The 5E Instructional Model is a sequence of teaching strategies that allows learners to create their own understanding.
Engage
The Engage portion should be the first step in framing a lesson. Engagement generates interest amongst students and allows them to access prior knowledge. The teacher should create interest about the topic to be studied by demonstrating a phenomena, showing a video or picture, or asking a thought-provoking question. Students should have the opportunity to think about and/or discuss what experiences they have that relate to the new topic. By eliciting the students' ideas, the teacher activates prior knowledge.
Affinity maps can be used to provide an entry point for students. In affinity mapping, students write everything they know about a topic on post it notes. Then they can work together as a group to arrange those post it notes into themes on butcher paper or poster board, and share out to the class what concepts they included and how they are related. I've used this process to see what students know and remember about genes, chromosomes, and DNA.
Affinity maps can be used to provide an entry point for students. In affinity mapping, students write everything they know about a topic on post it notes. Then they can work together as a group to arrange those post it notes into themes on butcher paper or poster board, and share out to the class what concepts they included and how they are related. I've used this process to see what students know and remember about genes, chromosomes, and DNA.
Ambitious Science Teaching is a fantastic website that provides exemplar lessons and strategies that can be used to supplement your 5E lessons. In this unit on gas laws, the teacher provides an image of an imploded oil tanker. Without even prompting, the students start wondering what happened to it and why. This is a great explanation of how you can engage your students with a photograph or video.
I have used parts of this lesson in my classroom too with great success. The students viewed the pictures and video, made observations and hypotheses, and then created models of what happened. The students brought up ideas such as temperature, pressure, and vacuums without prompting. Students completed a gallery walk of their proposed models. To implement reading strategies, students read and annotated a text on gas laws and used evidence from the text to modify or support their hypotheses.
I have used parts of this lesson in my classroom too with great success. The students viewed the pictures and video, made observations and hypotheses, and then created models of what happened. The students brought up ideas such as temperature, pressure, and vacuums without prompting. Students completed a gallery walk of their proposed models. To implement reading strategies, students read and annotated a text on gas laws and used evidence from the text to modify or support their hypotheses.
Explore
The Explore portion of the 5E model is when students experience key concepts, discover new skills, ask questions, and examine their thinking. The teacher acts as the facilitator and observes students as they interact. The students conduct activities, share ideas, perform laboratory experiments, make predictions, and record observations. The teacher should support students' ongoing learning by asking probing questions.
If a demonstration was the Engage, allowing students to recreate or experiment with the demonstration would be a good exploration. For example, in the engagement piece, you may drop a piece of dry ice in water and ask students what is the white stuff coming off the water. Allow students to make predictions. Then provide more dry ice, water, oil, a scale, alcohol, and safety materials for students to explore. Students should design and perform experiments to support their predictions.
If a demonstration was the Engage, allowing students to recreate or experiment with the demonstration would be a good exploration. For example, in the engagement piece, you may drop a piece of dry ice in water and ask students what is the white stuff coming off the water. Allow students to make predictions. Then provide more dry ice, water, oil, a scale, alcohol, and safety materials for students to explore. Students should design and perform experiments to support their predictions.
Explore - Gas Laws In the gas laws unit, the Explore phase occurs when students implode soda cans by boiling water in them and submerging them in a cold water bath. Then they design and carryout similar experiments while altering variables such as the amount of water in the can or the temperature of the water bath. |
Explain
The explanation portion of the 5E Model is when students connect prior knowledge to new discoveries and communicate these understandings. The teacher encourages students to communicate their understandings in their own words, while providing definitions for vocabulary words. The students provide explanations to questions using previous observations and findings. For an excellent list of ideas to get students to explain their findings click here.
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Socratic Seminar Success
When studying a unit on genetics, I showed a short news clip about "Designer Babies." I posed the question, "Are designer babies ethical?" My biology students spent the rest of the period discussing their ideas and opinions about this concept. I diagrammed their discussion on the board and only jumped in to remind them not to interrupt each other. The class period was one of those where the students groaned when the bell rang to leave because they were so invested in the lesson.
The Explain phase is a good point to reevaluate the affinity maps or models that students may have created earlier. After discussing ideas with their peers, students may correct their original hypotheses or add to their maps. Additionally this point is the time for the teacher to explain concepts that are not clear. It is up to the teacher what strategies will be best to explain the information - direct instruction, informative text, research, or skill and drill may be appropriate. Waiting to explain concepts until this point in the lesson creates buy in amongst the students. They are genuinely interested and have their own ideas of what is going on.
Extend/Elaborate
During this phase students apply their new learning to a similar but separate situation. They must extend their knowledge of the concepts and communicate their findings using formal language. The teacher provides extension opportunities to allow students to extend the new concepts or skills while encouraging them to use the new terms. Students apply new terms and definitions to different but related circumstances or real life events.
One way to extend or elaborate on knowledge learned in the classroom is to provide activities or assignments in which students must take this knowledge outside the classroom. If you are studying a unit on electricity, ask students to find out where their fuse box is at home. If you are studying genetics, provide a homework assignment in which students determine common genetic features of their parents. In a unit on area, have students calculate the square footage of their home. Any assignments that bridge the gap between home and school will help prevent students from "playing the game of school."
Gas Law Extension - After reviewing the gas laws and relating them to the oil tanker implosion, you could extend the lesson by asking students to predict what happens to air pressure in a tire on a cold day. Another extension project is to have them research combustion engines and use the gas laws to explain why some modifications make these engines perform better.
One way to extend or elaborate on knowledge learned in the classroom is to provide activities or assignments in which students must take this knowledge outside the classroom. If you are studying a unit on electricity, ask students to find out where their fuse box is at home. If you are studying genetics, provide a homework assignment in which students determine common genetic features of their parents. In a unit on area, have students calculate the square footage of their home. Any assignments that bridge the gap between home and school will help prevent students from "playing the game of school."
Gas Law Extension - After reviewing the gas laws and relating them to the oil tanker implosion, you could extend the lesson by asking students to predict what happens to air pressure in a tire on a cold day. Another extension project is to have them research combustion engines and use the gas laws to explain why some modifications make these engines perform better.
Evaluate
During the evaluation phase, which shouldn't necessarily occur at the end of the lesson or unit but rather throughout, the students and teacher should assess understanding. These assessments can be self, peer, and/or teacher-led. Students should demonstrate their understanding of the new concept and apply these concepts to a problem. Teachers conduct formative and summative, informal and formal assessments throughout the unit to drive instruction. The teacher should also ask open-ended questions and encourage students to assess their own learning. The students should demonstrate their knowledge of concepts and skills, evaluate their progress, and provide explanations of events and/or science phenomena.
Try to think beyond multiple-choice exams. Students can demonstrate what they know in a variety of ways besides taking a test. Learn about performance assessments here. |
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Summing It All Up
![]() This summary table was created by a high school Physical Science class that was studying if ozone was helpful or harmful. (Credit: http://ambitiousscienceteaching.org/tools-face-to-face/)
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When units are planned out this well, they may last several weeks. In order to keep students on track with the learning and show them why certain activities were necessary, you may consider creating a summary table. A summary table may last a whole unit and it shows the activities performed, the patterns observed, what caused the patterns, and how do the patterns help us answer the essential questions. Read more about summary tables here.
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