Designing a teaching program on gravity and planet motion

Inspiration:
A CLIL unit is normally based on previous similar experiences, combined with several open educational web resources. Particularly this one was designed by adapting some ideas mainly from here:

http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/educacion/descargasrecursos/aicle/html/pdf/130.pdf

The linked unit provided with the idea of the general structure, speaking tips, identification of language skills, scaffolding and final self-assessment.

Target group:
The present teaching program is aimed at students of Physics in fourth year of secondary education.

Objective:
This unit, entitled "Circular Motion and Gravity", is intended to connect the laws of circular motion and universal gravitation in order to mathematically explain the movement of the planets. Historical theories about the universe are shown as a context, from those ancient theories when the universe was thought to be stationary, to the newest ones which suggest it had an origin as well as it will have an end. To address this goal I have planned the scaffolding to help students, both autonomously and interactively, to learn the different mathematical expressions about circular motion, centripetal force and gravitation.
A detailed schedule of the unit is shown next.

First lesson:
Students first meet with specific vocabulary, so a speaking guide is provided to encourage them to try some dialogs, using key words collected in the vocabulary section and exercise 1, which also helps them to identify the main variables in circular motion studies.

Second lesson:
Students have to identify mathematical formulas, their name and key variables.
A word search is proposed to finish the initial tasks in order to go over the specific words once again and get acquainted with them.
Shortly after, two video tutorials about angular and linear velocity are shown, one of them in Spanish to help students with limited English proficiency.

Some interactive geogebra applets are included to reinforce the learned concepts. These applets allow students to modify the values of several mathematical and physical variables to interactively test the effect on a dependent variable:
https://tube.geogebra.org/material/iframe/id/62824

The remaining Geogebra applets are linked here:
https://tube.geogebra.org/material/show/id/23412?lang=es
https://tube.geogebra.org/material/show/id/129895?lang=es


Third lesson:
The first problem is set out about linear and angular velocity. A box is included with the steps to solve the problem, as well as the following video which solves a similar problem:

A speaking task is proposed after viewing this video in order to discuss the relationship between the centripetal acceleration and the uniform velocity in circular motion:

A new problem is proposed about centripetal force and a new video is displayed solving a similar one:

Fourth lesson:
This lesson starts with a mathematical problem about gravity. A video solving a similar one is shown as usual:


The lesson ends with a debate task to discuss the relationship between centripetal force and the force of gravity. Some speaking advice is displayed in order to help the students to compare facts and to show different degrees of agreement. Students must gather some conclusions and write them down.

Fifth lesson:
After working out several mathematical problems, a proposal to learn the historical context is presented. This lesson introduces the different historical models of the universe, from Aristotle and Ptolemy to Copernicus. Student must watch some videos and draw all the models:






The same task carries on after visualizing the video about the model according to Kepler:


Sixth lesson:
After reviewing the historical models, a new approach is proposed on the current theories about the beginning and fate of the universe. To meet this issue, a second debate task is scheduled, supported by the visualization of theses videos:

Provided that this debate implies discussion about developing theories, several speaking tips are shown to help students to speak about imaginary situations by means of conditionals.

This section ends with an interactive time line followed by an online quiz, both designed by myself:
http://timerime.com/es/linea_de_tiempo/3691233/Historia+de+la+concepcin+del+Universo/

http://learningapps.org/display?v=pfqjt3nmn01

Seventh lesson:
I have proposed a creative task in which the students must figure out, write down and solve three different problems related with:

• Linear and angular velocity and circular motion.
• Centripetal acceleration and force.
• Gravitational force.

In order to help them, I have detailed the steps to carry out the tasks.

The lesson carries on with a bilingual glossary: an empty table to be filled up with key words in English and Spanish; and finishes with a self assessment rubric to provide the students with a useful tool to prepare the exam.