Sixth Grade
Overview
Objectives
Required
Materials
Procedures
A sixth grade student will meet with their college mentor utilizing Purdue
University’s technology to learn the functioning of the digital microscope and
DualBoard.
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Given a digital microscope, the student will need adequately and accurately
be able to adjust the lighting, course adjustment knob, and fine adjustment
knob.
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Given a digital microscope, the student will need to be able to identify
specific parts with 100 percent accuracy.

Given a digital microscope the students will need to identify visual
differences between the pond water and school water, with 100 percent
accuracy.

Given a digital microscope, the student will need to be able to adequately and
accurately focus on the objects.
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Microscope (slides, projector, controls for projector)
Water (pond water and school water)
Access to a DualBoard
Word Document with Digital Microscope image and part labels
1. Create two slides one containing a sample of pond water and the other a sample
of drinking water with labels
2. Set up DualBoard for assessment by uploading the attached Word Document to
the screen
3. Introduce the student to the Digital Microscope located in Lilly, the Building of
Life Sciences
4. Show the student all of the different parts of the microscope and explain their
functions
5. Introduce the different samples of water by explaining where each one was
obtained from
6. Have the student select a slide to set up on the microscope for viewing
7. Allow the student to focus the image
8. Let the student observe and report orally what they view on the screen
9. Have the student switch the slides
10. Allow the student to focus on the second slide
11. Let the student observe and report orally what they view on the screen
12. Have the student compare and contrast the two slides by guiding the discussion
with questions such as:
o Was there a difference in the colors?
o Was there a difference in the materials found in the water samples?
13. Conclude the lesson by utilizing the DualBoard as a means of assessment over
the different parts of the microscope and their functions
o Student will draw a line to connect the name of the part of the
microscope to where it is located on the digital image
o Have the student explain the functions as they are creating the line
that connects it to the correct part on the Digital Microscope
Assessment
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
Teaching
Standards
Students can be assessed based on accuracy of labeling the parts of the
microscope and explaining their function
Students can be assessed on their ability to accurately focus the water sample
slides on the screen
 TE.MS.3 2006:
Understand the integrated relationship of technology with other academic fields,
particularly language arts, math, science, and social studies.
 TE.MS.14.A 2006:
Appropriately operate technological devices and systems.
References
https://learningconnection.doe.in.gov/Standards/Standards.aspx?st=&sub=17&gl=1&c=0&stid=0
http://www.indiamart.com/pulse-life-science/digital-lcd-microscopes.html
Mosley, P. H., Liu, Y., Hargrove, S. K., & Doswell, J. T. (2010). A pre-engineering program
using robots to attract underrepresented high school and community college students. Journal
of STEM Education: Innovations and Research, 11(5&6), 44-54. Retrieved from
http://ojs.jstem.org/index.php?journal=JSTEM&page=article&op=view&path[]=1464&path[]=13
28
This article is about integrating a robotics based curriculum in certain schools around the
New York area. The purpose of this program is to interest underrepresented students,
particularly African-Americans in a STEM career, specifically engineering. The article describes
that there is a significant difference in the number of African-American engineering students to
that of the Caucasian population. The schools implementing this and the universities that
support the program believe that integrating more STEM based courses is the best way to
increase these statistics. The course is a hands-on project focused curriculum where students
utilize a type of LEGOs to build robots. Since technology and robotics is a field with a high
demand this is a very beneficial program. The article states that some of the objectives of this
project include, “Improve students’ cognition via concrete hands-on labs and increase the
awareness of the student to pursue a career in STEM disciplines.” Not only is it allowing
students to have hands-on experience but it is also helping prepare students who might not
have considered a STEM major an opportunity to pursue it in college. This article helped
influence our lesson plan by making us realizing that the more technology students are exposed
to the more likely students will pursue a career in that field. Which is great for the at risk youth
College Mentors for Kids caters to.
Swift, T. M., & Watkins, S. E. (2004). An engineering primer for outreach to k-4
education. Journal of STEM Education: Innovations and Research,5(3&4), 67-76. Retrieved from
http://ojs.jstem.org/index.php?journal=JSTEM&page=article&op=view&path[]=1131&path[]=98
6
This article is about how to fix the generally lower performance in Math and Science
compared to other subjects in grades K-12. Due to this low performance changes have been
made in the classroom on how to teach these subjects. Teachers are now gearing their lessons
to a more hands-on approach to show how STEM topics are relevant to their everyday life. This
not only helps students increase their knowledge of STEM topics but it also helps them gain a
better understanding of how they relate directly to their lives. Also, with hands-on learning
techniques students will have a better chance of retaining the information for future use. With
hands on approaches beginning to gain popularity within the classroom, we decided we needed
to incorporate an activity that used this method. We integrated the smart board so students can
not only see the vocab word but also touch it. Which will help them retain the information
better.