ALEX Lesson Plan Resources

ALEX Lesson Plans  
Subject: Digital Literacy and Computer Science (4), or Science (4)
Title: Using Code to Create an Animated Animal
Description: Students will use the free online coding program, Scratch, to learn the basics of coding and how to use blocks and animations to create an animated animal. Students will show how an animated animal will receive, process, and respond to information using its senses. The students will go through a series of coding steps to create a background and make an animal move and change according to factors in its environment. This lesson plan was created as a result of the Girls Engaged in Math and Science, GEMS Project.

Subject: Science (4)
Title: Earthworm Behavior
Description: This is an inquiry-based lesson that allows students to investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it.  Students will place earthworms in a lighted area and see if they move toward a dark environment or stay in the lighted environment.  Students will observe the behavior of the earthworms and use data from the investigation to conclude how an earthworm uses its senses to affect its behavior.  This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

Subject: English Language Arts (4), or Science (4)
Title: A Dolphin's Tale
Description: In this lesson, students will demonstrate echolocation using only their sense of hearing to locate sounds in their environment by playing a game of Marco Polo.  Students will create their own method of echlocation  to communicate with each other.  Students will write a narrative, from the viewpoint of a dolphin, describing how a dolphin uses echolocation to communicate and to locate things in their environment to aid in their survival.  This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.