostly easy to find. 

Yes- if the students are unable to handle this activity in groups, I will model the entire process for them and we will build one structure as a collective group, testing it against all three contests.