Lead Teacher: Sydney

Other Teacher(s): Sophie, Bethany, Madison                                      

Date: 11/15/21

Lesson Idea and Relevance: What are you going to teach and why is this lesson of importance to your students? How is it relevant to students of this age and background?  

    

For this lesson we will be instructing students on how to create their own lava lamps! This lesson will teach students how different materials react when they are mixed together, and the basic concept of density! This lesson is important because it will allow our students to see how materials can change when mixed together, as well as what happens when we add energy! This is relevant to our students' age and background because it teaches them why some objects sink, why some float, and how mass and volume are related!

 

Essential Understanding (s): What are the “big ideas”? What specific understandings about 

them are desired?

 

Art projects can incorporate more than just drawing, painting, and designing. It can also utilize STEM concepts such as science and math. In this lesson, we will be mixing various liquids and crafting materials to construct a homemade lava lamp. In doing so we are applying craft/design through an experiment. The outcome from the process is creating a craft and chemical reaction and the lesson shows an interesting way to utilize materials that are not considered to be used for art-making. This reaction highlights energy and change to apply science concepts to an art project. Another aspect of this project is the manipulation of light. These understandings help to create new ways to develop different kinds of creative art techniques than ordinary painting or sculpture. 

 

Understanding(s):

• Energy

• Chemical Reaction

• Design

• Density

• Scientific Process

• Manipulation of Light

• Relationships Between Colors

 

Essential Question (s): 

What provocative questions will foster inquiry, understanding, and transfer of learning? ​

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• What chemical reactions occur during this scientific process?

• How are art materials and science materials related? 

• How can we produce art through a scientific process?

• How can we apply chemical reactions to generate energy from an art project?

• How is light manipulated through this chemical reaction?

• The lava lamp is constructed in two phases— how does the first phase (choice of color inside bottle, elements added inside the liquid substance,) relate to the second phase, (artistic elements added to the outside of the lamp)? 

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Outcomes - Students will know…

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By the end of this project students will have learned about density (vegetable oil vs. water) and how these materials react when combined with carbon dioxide gas (alka seltzer). Students will use their observation skills to determine which substance is “heavier” or more “dense” and learn about why these materials do not mix together! 

• Various Chemical Reactions

• Fine Motor Skill Techniques - Mixing, orienting, adding, etc.

• How to apply STEM concepts to art

 

Student Reflective Activity: Through what authentic performance task(s) will students demonstrate the desired understandings? How will students reflect upon and self-assess their learning?

 

To reflect on the project students will be asked questions before, during, and after the project. They will be asked questions like what they are noticing as they are mixing materials. Questions to motivate colors and visual elements moves the student through the project since the process is more instruction based than other kinds of art projects. Students will exhibit their final project in comparison to their peers. This helps to develop an idea of how science and materials can change throughout a process. Just like art!

 

Assessment Instrument (s): By what criteria will “performances of understanding” be judged?

 

The understanding for this project will be judged by students’ ability to create a functioning DIY lava lamp! They will fill their bottles with oil, water, alka seltzer, and food coloring and observe what happens!  By the end of this project students should be able to explain the properties of these materials, and why they react this way when mixed together! 

 

Pre-assessment: How will you help the students know where the unit is going and what is expected? Help the teacher know where the students are coming from (prior knowledge, interests)? 

 

 After four completed service learning classes, we will be utilizing our previous knowledge about our particular group of students to make this lesson meaningful. In our previous service learning classes, we learned that our students love to be hands-on! Our students love the art making process, so we knew we would need to incorporate layers of different artistic elements in this lesson. We knew these students would want to make these lava lamps their own! Using their design skills these students will be tasked with making a base and a cap for their lamp! This way every student is able to individualize their piece, pushing this combination of science and art! Our students love to work with color as well! For example we noticed that Matt absolutely LOVES the color green! We decided that we needed to mix food coloring into this project, to add visual interest and make the bubbles stand out!  

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Motivation: How will you hook all students and hold their interest?

 

We will hook the students' interests by asking them motivating questions, bringing in a lava lamp, as well as giving them a demo example so they can see the magic of this experiment!

Since lava lamps are a weird and interesting invention we will emphasize the implication that these are going to be used for visual stimulation and that they are supposed to act and function like the lava in real lava lamps. 

 

 Some questions might look like:

 

• Have you ever had a lava lamp?

• What are your favorite colors?

• What colors do you think would look best together? 

• What do you think will happen if you made this using a really big bottle?

• Where would you want to put this project in your home?

• Have you ever done an experiment like this before?

• Do you think the water and oil will mix?

• What do you think would happen if you added more alka seltzer to the mixture?

• Where can you place this so it won't tip/fall?

• What can we add to our “lamps” to make them more visually aesthetic?

 

Ideation: How will you equip students, help them experience the key ideas, and explore the issues to generate ideas for their artwork?

 

At the beginning of the lesson, during our instruction, we will ask students to use their prediction skills to state what they think will happen! Prior to the demonstration, we will ask students different questions and show them what happens when you mix oil and water. We will then give a short explanation of density. After adding some color, we will add the alka seltzer tablet, and show what happens to the water when we add carbon dioxide. The students will get to observe the reaction and have the opportunity to make one for themselves! By interacting with the materials and seeing the results for themselves, they will develop a deeper understanding of the concepts introduced!

 

Procedures: How is the lesson organized to maximize initial and sustained engagement as well as effective learning? Provide opportunities to rethink and revise their understandings and work? Allow students to evaluate their work and its implications? Include literacy and numeracy?

 

This lesson is organized so that students get the most efficient opportunity to combine art and science while working through this lesson. While this lesson may be a bit more structured, by asking essential questions, giving choices of colors and materials, and adding many different layers to the process we will engage and capture the students attention. Students will involve numeracy within this project because correct proportions of oil and water need to be added for this lesson to be completed correctly. 

 

1. Teachers will introduce the lava lamp project, show the teacher examples, and ask some motivating questions 

2. The lead teacher will do an in class demo on how to complete the project. 

3. Then each student will then be given an empty plastic bottle. 

4. Students will then be handed materials like paint, paper and markers so that they can decorate their lava lamps before adding in the materials to make the lava lamp.

5. Students will then fill their bottles up ⅔ of the way with vegetable oil. 

6. After adding vegetable oil students will then fill the remaining space in the bottle with water.

7.  Students will then add about 10 drops of food coloring to the water/oil mixture inside the plastic bottles.

8. After adding the food coloring students will then add in one half of an alka seltzer tablet to the water/oil/food color mixture. After adding the tablet students will screw on the lids to their plastic bottles, and glue on if wanted.

9. Students will then enjoy their homemade lava lamp, and see the results of the art science experiment! 

10. At the end we will do a short gallery walk so everyone can see each others lava lamps 

11. Clean up! 

 

Materials, Resources, Safety: 

 

• Clear bottle with cap (one for each student)

• Vegetable oil (fill bottle ⅔ full)

• Water (fill remaining part of bottle with water after adding oil)

• Food Coloring (red, yellow, blue, green)

• Alka seltzer tablets (one half for each student)

• Paper (for decorating lava lamp)

• Markers (for decorating lava lamp)

• Paint (for decorating lava lamp)

• Glue (to seal the caps shut)

 

Accommodations/Differentiation: (Resources and/or Process, Products and/or Performance)?

• Students that have trouble with fine motor skills and with pouring liquids will be offered assistance with poring the correct amounts of oil and water into the bottles.

• Students that are having trouble measuring out the correct proportions of water and oil will be offered pre-poured portions of the liquids that are needed to complete this lesson.