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Tools and Guidelines for Lesson Development

These guidelines have grown over the years from our experience working with teachers on lesson development and classroom testing.

Design and Construction

  • Send us URL's of your completed lessons. We'd like to see what you're up to!
  • Lesson plan template Use a summary page to provide information on subject, age/grade level, required background, materials, and time needed. See our template for a sample layout.
  • Start with several ideas for topics that fit with your curricular requirements. Then search the Web and see what science data, processing tools/services, and expert help are available.
  • Be flexible. Search engines can be very helpful in finding what you want, but not everything imaginable is on the Internet yet! Therefore:
  • Be an opportunist. Be ready to take advantage of a great tool or resource that you find while looking for something else.
  • Engage students in an investigation:
    • Identifying a question
    • Forming a hypothesis
    • Planning and carrying out a test of a hypothesis
    • Obtaining remote-sensing data, both numerical and image data
    • Graphing data, interpreting and deriving data values from images
    • Sharing information in verbal accounts, images, or graphs
    • Drawing conclusions based on the way data support a hypothesis
    • Presenting and discussing alternative explanations with other students
  • Use the unique resources and capabilities of the Web and Internet:
    • access multiple data sets at remote locations
    • query experts using email
    • run programs offered on research Web sites
    • collaborate with others across the nation or the world
  • Use National and State Science Education Standards. Showing how the lesson aligns with grade-appropriate standards, using pages like these for grades K-4, grades 5-8 and grades 9-12, helps define its function in a larger curriculum informed by scientific inquiry.
  • Keep it simple at the start. There's always room to expand
  • Include author contact information, preferably via email

Tools and Help

Have a science question? Visit our Ask an Expert page. Email questions or comments about SEGway resources to: outreach@ssl.berkeley.edu
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