1. MNPS Unit Planning Template
Unit/ProjectOverview
Subject/Course: Chemistry I
Teacher: Rachel Amescua
Duration/Dates of Instructional Delivery?
Number of Instructional Days? ____________9 days___
Unit/Project Resources Needed:
Laptops
Flame Test Lab Materials
Unit/Project Title: Fireworks: Friend or Foe?
Unit/Project Overview (include description of major products &
performance both individual and group):
Unit/Project Entry Event to launch inquiry, engage students: First, students
will watch a news clip about a 12-year-old that died in Nashville in June from
a firework’s accident. Next, students will meet with one or more firefighters
either through Skype or in person. The firefighters will talk about the
dangers of fireworks.
Public Audience (if applicable): The firefighters will critique the
workbooks created and give feedback on the work.
Vocabulary: atom, electron, proton, neutron, Bohr model, excited state,
ground state, energy, atomic radius, energy level, sublevel, orbital,
quantum-mechanical model, wavelength
Key Standards that will be assessed during this unit of study:
Content Standards:
CLE 3221.Inq.2 Design and conduct scientific investigations to explore new phenomena, verify previous results, test how well a theory predicts,
and compare opposing theories.
CLE 3221.T/E.1 Explore the impact of technology on social, political, and economic systems.
CLE 3221.1.1 Compare and contrast historical models of the atom.
CLE 3221.1.2 Analyze the organization of the modern periodic table.
CLE 3221.1.3 Describe an atom in terms of its composition and electron characteristics.
Common Core Literacy Standards: CCSS.ELA.LITERACY.RST.9-10.3
Follow precisely a complex multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks, attending to
special cases or exceptions defined in the text.

2. MNPS Unit Planning Template
21st Century Competencies to be taught and assessed (choose one or two to be assessed and provide evidence)
Note: All 4 competencies can be practiced but only one or two will need to be specifically assessed within the unit.
 Collaboration: Students will work in teams during discussion, the lab activity and creation of the activity book.
 Communication (Oral Presentation): Students will communicate lab findings in small groups.
 Critical Thinking/Problem Solving: Students will use research to explain why the salts turn different colors when burned.
 Creativity: Students will take complex high school science topics and create a book that teaches the topics at an elementary level.
Student Learning Targets (content & 21st century competencies needed by students to successfully demonstrate mastery)
I can….
 Use the Periodic Table to find the protons, electrons and neutrons in an atom of an element.
 Use the Periodic Table to draw Bohr Models of atoms of elements.
 Describe what occurs when an electron moves from a ground state to an excited state to a ground state.
 Create a diagram that explains how a firework is structured.
 Explain why different Alkali salts produce certain colors when burned.
 Research and report on firework accidents, safety and other relevant information.
 Explain the connection between Charles’s Law and the boom heard when a firework explodes.
 Relate the heat needed to see a firework’s light to the heat produced.
Enduring Understandings: Sharing reliable
information can help people make more reasoned
decisions.
Essential Question/Driving Question: How are fireworks dangerous?
Final Product
(s)/
Individual
and Group
Summative
Assessment
(How will
students
demonstrate
Learning Progression of
Concepts and Skills
(Learning Targets)
In which order will the
concepts and skills be
taught during this unit of
study?
Checkpoints/Formative
Assessment of Student
Mastery of Concepts and
Skills
What formative assessments
will be used to ensure
students are on track?
Instructional Activities for
ALL learners provided by
teacher or other experts;
includes opportunities for
reflection, lesson scaffolds,
tools and materials aligned to
learning targets and formative
assessments.
High Probability
Instructional Strategies:
Align each instructional
activity and/or tool with one
or more of the following:
• Similarities and Differences
• Summarizing and Notetaking
• Nonlinguistic Representations
• Cooperative Learning
• Generating and Testing Hypothesis
• Cues, Questions, and Advance

3. MNPS Unit Planning Template
mastery at the
end of the
unit?)
Organizers
• Reinforcing Effort and Providing
Recognition
• Homework and Practice
• Setting Objectives and Providing
Feedback
• Graphic Organizers
 Flame Test
Lab Report
 Written
Summative
 Activity
Book
 Science
Journal
1 Day
 Create a diagram that
explains how a
firework is structured.
 Use the Periodic Table
to find the protons,
electrons and
neutrons in an atom
of an element.
Students will answer
questions dealing with
finding protons, electrons
and neutrons from task
cards into their notebooks.
 Create an activity page that
shows how a firework is put
together.
 Create a practice sheet for
basic atomic structure and
finding protons, neutrons
and electrons using the
periodic table.
Summarizing and Notetaking
Cooperative Learning
Setting Objectives and
Providing Feedback
2 Days
 Use the Periodic Table
to draw Bohr Models
of atoms of elements.
Students will answer
questions dealing Bohr
Models from task cards into
their notebooks.
 Students will take notes
about Bohr Models in their
notebooks.
 Students will complete a
hands-on activity in which
they use a modeling kit to
create Bohr Models.
 Create a page about Bohr
Models in their activity
books.
• Summarizing and
Notetaking
• Cooperative Learning
2 days
 Describe what occurs
when an electron
moves from a ground
Students will write their lab
sections into their
notebooks.
 Students will read about how
fireworks produce color.
 Students will complete the
Flame Test Lab in which they
• Cooperative Learning
• Summarizing and
Notetaking
• Cues, Questions, and
Advance Organizers

4. MNPS Unit Planning Template
state to an excited
state to a ground
state.
identify unknowns using the
chart in the article.
 Students will write their
individual lab reports.
 Explain why different
Alkali salts produce
certain colors when
burned.
 Explain’ the
connection between
Charle’s Law, the
speed of sound and
the boom heard when
a firework explodes.
Students will complete a
task card to review the
connection between
wavelength and energy and
between the sonic boom and
Charles’s Law.
Students will read the portion
of the article that goes with
explosions.
Students will create an
activity book page that
illustrates the connection
between heat, Alkali salt,
energy, and wavelength.
Students will create an
activity page that shows how
fireworks explode.
• Cooperative Learning
• Summarizing and
Notetaking
• Cues, Questions, and
Advance Organizers
 Research and report
on firework accidents,
safety and other
interesting
information.
Teacher observation. Students will create the last
two pages of their activity
book and their book cover
using information from
internet research.
• Cooperative Learning
• Summarizing and
Notetaking
• Cues, Questions, and
Advance Organizers
How will differentiation occur? Activities appeal to multiple
learning styles.
What interdisciplinary connections will students make?
Students will be making many literacy connections.
Students will be making art connections.