Lesson 4: Fusion and E = mc²
Part 4 of the 17-unit Solar Flare Curriculum prepared by Richard Styner at San Leandro High School.
Historical source basis
The curriculum connects E = mc² to stellar fusion and the production of elements. It explains that matter beyond hydrogen and helium is created through stellar processes and includes a dust-cloud activity connecting stellar material to the Solar System.
Important: The source document provides the curriculum outline and named activities, not a complete modern lesson-plan script. Objectives, timing, assessment structure, scaffolds, and UDL supports below are reconstructed to make the lesson classroom-ready while preserving the original instructional intent.
Learning objectives
- Explain in broad terms how fusion releases energy.
- Connect mass-energy conversion to stellar energy.
- Construct a model explaining how stellar material contributes to later planetary systems.
UDL design
Engagement
Offer a clear scientific purpose, choice in examples or questions, collaborative and independent pathways, and visible success criteria.
Representation
Combine concise explanation with diagrams, models, images or data, vocabulary supports, worked examples, and accessible digital materials.
Action & Expression
Allow students to demonstrate learning through calculations, diagrams, graphs, models, oral explanation, written claim-evidence-reasoning, or digital products as appropriate.
Core learning experience
Guided fusion model, mass-energy reasoning, and reconstructed “We Are All Made of Stars” dust-cloud modeling activity.
Suggested lesson flow
- Launch / activate prior knowledge (5–10 min): phenomenon, image, question, or quick prediction.
- Mini-lesson / model (10–15 min): teach only the concepts and tools needed for the investigation.
- Investigation / collaborative work (25–45 min): students gather, model, calculate, classify, or analyze evidence.
- Synthesis (10–15 min): students explain what the evidence shows using a format appropriate to the lesson.
- Exit check (3–5 min): one concept check plus one reflection or question for the next lesson.
Assessment evidence
Formative: observation, discussion, notebook or data checks, and the exit check. Product: the investigation output described above. Evaluate scientific reasoning, use of evidence, and communication rather than requiring a single response format.
Access, scaffolds & extensions
- Preteach essential vocabulary and provide a visual word bank.
- Chunk multistep calculations and provide worked examples or spreadsheet templates when mathematics is not the target skill.
- Provide text, image, graph, and spoken explanations where feasible; support captioning and read-aloud tools for digital materials.
- Use mixed-readiness groups with explicit roles while preserving an individual evidence check.
- Extension: ask students to critique the model or data, quantify uncertainty, compare an additional dataset, or develop a new research question.