2005 Merit Winner
Lesson Plan
Sandra Jan Geisbush
Garner Middle School
San Antonio, Texas
Feelin' Hot! Hot! Hot!
Danger of Hyperthermia Under the Hot Texas Sun
Sandra Jan Geisbush teaches middle school science
and mentors kindergarten through 12th grade teachers of science,
math, and technology in Texas. Ms. Geisbush is a national board
certified teacher and a national recipient of the prestigious
Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching. She
returned to San Antonio after spending the 2004-05 academic year as
an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow with the National
Science Foundation, contributing to national educational
policy-making in the nation's capitol.
After spending nearly two months in summer 2004
engaging in Holocene climate research and glaciology in the high
Arctic regions of Svalbard, Norway (78°80 N), Ms. Geisbush followed
her heart back to the classroom and currently teaches at San
Antonio's Garner Middle School in the North East Independent School
District in Region 20. The transition from the freezing cold Arctic
climate to the hot San Antonio late summer heat inspired her to
develop this lesson plan.
In 2000, Ms. Geisbush received a first-place TMA
Excellence in Education Award with a unit she developed to teach
students about the spine and the prevention of spinal cord
injuries.
Teaching Rationale and Motivation
With the current emphasis on high-stakes testing,
it is important to remember that there are more critical learning
objectives than merely addressing "adequate yearly progress"
mandates. Science and health classes sometimes are compromised so
schools can allot more time to remediation in reading and math. It
takes awareness, courage, and commitment to address those "just in
time" issues that today's middle school students face. Time for
remediation should not be recovered at the expense of quality,
experiential learning in science. The development of integrated,
innovative, standards-based curricula created around relevant,
real-life student interests inspires students to achieve in all
subject areas. In fact, the National Research Council and the
Institute of Medicine's report, Fostering High School Students'
Motivation to Learn (National Academies Press, 2004), emphasizes
the importance of the following features of effective
instruction:
- Personal relevance;
- Access to native language;
- Authentic, open-ended problems with involvement in
discussions;
- Peer collaboration;
- Rigorous and challenging instruction with frequent assessment
and feedback; and
- Access to technology.
Successful learning can be achieved by
strengthening reading and math skills through technology-rich,
authentic, research-based science activities. Students are
challenged to "learn how to learn," collaborating to seek real
solutions to real-world problems. By tapping into students' innate
curiosity, teachers help students develop critical, analytical
thinking skills as they explore appropriate learning resources and
strategies. In developing "Feelin' Hot! Hot! Hot!" I focused on
facilitating effective, integrated, and differentiated instruction
to best serve the needs of my diverse learners.
Educational Objectives
Richly integrated, standards-based instruction
addresses an abundance of cross-curricular objectives and goals.
These include, but are not limited to, the following middle school
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.
Science
Unifying Concepts Plus 1A: Demonstrate safe field
and lab practices.
- 2A-E: Use scientific inquiry to plan and implement
investigative procedures.
- 3A-E: Use critical thinking and scientific problem solving to
make informed decisions.
- 4A-B: Use a variety of tools and methods to conduct science
inquiry.
- 6.5A: Demonstrate an understanding of systems.
- 10A-C: Know the relationship between structure and function
in living systems.
- 12A-C: Understand that the responses of organisms
are caused by external or internal stimuli.
Math
- 8A-B: Solve application problems involving time and
temperature. Select and use appropriate units, tools, and
formulas to solve problems involving time and temperature.
- 10A-D: Draw and compare graphical representations of data.
Use statistics to display and compare data. Solve problems by
collecting, organizing, displaying, and interpreting data.
- 11A-D: Identify and apply math to everyday experiences. Use
effective problem-solving models. Develop appropriate
problem-solving strategies. Use tools, technology, and techniques
to solve problems.
- 12A: Communicate mathematically.
- 13B: Validate conclusions using mathematical
properties, relationships, and models.
Reading
- 10A-J: Use own knowledge/experience to comprehend. Describe
mental images that text descriptions evoke. Use a text's
progression of ideas such as cause and effect or chronology to
locate and recall information. Determine a text's main idea;
paraphrase; summarize; and draw inferences, conclusions, and
generalizations. Distinguish fact and opinion.
- 13A-E: Use reading, inquiry, and research to form and revise
questions for investigation. Interpret and use
graphic sources of information. Summarize and use
information from multiple sources.
Health
- 2A: Relate body structure and function with health.
- 4B: Use critical thinking and research to evaluate health
information.
- 5A: Engage in behaviors that reduce health risks throughout
the lifespan.
- 5G: Demonstrate strategies for the prevention of and response
to deliberate and accidental injuries.
The Problem and Learning Objectives
Texas news stations frequently report that yet
another child has died because the child was left unattended in a
car. Middle school students are increasingly called upon to
supervise siblings and are beginning to be hired as babysitters. An
awareness of this critical situation is essential for middle school
children and for all individuals who work with children, pets, and
the elderly. This activity provides the students with first-hand
evidence regarding the dangers of being left unattended in a car
and provides practical "just in time" information that might
prevent a tragedy from occurring. Students collaborate as they
learn to use data loggers effectively, create graphs of their data
for interpretation and analysis, and use the data collected to
increase public awareness of a serious safety hazard.
Overview of Procedures
Preunit Motivation
First I prepare a class bulletin board featuring a
variety of authentic cases collected from newspapers, periodicals,
and Internet resources involving incidents where children, the
elderly, and pets have been left unattended in vehicles. Bulletin
board items frequently become the focus of lessons as student
interest is sparked. Students begin to ask questions, tell their
personal stories, relate incidents they have heard about, provide
news clippings, and ultimately seek answers. At this point they are
"hooked," so when I suggest we take the next two weeks or so to
explore, they are excited and ready to begin. Students experience
the satisfaction of having input into what they study and the joy
of being able to chart their own course with only a little guidance
from me. This encourages self-directed and metacognitive learning,
and these learner traits always lead to success.
Day One
Questions always pop up such as, "How long does it
take for a vehicle to get hot enough to become a danger?" "Knowing
this will happen, why are children and pets left unattended in
cars?" If the students are hesitant in coming up with questions, I
might pose some leading questions: "How does it feel when you get
into a car on a hot day?" "How many degrees difference do you think
the interior of the car is compared with the outside environmental
temperature?" "How fast do you think the temperature rises in a
closed car?" "How high do you think the temperature can get?" "How
long do you think a small child or pet could survive in a closed
car?"
Generally, after my first leading question or two,
the students avidly generate their own. I record their questions,
responses, and any ideas that are generated. Starting a class KWHL
chart follows. Students consider what they already know (K)
relative to temperature - how heat affects the body; what body
systems are involved; and whether any relationship between age,
body size, and heat tolerance might occur. Next, students generate
a list of questions about what they want (W) to know. This is where
the fun comes in, and I am always impressed with the level of
interest and the commitment to the lesson that naturally flows
forth. After this, students brainstorm how (H) they can best get
these questions answered. They come up with research strategies,
identify various tools and technologies they hope to use, and make
plans to identify and interview experts. Later in the unit,
students complete the KWHL chart as they identify specific process
skills they have developed and content knowledge they have learned
(L) through their efforts.
Days Two Through Four
On day two, students use sticky notes to post
individual guesses about how long they think one might survive in
an enclosed vehicle if the environmental temperature were 32
degrees C (90 degrees F). They compare these guesses with their
answers to the same question after the research activity is
completed.
Over the next three sessions, students continue
their quest, working in groups as they brainstorm how to identify
situations where variations and extremes of temperatures have
potential to cause harm. They research current and archived news
articles to determine the extent of the problem.
The students are challenged to collect their own
data, which they will use to provide facts and recommendations in a
multimedia public awareness campaign they develop and provide in
English and Spanish to families, area daycare centers, pet
facilities, shopping centers, and babysitters. Each group selects a
venue for disseminating information. These might include posters,
brochures, and multimedia presentations that incorporate the
student-collected data and emphasize the life lessons learned.
Days Five and Six
Students deploy data loggers in various situations
so they can learn how to use them and how they work. Hobo Data
Loggers are ideal for this kind of activity because they are easily
accessible through loan programs and reasonable to purchase. Our
students use the Hobos as well as other calculator-based lab (CBL)
data loggers. As some student groups explore the capabilities of
the HOBO and CBL data loggers in center activities, others
investigate the normal mean internal body temperature. They
research the mean internal temperature at which the human body
begins to experience difficulty functioning. They speculate at what
point serious injury and/or death are imminent.
Through research and interviews with medical
personnel in person and online, students begin to construct their
understanding of thermoregulation. Through a systems approach,
students investigate how heat affects the body, how quickly the
temperature can rise, and what is required for the body to cool
itself to safe temperatures. This has broad implications because
many of the students play summer league sports and many live in
homes without air conditioning, often with young children and
elderly family members. Students share and compare the findings
they have recorded in their Science Learning Logs.
Day Seven
Students begin to develop their plans for
collecting specific data. They record data throughout the day,
collaborating with students from other classes to collect a broad
range of data across long time intervals. Students work in small
groups to reach consensus as they determine the data needed and
prepare to collect actual data. In addition to the data loggers,
they use standard thermometers, maximum/minimum thermometers, and
sling psychrometers (to measure relative humidity) and compare data
from each source.
Student-generated research plans must cover a
reasonable length of time and include a reasonable number of data
points under various conditions. Collaborating to define and focus
group plans is an important part of the inquiry process. Students
are guided to look at time intervals, the temperature of the car
interior over time, and the environmental temperature over time to
determine whether or not there is a relationship between interior
vehicle temperature and environmental temperature. From this data
they should be able to revise their earlier predictions and more
accurately predict the interior vehicle temperature based on the
environmental temperature.
Days Eight and Nine
- This activity requires the environmental temperature to
reach at least 26 degrees C (80 degrees F).
Students collect their data. They should be able to
determine whether or not the interior vehicle temperature will rise
and cool at rates equal to or proportional to environmental
temperature, or if there is little or no correlation between
environmental temperature and interior vehicle temperature and
therefore little means for predicting. Comparisons also are made
for cars parked in the shade and those in direct sunlight. Students
should observe a relationship between temperature and relative
humidity that will prompt questions to be further explored. That is
the nature of inquiry-based learning!
Using the information provided by the HOBO and
CBL data loggers, students are able to graphically display their
data on graphing calculators and computers. Students ultimately
discover that cars left in the sun will likely heat up more than 45
degrees F within one hour. Students also may conclude that vehicles
left parked in the shade on a hot day are not significantly safer
than those parked in the sun, a situation that comes as a surprise.
Even vehicles parked in the shade on a sunny day rapidly reach
dangerous temperatures. Students quickly understand that in many
cases, death may occur in less than an hour and is likely to occur
within less than two hours when a child is left unattended in a car
on a sunny day.
Safety considerations must be thoroughly addressed,
and students must be appropriately supervised while they are
placing and recovering instruments in previously identified
vehicles. Permission must be obtained to use faculty vehicles
parked in prearranged locations chosen to address the variables.
Data collected in vehicles of similar and different sizes is
compared, as well as that collected in cars with and without window
tint. Students identify independent and dependent variables in each
situation to reinforce research process skills.
Day Ten
Students have the opportunity to engage in
scientific discourse, discussing their findings. They have a
variety of options from which to choose for presenting their
findings. Though this is the last official day for the data
collection, analysis, and interpretation, students will continue
working on their multimedia projects, preparing to present them to
the class and display them in public locations throughout the
community upon completion.
Assessment
Disseminating this knowledge becomes an integral
part of a campaign to address the importance of safety when it
comes to children, pets, and the elderly in our care. There is
considerable potential for authentic, embedded, formative
assessment throughout this process, including the questions
generated to ask the experts, what is done with this information,
entries into students' individual Science Learning Logs, the
demonstration of skill and understanding of the data loggers, and
the graphic organizers and graphs generated with analysis and
interpretation. With each activity, students and teachers
collaborate to develop rubrics to be used to guide the students to
success. The finished multimedia presentations, brochures, and
posters provide an authentic summative assessment of the content
that has been understood and applied.
The project demonstrates intellectual merit in that
it provides students with rich opportunities to apply analytical,
higher-order thinking skills as they plan, implement their
activities, and share their research findings. Broader impact is
addressed through the dissemination of the learned information,
which serves an identified need within our diverse community.