OpenSciEd Unit 6.5 · Lesson 08 · 8.A
Look for: Ideas of how technologies have changed over t…
From Teacher Edition
Facilitation guidance from the lesson plan — what to notice in student thinking and how to respond while teaching.
Building towards
8.A.1 Use digital tools and/or mathematical concepts to integrate and synthesize information to compare the reliability of emergency communication systems.
What to look / listen for
Use students’ individual handouts and small group discussions:
- Ideas of how technologies have changed over time, but some technologies are still used today to alert people in a hazard.
- Ideas about how technologies use different systems for communication.
Wired v. Wireless
Broadcast to each individual household v. broadcast across an entire area
- Ideas for why some signals (i.e. digital) are more reliable than others.
- Ideas for what causes some communication technologies to be limited in their ability to warn people.
What to do
The reading contains sophisticated ideas and concepts for students, and many students will not have developed middle school ideas about different waves and technologies that use waves to transmit signals. That is OK. Students will build additional ideas in later OpenSciEd units and in high school about different waves and technologies that use waves to send signals. For now, focus students’ noticings and ideas about how different technologies have evolved and improved over time. In particular, the use of digital signals allows for a more reliable means of communication, which is the goal of an emergency communication system.
Supporting Universal Design for Learning
The reading in the StoryMap is long and includes several embedded audio-visual assets to help depict concepts presented in the map. The combinations of text, audio, and visual information can assist students in perceiving information through multiple means of representation.
However, some students may benefit from using the paper version of the reading in order to write or highlight different aspects that are important or that they have questions about. If they use the paper version of the reading, be sure to play the audio portions from the StoryMap map to augment their understanding of the concepts presented in the reading.