Making Sense of Apparent Brightness: An Integrated Approach for Fifth Graders

In this article, the authors discuss finding teaching the standard on the apparent brightness of the Sun (5-ESS1-1) to be a challenging and frustrating experience due to the abstract nature of the standard and generally low interest of their fifth-grade students. They had previously used hands-on learning activities involving flashlights to model the phenomenon, but the results were less than stellar. All of that changed when they decided to integrate math standards on graphing points in the coordinate plane (5.G.A.1 and 5.G.A.2) and added a claim, evidence, and reasoning (CER) response. The result was a lively analysis of data in a real-world context, thoughtful discussions about word choice when making observations, and engaging arguments from evidence.