The learners will: INTRODUCTION Let's take a trip out of this world into the universe.
Let's go back in history and explore the star maps and
legends of fascinating constellations. Your job will be to complete the activities and projects
that will help us celebrate the stars and the universe. You
will make systematic observations, compare star hemispheres,
compare ideas, and write descriptive,
persuasive, and expository
paragraphs using information taken from the websites. The
Internet will provide you the opportunity to access photos,
sounds, pictures, and information you can use to compare
planets and constellations. You will understand how to use a
document link and how to know if it is credible or not. You
will practice finding useful information amongst all the
advertising on the World Wide Web using Boolean,
truncation, and keyword search techniques. PROCESS b. The following site will help you find facts about
the planets and explore Celestial
objects. Information from these sites will help you with
your assignments. Using a graphic organizer provided,
select two celestial objects and compare and contrast
them. c. Study the Classical
Constellations at this
Northern Hemisphere site. Design your own constellation.
What would you name it? How many stars would you have in
your constellations? Identify the shapes and angles in
your constellation when lines are drawn to connect the
stars. Using a protractor, figure the degree of your
angles. Relating and Communicating - Stories in the
Stars Become acquainted with the constellation list for North
and Solar Polar Constellations myths
and the stories about the sun, the moon, and the stars. Look
for the stories under the pictures. Search the star list at
this site by season. Become acquainted with "wandering stars": the planets and
the myths about them. Compare observations with the myths from early cultures
of the Greek, African, Native American, Chinese, and Ancient
Egyptians. Using a Compare and Contrast graphic organizer, select
one constellation and show how different cultures describe
the same constellation. The constellation you choose to
compare should share at least one star. Orally describe to
another student or staff member what you found. This site will give you guidance on how
to write a myth. Examine the rubric and examples of myth
stories provided at this project site. Select button that
says Teacher's Guide Home. Find and select the
button Grades
6-8 Myths. Read the model stories as you scroll through
the myth genre. Write a myth about your constellation. Use
descriptive
word choices in your paragraph. TASK---INFORMATION LITERACY Information is what we need to know, when we need to know
it. Information is content - the meaning conveyed regardless
of how it is communicated. If we are to find and use
information efficiently, however, we must define the concept
more precisely. Information literacy is the capacity to know
when you need information, what sort you need, where to find
it, and how to organize and evaluate it. (Lane, Chisholm,
Mateer 2000:2). The ability to access, retrieve, and
evaluate information could even be considered part of the
definition of literacy itself. As Breivik and Gee stated
(1989:23): "In an era when today's truths" become tomorrow's
outdated concepts, individuals who are unable to gather
pertinent information are almost as helpless as those who
are unable to read and write." The activities that follow relate to teaching critical
evaluation skills for the World Wide Web. Read through all the following information before you
begin the activities. TASK---LITERATURE AND HISTORY CONNECTIONS TO THE
CONSTELLATIONS Your job is to understand the relationship star
navigation played in the history of early explorers and
fugitive slaves who sometimes used spiritual music as a
secret code. This chapter in history is illustrated by
several episodes in the life of Harriet
Tubman in slavery, her escape to Freedom
in Canada, and her role in the Underground
Railroad. EVALUATION Assessment of the activities will include the following:
the reflective process, self-evaluation process, graphic
organizer analysis, conference, parent survey, discussion
guides, project evaluation form, six trait rubrics for
scoring writing, and performance demonstration for
successful search online. CONCLUSION If you enjoyed the journey toward information literacy
while traveling into the universe, you may want to practice
using these skills while visiting other sites listed
below. Other Project SMART sites listed by subject This astronomy
site has a great main category index. This site has more
astronomy. This site Space
Telescope Science is easy to navigate through. Jovian
and Terrestrial Planet information can be found at this
site This NASA
site explains in detail the Terrestrial and Jovian Planets
and the basics of space flight. World maps of all
kinds that can be viewed online and/or printed. Altitude
Calculator definition and activity is located at this
site. Complete sun
and moon data for one day. Can find sunrise and sunset
times worldwide. Asteroids
and anything you ever wanted to know about the solar system.
Gives index to universe. Observing Meteor
Calendar Meteors
and Meteorites Links to dinosaur disappearance. invision.esu3.org/
Invision
Project REFERENCES
Beyond The SMART Project
……….. Extending Lessons
Reaching For The
Stars
TASKa. To identify the night sky
around you, click this sky map. Select the phrase "Low
in the western skies". Click in the map to aim the
telescope and enlarge the images. Click on the center of
the round shere to enlarge images.
