Introduction
Greetings Earthlings!
We have just received notice that NASA is in need of some help. A group of astronauts just came down with the stomach flu and can no longer attend their mission. What ever are they going to do?! NASA needs some solar system experts to take a little vacation through the solar system to find out fascinating facts about our planets.
CONGRATULATIONS!!
You and your team are just the experts for the mission. NASA needs you to travel through our solar system and collect the valuable information that each destination has in store for you! Everyone on earth is counting on you! Are you up for the challenge? Good luck… your space ship is ready to launch!
Task
For your mission to space, you will be working in teams of four astronauts. You will travel to each planet in our solar system and gather as much information you can to relay back to earth!
The first step is to choose your role for the mission:
Mission Commander: as the commander you will be supervising your team and will be the person that makes any final decisions. You are also to make sure each person stays on tasks and contributes to the group!
Navigator: as the navigator you are in charge of taking your team through the solar system by maneuvering the mouse to visit different websites.
Data Recorder: as the recorder you are responsible for neatly recording the information you gather for your team.
Design Expert/Organizer: as the designer for the team, you will be the creative genius. You will be in charge of making sure all of the information is organized and will design the layout of the postcards you will be sending back to mission control.
Your team will have the opportunity to navigate through the solar system using different websites to gather facts and information about our planets. You will receive a worksheet that has space for you to record your findings (you will need it later). You’re going to find various information about the planets such as the planet’s name, the distance from the Sun, the size of the planet, how many moons (if the planet has any), the atmosphere, the temperature, and much more!
In addition to filling out your reporting sheet as a group, you will research and find three interesting facts about each planet. There is space at the bottom of your reporting sheet for the recorder to write down the interesting facts. The information that you find will be presented in the form of a postcard that advertises the planets you visited!
On the worksheet your group will be filling out, there is a section regarding how the planet received its name. Your group will be researching the god/goddess that is responsible for the name of the planet. The recorder may need to use a separate sheet of paper to take notes with because this is useful information that you will want to include on your postcard. FYI: for the designer – pictures of the planet and god/goddess is very interesting to advertise on postcards!
At the end of the Webquest, there will be an evaluation that is completed by the teacher. This is where your team project will be critiqued and graded! There is also an evaluation that group members are encouraged to fill out regarding how well the individuals in your group worked together!
Now that your mission has been explained… you are now ready to travel into space. You might want to hold on, the ride can get a little bumpy!
Process
At this point in your mission, you will be arriving and landing on the planets! You will be investigating and exploring your planets and recording your findings on your worksheet. Take the time to dive into the planets and sore through our solar system to learn the fascinating information about our solar system! Remember to have fun, this is exciting stuff!!
Step 1:
With your team, use some of the websites that are provided below to gather all of the necessary information that is on your reporting sheet. If there is not enough space to record your three fun facts about each planet, then you may write them down on a separate piece of paper. Remember to make sure the facts consist of information that is not already on the worksheet!
http://www.planetsforkids.org/planet.html
http://www.kidsastronomy.com/solar_system.htm
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0769141.html
http://www.esa.int/esaKIDSen/SEMF8WVLWFE_OurUniverse_0.html
http://lessonplanspage.com/205mer-html/
http://nineplanets.org/sol.html (Specific information about the Sun)
Step 2:
Now, you have the chance to find out what your age would be on the different planets! The recorder can write down how old each team member would be (in earth years) on the other planets! There is space on your worksheets for the recorder to fill the information out. Make sure to check out when your next birthday is on some of the planets. You may be surprised how long you have to wait to celebrate your birthday on other planets!
You can use this website for your calculations: http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/age/index.html
In addition to the differences in ages on other planets, the different gravitational pull, sizes, and masses of other planets cause your weight to alter. Use the website below to explore the different team members’ weight on all of the planets and the Sun! The recorder can write down all of the results.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/weight/index.html
Step 3:
At this part of the mission, you and your team members need to investigate and record how the planets received their names. The group will need to record where the planet got its name from as well as some facts about the mythological story about the certain god/goddess.
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0875452.html
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/stories/how-the-planets-got-their-names
Step 4:
Wow! You’ve reached the fourth and final step of the mission. Great work, team! This is the most important part of your mission. NASA really needs to be sent postcards from each of the planets, so they can receive firsthand information from real astronauts.
Your team must work together to take all of the information you gathered and create postcards highlighting your visits on the planets. Make the postcards appealing to the eye and be sure to advertise the planets as somewhere one would like to visit (if we could).
Each postcard should contain:
- Name of planet
- Picture of planet
- Picture of God/Goddess
- Size of planet
- Distance from Sun
- How many moons the planet has/if any
- 3 interesting facts you found
This is where the Design Expert can get creative with the design and layout of the postcards! The arrangement is totally up to you, but just make sure the necessary information is on it (mission control would not be happy with you if you forget).
Sadly, it is time to return back to Earth to continue on with the Evaluations… Hope your trip to the planets was out of this world!!! Be sure to visit again soon.
Evaluation
Awesome work on your mission, group members! You all worked very hard for NASA and stepped up to the plate when they needed you the most.
At this time, you need to print and fill out this group evaluation. Within this evaluation, you will evaluate yourself as well as your group members on how well everyone contributed to the work of the group!
Your teacher will be evaluating your projects with the use of this rubric. It is not necessary for you to print it out, but it is a good thing to take a look at to make sure you know what is expected of you for the project.
Conclusion
What’s that in the sky? A bird? A plane? No… it’s just my class returning from their mission safe and sound with amazing information to pass onto NASA. Thank you all for your help! You are great astronauts.
Now does anyone have any withstanding questions? If so please write them down and we can go over them as a class! Great mission, crew! I’m sure NASA knows exactly who to call next time they’re in trouble.
Credits
This webquest was designed for students from grade 3-5. This lesson would take approximately one to two weeks to complete.
This webquest was created to integrate technology into the classroom as well as to wrap up the solar system.
The format of my webquest was inspried from: http://users.zoominternet.net/~eanderson/webquest/index.html
The evaluation form was inspired from: http://www.dailyteachingtools.com/cooperative-learning-evaluate.html
The rubric was inspired from: http://users.zoominternet.net/~eanderson/webquest/RubricTeacherNew.html
The recording sheet was inspired from: http://questgarden.com/26/10/1/060524172659/
Teacher Page
NGSS: Science and Engineering Practices: Analyzing and Interpreting Data
- Analyze data to refine a problem statement or the design of a proposed object, tool, or process.
- Use data to evaluate and refine design solutions.
