TCNJ Lesson Plan

Robot Wars: Plastic Collection Graphing

Student Name: Kayla Taylor & Emily Anderson Grade Level: 5

Guiding and/or Essential Questions:

How can we use science and engineering to solve real world problems?
How can we use graphs to represent real world ideas and problems?

Pre-lesson Assignments and/or Student Prior Knowledge

Students have been engaged in an Earth Science unit about ocean pollution for two weeks.
Before the Earth Science unit, the students participated in an engineering unit. They are
preparing for an engineering challenge where they design a robot to remove pollution from the
ocean.

Standards:
NGSS 5-ESS3-1: Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use
science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
Cross-Cutting Concepts: Scale, Proportion, and Quantity

CCSS.Math.Content.5.G.A.1: Graph points on the coordinate plane to solve real-world and

mathematical problems.

Learning Objectives and Assessments:

Learning Objectives Assessment

Students will graph the total weight of plastic Teachers will assess each group’s graph and
collected in a practice trial with their robot. look for the correct weight graphed,
appropriate scale, and appropriate labeling of
axes.

Students will evaluate the results of their Teachers will assess group conversations for
practice trial and discuss ways to improve discussion of ways to improve their design.
their robots.

Materials/Resources:
Graph paper, scale, Ollie robots, plastic pollution, challenge arena
Plan for set-up/distribution/cleanup of materials:
Worksheets and materials will be passed out after stating directions. Graph paper will be passed
out by Ms. Taylor and Ms. Anderson. The scales will be around the room for the students to use
on their own.

Step by Step plan:

1. Lesson Beginning
a. Students will tell Ms. Taylor and Ms. Anderson what they did during the past
week. Students will also share their designs and the process of building them will
us.
2. Collection and Graphing
a. Students will run a practice test with their robots in the ocean pollution challenge
arena.
b. Students will collect the plastic their robot was able to push out of the arena,
weigh the total, and graph the weight on graph paper.
3. Closing
a. Students will compare their graphs to the graphs of other engineering groups to
determine how successful their robot design is compared to other designs.

Key Questions (that you will ask):

How are your robots helping solve the problem of ocean pollution?
What can you do to improve your robot and increase the amount of plastic it collects?

Logistics:
Students will be familiar with the routine for using the robots but will be reminded before they
do the practice run.

Timing:
50-minute lesson:
Beginning- 10 minutes
Plastic collection and graphing- 35 minutes
Closing- 5 minutes

Transitions:
Students will be brought to a whole-group setting before the start of the lesson. Students will
work in their engineering groups for the twitter activity, so they are familiar with how to move
into those groups. Transitions will be monitored by Miss Anderson and Miss Taylor.
Classroom Management:
The class will break into their engineering groups, which they are familiar with because they
have spent two weeks working in those groups.
As students start to finish, we will ask them to compare their graphs and brainstorm ways to
improve their design.

Differentiation:
Groups are created to be heterogeneous.