I picked this particular lesson plan for several personal reasons. The first is that I have an interest in the education lessons plans concerning global warming from the chemistry/physical chemistry point of view. The second is that understanding how the phases (solid, liquid, gas) differ from each other is an important building block for later standards. The third is that this was something that wasn't covered when I went through science classes in highschool.
There were numerous gaps between the curriculum goals and the lesson plan from the discovery education website. The first is that there didn't seem to be any base of information that the students could draw from. Also it focused heavily on water/ice rather than the other chemicals that exist. This is could be a large problem since water is unique with the results of phase changes. Water is unique in that it's solid phase is less dense then it's liquid phase. The discovery education lesson plan focuses entirely on a unique case, so it's not something I would think to build a foundation on for that level of chemistry
I don't think technology is necessarily essential to achieving the curriculum goals(people did figure it out before computers) but it makes it much more accessible to all students. An animation like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcoiLAsUvqc is easier to understand then my explanation of what happens during a phase change.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjKIDFq9eQlidEt3TGhrSWx3bC1ObXdKM2N6UDBNbGc
