1. TheUnderstandingbyDesignGuidetoCreatingHigh-QualityUnits
ModuleB:TheUbDTemplate
The Alchemists: Ancestors to Modern Chemistry
Stage 1—Desired Results
Establis he d Goals
MA Frameworks introduces four
ScientificInquiry Skills (SIS)
standards that are included in each
introductoryhigh schoolcourse:
SIS1. Make observations,raise
questions, and formulate
hypotheses.
SIS2. Designand conductscientific
investigations.
SIS3. Analyze andinterpret results
of scientific investigations.
SIS4. Communicate andapply the
results of scientificinvestigations
Next Generation ScienceStandards
PS1.AStructureand Properties of
Matter –ordering ofthePeriodic
table basedon outer electron state
PS1.B Chemical Reactions –atoms
are conserved; predictchemical
outcomes
ETS.C Optimizing a Design Solution –
‘chunking’ criteria into simpler,
smaller stages
CCSS
RST.11-12.1
Cite specific textualevidence to
support analysis ofscienceand
technicaltexts.(HS-PS1-5)
WHST.9-12.2
Write informative/explanatory
texts, including the narrationof
historical events, scientific
procedures/ experiments, or
technicalprocesses. (HS-PS1-2),(HS-
PS1-5
.
Students will be able to independently use their learning to .. .
 Understanding ofthe basic constituents ofmatter, and how mankind cameto this understanding ofmatter.
 Assign classifications to matter as a mixture, compound or element.
 Identify changes to matter as physical, chemicalor nuclear.
 Gain a better understanding ofexperimental design.
 Ability to understand and analyze scientific claims.
Meaning
UNDERSTANDINGS
Students will understand that ...
 Science is an ongoing understanding ofour Universe;
Alchemists were the earliestchemists and furthered
understanding through experimentation and in effecting
change in matter.
 The experimental pathway from the Medieval Alchemists view
of elemental forms (such as air) to our understanding ofair as a
mixture (e.g. Priestley’s experiments).
 Matter has characteristic properties used in classification;
classification groupings in turn revealpatterns (periodictable
electron configurations Mendeleyev to present)
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Students will keep considering ...
 Transmutation oflead to gold: ifscientists becomecapable
building materials from their subatomic particles, how would
this change the world? Would you believe someone claiming to
have made gold from lead?
 If a company claims something is all naturalbecause it’s made
from ‘100% natural’ components, it that true?
Acquisition
Students will know .. .
 Contributions ofthe Alchemists, practicaland conceptual,to
modern Chemistry
 Classifications ofmatter –Medieval times to present
 Experimental basis behind understanding ofmatter
 Organizational schema behind the periodic table
 How the chemical combination ofelements produces
substances with differing properties. (e.g. Hydrogen-
flammable, plus O -> water (non-flammable))
Students will be skilled at . ..
 Determining a sequence ofexperiments that willidentify an
unknown material. (mixture? Element?)
 Identifying the key facts and claims in a technical articleand
creating a list ofimportant questions to be fact-checked or
experimented against.
© 2011 by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
Sources: MassachusettsScience and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framew ork. (2006, October).
HS.Structure and Properties of Matter. (n.d.). Retrieved July 3, 2014, from Next Generation Science Standards/Achieve website: http://www.nextgenscience.org/hsps-
spm-structure-properties-matter