Lets Go To Space

Introduction

LETS GO TO SPACE! 

Get your space suits on and get ready for take off!

For the next 3 weeks you will be setting out on an adventure exploring the solar system and all its planets.

Hope you're ready, it's going to be an unforgetable experience. 

Hold tight, take off in

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...BLAST OFF

Task

NASA: Come in, come in Space shuttle Explorer can you hear us?

You: Yes! We are getting close now,

NASA: Great! Now here is your mission, make sure you have lots of paper and camera space you're going to need it. 

Your duty on this quest is to collect as much information and photos of your assigned planet to bring back down to Earth. 

Once you return you will be required to create a fact sheet using wikispace so all your fellow classmates can see all the interesting information and photos of your planet that you have gathered over your journey.

After finishing off your fact sheet, have a look and comment on a fellow students work who has explored a different planet to you. 

You: Perfect! Piece of Space.

Process

Wow we are almost there space-rangers, lets have a quick look at this video which shows us what we will be expecting to see before we reach our destinations. 

                               

Finally we have arrived! What an incredible place space is. To help you on your discovery, use the websites below to collect information and photos relevant to your planet to help you create your fact sheet in wikispace. 

http://space-facts.com/planets/

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/index.cfm

http://www.planetsforkids.org/

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/planets.html

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/solar_system.htm

Once in wikispace, go to the projects section and select the Lets Go To Space project. Find your name in the list of students and start to edit your wiki. Be as creative as you like however ensure that you have the following information present in your factsheet.

- The name of your planet

- Position on the Solar System

- Distance from the Sun

- How many Earth days does your planet take to orbit the sun

- How long does your planet take to make a full rotation

-Mass of your planet

-Diameter of planet

-Maximum and Minimum Temperatures

-Number of moons

-Surface Conditions

- How was your planet discovered

-Any other interesting facts about your planet (aim for approximately 3)

-Make sure you include lots of picture to make sure your factsheets interesting.

After you have completed this task, be sure to explore your fellow students factsheets, you are required to comment on each other work and in your own wiki write 3 interesting facts you found from your peers work, making sure you state which peer you got that fact from.

 

Evaluation

RUBRIC

The following Rubric will be used to grade your project. Make sure you have read and understood the criteria carefully so you know what is expected of you in order to succeed. Each student will be given an indivdual mark which will be posted on your wiki page

Criteria  

Score
Information Collected irrelevant data Data was collected but showed only little effort of research Collected relevant data and showed good effort of research Collected revelent data and showed outstanding effort of research
Fact Sheet No factsheet present
 Fact sheet presented but showed only some key points Fact sheet present and showed most key points Fact sheet present and showed all keys points
Presentation  Presentation of fact sheet was unclear and was unreadable Presentation of factsheet was difficuly to read Presentation of factsheet was clear Presentation was clear and easy to read
Participation There was no participation in task Participation was minimal, did not comment on other students wiki page. Teacher had to keep encouraging student to get on with their work Participation was good, comments were left on other students wikis Participation was excellent. Student commented on most peers wikis and made relevant and interesting comments
Total             /12
Comments
Conclusion

Earth-1260

Welcome back down to Earth space-rangers, I'm sure you discovered a whole heap of interesting things about our solar system. Congratulations on completing a extremly brave task. Now sit back and lets have a little fun with space, click on the links below to play some games.

http://www.softschools.com/science/space/solar_system_kids_games/

http://www.sciencechannel.com/games-and-interactives/solar-system-memory-game.htm

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/fun/make-a-solar-system.htm

http://mrnussbaum.com/solar-system-maker/

http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/space_games/astronomy-jigsaw.html

Teacher Page

This recourse has been designed to help educate Grade 5 student about the Solar System. The main objectives which are derived straight from the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, n.d) have been presented in the table below:

Strand

Sub-Strand

Content

Aims

Science Understanding

Earth and Space Science

ACSSU078

To acknowledge that Earth is part of a system of planets orbiting around the sun

 

Science and a Human Endeavour

Nature and Development of Science

ACSHE081

To draw conclusions about how scientists where able to develop ideas about the Solar System.

Science Inquiry Learning

Communicating

ACSIS093

Be able to use a multi-modal text to help gather relevant information about our Solar System

 

This science resource reflects all the three learning outcomes in various ways. The main content is teaching students about the Solar System, as shown above, this reflects the Science Understanding strand of the Australian Curriculum. This tool allows students to explore and discover our solar system using a range of websites. On completion of the task, students should to identify the planets of the solar system and have an idea of how long they take to orbit the sun, and should also be able to identify the distance of Earth and other planets from the sun (ARCAR, n.d)

The process of this resource requires student to examine how their planet was discovered, reflected the Science as a Human Endeavour strand.  Elaborated in the Australia Curriculum (ACARA, n.d), “research of how scientists where able to develop ideas about the solar system through the gathering of evidence the space exploration.” This statement supports not only the process section of the resource but the whole resource as students are required to conduct a research and discover all the interesting facts about their planet.

The third strand of the Australian Curriculum is the Science Inquiry Skills. The sub-strand relating to this resource is found under Communicating. The Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2010)elaborated on communicating and stated that a use of multi-modal texts should be used to help communicate scientific ideas. his resource requires students to use a range of websites and videos to come up with their factsheet and therefore supports this sub-strand.

A WebQuest is "an inquiry-oriented activity, which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet" (Dodge, 1995 as cited in Saskatoon, 2009). This is the main teaching method used in this resource. This strategy was chosen as students tend to enjoy exploring the internet to find relvant information. Students gain knowledge of the internet and also understand what to look for when deciding what resource to use. “Students may also learn to use presentation software which allowed them to impart their information in a creative way while educating other” (Saskatoon, 2009).  From this statement, the second part of the project allows students to create a wiki and share their thoughts with other students.

 

References

-ACARA (n.d). Science / Year 5 / Science as a Human Endeavour / Nature and development of science. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Elements/ACSHE081

-ACARA (n.d). Science / Year 5 / Science Inquiry Skills / Communicating. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Elements/ACSIS093

-ACARA (n.d). Science / Year 5 / Science Understanding / Earth and space sciences. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Elements/ACSSU078

-Freehdw (2013) [image]. Solar System. Retrieved from http://freehdw.com/wallpaper/solar-system-90564.html

-NASA (2014) [image]. NASA. Retrieved from http://www.nasa.gov/

-Panther. A (n.d)[image]. Earth-1260. Retrieved from http://comiccrossroads.wikia.com/wiki/Earth-1260

-Ripple Training (2010)[image]. Working with the checklist callout. Retrieved from http://www.rippletraining.com/working-wiht-the-checklist-callout.html

-Saskatoon Public School (2009). What are WebQuest?. Retrieved from http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/pd/instr/strats/webquest/index.html

-Tigatelu (n.d) [image]. Cute astronaut cartoon vector. Retrieved from http://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/cute-astronaut-cartoon-v…