Get a grip
Theresa Stockel
This unit was a lot more extensive than I can see middle school handling. I saw some real possibilities as a cross curricular unit to use in my physics and advanced biology classes. The DCI of structure and function can be worked into an anatomy class. Discussions of the designing a model that matches the natural arm, the physiological processes that will not be going on in the prosthetic and how we will compensate for it will be necessary. I envision the A&P class teaching the physics students the needs of the organism and the physics students teaching the bio students how the mathematical models of torque. Are related to the project.
The majority of the teacher's planning task is to make sure actual DCI's as well as performance standards are being addressed. I see this as the challenge and the beauty of the NGSS : there are unit plans that aren't "written" in the standards, but that can be tweaked to be used.