Sequence: The planets

Sequence Information
Sequence: The planets
Description:
This sequence helps students research, discuss and share facts about our solar system. The sequence is designed to help students with a research assignment.

Keywords:The Planets, The solar system, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto

Subject:Astronomy

Audience:Year 9 (NZ), Yr 8 (Australia)

Run time:One hour of class time, extra time for research after the class

Delivery Mode: Blended - computer lab + self study

Resources:

Outline of Activities:
1.    Introduction the topic .
Tool:  HTML Noticeboard

2.    Information on the Research Assignment is given out with detail on how to complete this.
Tool:  HTML Noticeboard

3.    Students are asked questions on the solar system.
What does it consist of?
How many planets are there? Name them in the order starting with the closest to the sun.
These questions should be revision.
Tool: Q&A

4.    Students can check their answers to the previous set of questions by looking at a jpeg image of the solar system.
Tool: HTML Noticeboard

5.    Students are given two mnemonics (memory aids) for learning the order of the planets. They are also given the opportunity to come up with their own mnemonic.
Tool: Q&A

6.    This screen shows students who is in their group and also groups them for the chat session that follow. Students can revisit this page via the progress bar at any point in the lesson.
Tool: Grouping

7.    This activity is designed to get students thinking about what life would be like on the other planets before they read the material. Students are asked to discuss - the surface, temperature, atmosphere, day length, year length.
Tool: Chat

8.    Give students the worksheet they will need to fill out. This can also be filled out online if students have a place to store it on the school system. The level of research for this activity is quite simple at this stage. Students will get to choose their planet and do more in depth research in the following shared resources tool.
Tool: Shared Resources

9.    Students get to vote on the planet they would find most interesting to visit. Ask students to be patient and see how the rest of the class has voted. Remind students they can always revisit this activity via the progress bar to see how the tally is going.
Tool: Voting

10.    Students should now have a better idea on which planet they will choose for their research project. In this activity they should only focus on this planet. Students should be encouraged to share interesting information they find in the forum. This activity will take the most time. Tell students they can access the sequence at home or in the library if they would like to have access to the resources. If students click ‘finish’ on either the shared resources or the forum, they can access them again through the progress bar on the left.

Don’t forget to remind students that they can search Google for images and that they can add interesting websites if they want to.
Tool: Shared Resources and Forum

Audience:
Subjects:
Language: English
LAMS Version: 1.0.2
License: Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike
Support Files:
Name Size (bytes) Date Uploaded
Student_Handout.doc 36352 11/17/05 05:57 PM
Planets_t_notes.doc 171008 11/17/05 05:57 PM
Research_assignment.doc 1519104 11/17/05 05:58 PM
Sharing with: Everyone in Public
Status: Deprecated
Average Rating: 4.0 stars (4). Based on 2 reviews.
Number of downloads: 336 times
Number of previews: 0 times
Authored By:   Karen Baskett
Date: 17 November 2005 05:55 PM
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