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| Lesson History |
| School |
Franklin Middle School |
| Class |
8th Grade Science |
| Date(s) |
October 16, 2003 |
| Learning Objective |
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To Review Planetary Positions and Features
Students will be able to identify
planets by name, relative distance from the sun, or
photograph.
| National Standard(s) |
| Sci.V.4.MS.2. Describe, compare, and explain the motions of planets, moons, and comets in the solar system. (Key Concepts: Orbit, year, spin, axis, gravity, moons, rings, comets. Also see Motion of Objects benchmarks. Real-world contexts: Map showing the motions of the planets, comets, moon and its phases. |
| Driving Question |
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How does Earth relate to compare to other planets
and moons?
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| as Related
to Objective |
| What are the planets, and what are conditions like on them? This part of the unit is an assessment that students have gotten at least the most basic information down for each of the planets: location and/or image. |
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| Activity |
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| Instructor Preparation |
| Gather GeoSafaris and planet cards from other teachers. |
| Materials Needed |
| Resource |
What is it? |
File(s) |
| GeoSafari Planet Card |
GeoSafari is an electronic game. LED's light up on the side next to the name of the planet to be found. In the center there is a picture with all the planets, the moon, the sun, the asteroid belt, and a comet. Each picture has a number, and the student enters the number to indicate which planet was indicated by the LED.
There are many GeoSafari cards. The only one useful to me is the one on planets. |
None. |
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| Instructional Strategies
(Science Instruction pg. 244) |
| Game |
| Instructional Sequence |
- Free Play -- Students are allowed to play with the GeoSafari's in pairs to warm up. They have used them before in Social Studies, so they shouldn't need too much in the way of direction.
- Start Competition -- Double elimination round robin tournament.
- Award Ceremony -- Congratulate the top teams.
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| Assessment |
| This can be a combination of informal assessment and scores from the players. It is as important that they learn some of the planets they are not experts on as it is that they show what they know. |
| Rationale |
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Why
am I doing what I am doing?
- Objective -- The planets are on the MEAP and I want to make sure they at least got the basic information down, even though they should be learning a lot more.
- Sequence -- If you are going to have a competition, it is good to give students some practice first.
- Assessment -- What I like about this activity is that it not only shows the students how well they're doing (with some privacy from the teacher), but also helps them to learn more. As they practice, or even as they play, they may guess about planets they are uncertain of. The game gives them immediate feedback--whether they are right or not--and they continue to play. Informal assessment should therefore be sufficient, but the computer gives a score /42 if I should be so inclined. In any case I have the winner and her or his score.
- Parts & Whole -- I feel this is a fun way to start wrapping up a unit. It ensures that students are getting at least the most basic information out of their research projects, and should be good review for the MEAP.
- Technique -- If people have not already gotten this information through lecture, research, journal discussions, or asking for help, I don't know of a better way to help them really remember this stuff.
| How it Went/Lessons
Learned |
| I ran into two main problems with this lesson: I only got two GeoSafaris from the Social Studies teacher (I later found out there were more elsewhere in the school), and we didn't have enough time to run a competition because students were still researching their planets. What I wound up doing was giving each table of 4 both GeoSafaris for 5 minutes, and then they were passed around the room. I found this worked well, although it would have been nice to give them more time with the GeoSafaris. It also seemed that not everyone had played the GeoSafari before as I had to show some students how to enter the code for the planets. This was not a major problem though. |
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