Do the standards invite differentiation so that students can achieve both challenge and success throughout the unit? These standards allow for differentiation so students can be challenged as well as successful throughout the unit in many different ways. In the unit that I used Socratic questioning, inquiry based instruction, collaborative learning, simulation, and problem solving. All of this can be done at varying levels depending upon the pre-assessment the students were given. For example, in the history of space exploration through technological advances, I could give a student who did not have any previous knowledge a set of pictures of the same object and have them put them in order (oldest technology to the newest technology) and …show more content…
Does long-term learning through connections to other disciplines and real world scenarios apply using the standards of the unit? These standards lend itself to connections through other disciplines and real world scenarios through the activities that are done to complete the unit. One of the lessons that is included in the unit incorporates the students creating an experiment for the International Space Station. This is extremely important because they can see what experiments have been performed, how they have influenced our lives, and then create one themselves. This is life-long learning using the scientific method as well as seeing how space exploration impacts them directly. Do the standards enable the teacher to make connections to past learning? In the younger grades, the students learn the basics of astronomy so this does build upon the basic knowledge of different space objects as well as planets. In this unit, they would expand upon their knowledge of planets and other space objects to be more advanced than previously learned. However, it is not something that they learn every year in the science