CLASSROOM LESSON 2:
Using Variable Technology
BOOK TITLE: The Never War
AUTHOR: D.J. MacHale
LESSON PLAN AUTHOR : Kathleen Robbins
GRADE
LEVEL: 6-8
LESSON DURATION: 60 Minutes
OBJECTIVE
- Students will develop and practice the ability to think critically about situations.
MATERIALS
- Variable Technology Sheet
MOTIVATION
- Put up two math equations on the board. (92 X 70 & 53 X 51)
- Have students figure out the equations.
- Next go back to the first equation and change one number in the equation slightly. (93 X 70)
- Before having students calculate, ask if they think the product will be the same, why or why not? (No, because one of the numbers changed therefore the product will be different)
- Have students calculate and check answer. Repeat with second equation.
- Explain how in an equation, if any of the variables are changed the outcome will also change
NEW INFORMATION
- Discuss the Variable Technology used in the story in the Third Earth library (pages 206-220)
- It gave them the ability to change one event or variable in the equation of history and the computer would cross-reference billions of other factors and re-calculate a new scenario just like a Math equation.
- In the story, the computer calculated what would happen if the Hindenburg did not crash in 1937 – the results were horrifying and changed Earth forever.
MODELING/GUIDED PRACTICE
- Discuss how this can be applied to other scenarios as well. It can be applied to small situations and large ones. Some examples are as follows:
- What would happen if you didn’t ever brush your teeth again?
- What would happen if your siblings didn’t exist or were a different sex?
- What if you went to a different school?
- What if you lived in a different country?
- What if you spoke a different language?
- What if the Titanic would not have sunk?
- What if 9/11 would not have happened?
- Have students explore several different factors that might change and determine how it would effect themselves and the environment around them.
- Apply this variable technology concept to a couple scenarios. Use a transparency of the Variable Technology Sheet to model how to use this sheet.
- Allow students to be a part of this process. Begin modeling answers but then allow students to come up to the overhead and become a part of practicing this process.
PRACTICE/APPLICATION
- Have students apply the Variable Technology concept to a situation in their own life or a disaster or event in history using the Variable Technology Sheet.
- Examples for students could be any of the examples listed above, scenarios students come up with on their own, or any of the following:
- What if I was 10 feet tall?
- What if I could fly?
- What if I had all the knowledge about a certain topic?
- What if Martin Luther King had never fought for equal rights
- Stress the importance of the section that includes making a personal connection to the scenario. This is when they decide how the change would effect themselves and the environment around them.
CLOSURE
- Discuss the importance of critically analyzing events and how they can change and effect the future. Students should see that every single factor, no matter how small, could create a whole new outcome if it is changed.
EVALUATION
- Students will be evaluated for completion of all sections on the Variable Technology Sheet and also depth, thought, and critical analysis that is put into writing.
NCSS STANDARD 8
Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of relationships among science, technology, and society.
NCTE STANDARD 3
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
|
