Description
What our Elements: Neon lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Elements: Neon is a high-interest reading comprehension lesson plan. As such, students will practice various close reading and comprehension skills. In addition, they will learn about one of the most recognizable elements in the Periodic Table of Elements. This lesson is for students in 5th grade and 6th grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the yellow box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.
Teacher Notes
The paragraph on this page provides a little more information or guidance on what to expect from the lesson. It explains that you can teach this lesson in a whole-class setting or as an independent, small-group activity. You can use the blank lines to record any thoughts or ideas you have as you prepare.
ELEMENTS: NEON LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Discovery and Practical Applications
The Elements: Neon lesson plan contains two content pages. In 1898, neon was discovered by two scientists, Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers. They found it while studying the air we breathe. They cooled the air until it became a liquid and slowly warmed it up. As it turned back into gas, they discovered several new gases, including neon. The neon gave off a bright red-orange glow when they passed electricity through it. That’s how they knew they had found something new and exciting! In fact, the name “neon” comes from the Greek word neos, which means new.
One of the most popular uses of neon is in lit signs. When electricity goes through a glass tube filled with neon, it lights up with a glowing red-orange color. Other gases can be added to make different colors. These lights are used in signs for restaurants, theaters, and shops. They are bright and colorful, making them great for catching people’s attention. You have probably seen brightly colored signs nearly everywhere you shop or travel.
Neon Facts and Why the Element Matters
Neon is a natural gas, but it’s scarce on Earth. It makes up only a tiny part of the air, less than 1%. Even though it’s hard to find here, it is much more common in outer space, especially in stars like our sun. It forms during the life cycle of stars and gets released into space when stars explode. Neon is also used in vacuum tubes and high-voltage indicators, which help control electricity in machines. In science, neon is used in some types of lasers and even in cryogenics, which studies frigid temperatures.
Strangely enough, neon has no color, taste, or smell in its gaseous form. It’s also what scientists call inert, which means it doesn’t mix or react easily with other elements. And because it doesn’t react easily with other elements, it’s perfect for use in tools that need to be safe and stable!
Neon may not be something you think about daily, but it helps brighten the world—literally! Without it, we wouldn’t have the glowing signs that light up our streets. We would have to find something else for special scientific tools that depend on neon to work correctly. It’s also essential in helping scientists understand the stars, our sun, and the universe.
ELEMENTS: NEON LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Elements: Neon lesson plan includes two worksheets: an activity worksheet and a review worksheet. Each one will help students solidify their grasp of the material they learned throughout the lesson. You can refer to the classroom procedure guidelines to know when to hand out each worksheet.
NEON SIGN MAKING ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
For the activity, students will follow the steps on the worksheet to create their own “neon” signs using the materials you provide.
REVIEW WORKSHEET
The review worksheet lists 5 questions based on the content. These questions all relate to the content pages, so students will need to refer to them often for the answers. In addition, each question provides which reading tool the question corresponds to, such as text feature, vocabulary, or comprehension.
Worksheet Answer Keys
At the end of the lesson plan document is an answer key for the practice worksheet. The correct answers are all in red to make it easier for you to compare them with students’ responses. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
