ALEX Lesson Plan Resources

ALEX Lesson Plans  
Subject: English Language Arts (5), or Science (5)
Title: Pass the Solar Energy, Please!
Description: Students know that humans and other animals must eat food to have the energy to grow, maintain body temperature, heal, and move, but do they realize that all the energy in food was once energy from the sun? In this lesson, students will participate in a simulation regarding the transfer of energy from the sun to plants, the conversion of solar energy into chemical energy during photosynthesis, and the transfer of energy between organisms when one organism eats another.  Then they will use websites, close reading of nonfiction passages, and vocabulary-building activities to prepare them to construct their own models of the transfer of energy in a food chain to show that energy in animals' food was once energy from the sun.  

Subject: English Language Arts (5), or Science (5)
Title: Is the Sun the Biggest Star?
Description: Young students may think the sun is the biggest and brightest star in the universe since it appears to be the brightest star in the sky when viewed from Earth.  In this lesson, students will use flashlights to construct a model of the difference in stars' appearances due to their distance from Earth.  Then they will use the Internet to research the sun and stars to create a poster, picture book, or digital presentation to explain that the sun is not the biggest or brightest star--it only appears that way due to its proximity to Earth.   This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.