MYP unit planner
Unit title
Food and Cooking
Teacher(s)
Sapp, Woods, Roberts
Subject and grade level
Level 3, 8th grade physical science
Time frame and duration
7 weeks
Stage 1: Integrate significant concept, area of interaction and unit
question
Area of interaction focus
Significant concept(s)
Which area of interaction will be our focus?
Why have we chosen this?
What are the big ideas? What do we want our
students to retain for years into the future?
Health and Social Education
1. Matter can neither be created nor
destroyed but can be changed from one form
to another.
2. Matter can be described by its physical and
chemical properties.
3. Chemical elements possess their own
characteristic properties, (density, boiling
point, melting point, solubility, etc.) and
these properties are used to distinguish one
element from another.
4. Compounds are made of two or more kinds
of atoms held together chemically (bonded).
5. Mixtures are formed when elements and/or
compounds are combined physically.
6. Energy is involved in chemical and
physical changes.
7. We get energy from the compounds that
make up our food.
8. Energy is neither created nor destroyed but
can be transformed.
9. As the energy of particles changes, their
movement changes and the phase in which
matter is present might change.
10. Energy can be transferred by radiation,
conduction, and convection.
The unit is wrapped around the principle
that cooking is a way of carrying out
physical and chemical changes using
thermal energy.
The idea is to integrate this unit with our
wellness program and promote good
nutrition, as well as to discuss the physical
and chemical changes that result from our
nutritional decisions.
MYP unit question
What is matter;
how do I describe it;
how do I change it?
Assessment
What task(s) will allow students the opportunity to respond to the unit question?
What will constitute acceptable evidence of understanding? How will students show what they have understood?
1) Culminating Activities:
Don’t Go Changing Laboratory: Experience
-12 station laboratory experience in which students carry out physical and chemical changes
- final written lab report scored using criterion B and C
Dissolving All Around You: Laboratory Experience
- 7 station lab experience in which students make mixtures and compounds
- final written lab report scored using criterion B and C
Summative Assessments for each sub-topic – scored on 100 point scale
-Heat transfer
-States of matter and Changes of State
-Elements, Compounds, Mixtures
Vocabulary Quizzes on all vocabulary throughout the unit as formative assessment
Anchor Activities for each subtopic
-Questions over each objective
-Options for completing vocabulary: defining in 5 words or less, drawing examples of each term, writing
stories using all terms including all elements of a plot line
Projects:
-Create posters showing each type of transfer of thermal energy, include definitions and drawings of
each
- Adopt an Element Project –research an element, describe physical, chemical, historical and
practical information using a tri-fold pamphlet
Which specific MYP objectives will be addressed during this unit?
“Communication,” and “Knowledge and Understanding”
Which MYP assessment criteria will be used?
criteria B and C
Stage 2: Backward planning: from the assessment to the learning
activities through inquiry
Content
What knowledge and/or skills (from the course overview) are going to be used to enable the student to respond to the unit question?
What (if any) state, provincial, district, or local standards/skills are to be addressed? How can they be unpacked to develop the significant concept(s) for stage 1?
S8P1: Students will examine the scientific view of the nature of matter.
b. Describe the difference between pure substances (elements and compounds) and mixtures.
c. Describe the movement of particles in solids, liquids, gases, and plasma states.
d. Distinguish between physical and chemical properties of matter as physical (i.e. density, melting point,
boiling point) or chemical (reactivity, combustibility).
e. Distinguish between changes in matter as physical (i.e. physical change) or chemical (development of a gas,
formation of precipitate, and change in color).
g. Identify and demonstrate the Law of Conservation of Matter.
S8P2 Students will be familiar with the forms and transformations of energy.
a. Explain energy transformation in terms of the Law of Conservation of Energy.
d. Describe how heat can be transferred through matter by the collisions of atoms (conduction) or through space
(radiation). In a liquid or gas, currents will facilitate the transfer of heat (convection).
Approaches to learning
How will this unit contribute to the overall development of subject-specific and general approaches to learning skills?
Students will be engaged in all aspects of the ATL’s throughout the 7 week unit.
The unit is differentiated: including tasks that appeal to all learner types: visual, kinaesthetic, oral, concrete, etc.
Skills will include: Knowledge, application, observation, information processing, organization, communication,
inquiry, analysis, integration and summarization, evaluation, collaboration, reflection
Learning experiences
How will students know what is expected of them? Will
they see examples, rubrics, templates?
How will students acquire the knowledge and practise
the skills required? How will they practise applying
these?
Do the students have enough prior knowledge? How will
we know?
Sub topic 1: Heat
Rapid Pre-Assessment
Notes, posters, oral and written reviews
Subtopic 2: States of matter and Changes
Rapid Pre-Assessment
Notes, oral and written reviews, lab activity
(density), video presentation; diagrams
Culminating Activity: Don’t Go Changing
(criterion B &C)
Subtopic 3: Elements, Compounds, Mixtures
Rapid Pre-Assessment
Notes, oral and written reviews, video
presentation, visual vocabulary exercises
Culminating Activity: Dissolving All Around You
(criterion B &C)
Teaching strategies
How will we use formative assessment to give students feedback
during the unit?
What different teaching methodologies will we employ?
How are we differentiating teaching and learning for all? How have
we made provision for those learning in a language other than their
mother tongue? How have we considered those with special
educational needs?
Formative assessment occurs almost daily in the form of
oral reviews and previews and vocabulary quizzes.
Differentiation: Throughout the unit students will work
individually, in cooperative groups, and pairs. Whole
group instruction is limited to less than 15 minutes per
day, except for four days within the 7 weeks on which
students who need to will be taking notes. Review
assignments are either tiered or menu options. Anchor
activities are provided for each sub-topic and include
several menu options as well.
Cross cultural experiences are supported – students are
encouraged to complete posters and other visual
elements in their mother tongue, OR a second
language.
Special Education: Students will be served according to
their modifications; material will include, but is not
limited to, copies of notes, fill in the blank notes,
modified quizzes and tests, modified and shortened
assignments, peer helpers, cooperative groups, and
preferential seating.
Resources
What resources are available to us?
How will our classroom environment, local environment and/or the community be used to facilitate students’ experiences during
the unit?
Holt, Rinehart And. Holt Science and Technology : Physics: Georgia Edition. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston,
2001.
http://venus.coe.uga.edu/moodle/course/view.php?id=2: This site contains units and tasks designed by the state,
available to all teachers.
Some Advice on How to Write a Technical Report
http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~sherman/Courses/documents/TR_how_to.html
Technical Writing
http://www.technical-writing-course.com/
Safari montage: http://10.15.50.50/SAFARI/montage/login.php?fromlogoutlink=true
Quia: www.quia.com
Brainpop: www.brainpop.com
Ongoing reflections and evaluation
In keeping an ongoing record, consider the following questions. There are further
stimulus questions at the end of the “Planning for teaching and learning” section of
MYP: From principles into practice.
Students and teachers
What did we find compelling? Were our disciplinary knowledge/skills challenged in any way?
What inquiries arose during the learning? What, if any, extension activities arose?
How did we reflect—both on the unit and on our own learning?
Which attributes of the learner profile were encouraged through this unit? What opportunities were there for student-initiated
action?
Possible connections
How successful was the collaboration with other teachers within my subject group and from other subject groups?
What interdisciplinary understandings were or could be forged through collaboration with other subjects?
Assessment
Were students able to demonstrate their learning?
How did the assessment tasks allow students to demonstrate the learning objectives identified for this unit? How did I make
sure students were invited to achieve at all levels of the criteria descriptors?
Are we prepared for the next stage?
Data collection
How did we decide on the data to collect? Was it useful?
Students and Teachers:
Compelling – knowledge about atoms is abstract thought that is difficult for students of this age group
Knowledge was challenged in thoughts about the size of atoms and molecules.
Reflection took place though writing pieces – explaining the relationship between elements, compounds,
mixtures and physical and chemical changes.
Learner profile – increased knowledge, became better communicators, fostered inquiry.
Possible Connections:
Very successful- through brainstorming together, ideas were introduced to better present to students.
Students were introduced to other languages. Received extra practice for math.
Assessments:
Students performed experiments followed by lab reports. Posters/foldables along with building the Periodic
Table,challenged their knowledge base.
Assessments were modified using all modalities.
Data collection;
Pre and Post test were used for data collection along with formal and informal assessments
Figure 12
MYP unit planner