Planet Research Project

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/units/SpaceExploration/Planet.proj.html

by

Phil Norman

Introduction

You are a scientist investigating the possibilty of human life existing elsewhere in our solar system. You and your research team will be assigned a planet to investigate. You are trying to answer the question: "Could life exist on your planet?"

The Task

You are assigned the task of investigating your assigned planet. You and your team nust present a report analyzing your planets surface, atmosphere, and composition. You will need to provide the rest of the research project teams with enough information to assist you in the decision. You will need to provide the following products at the end of your research.

Resources

You will be provided with enough books and papers in the classroom to conduct your research.

Luc's Homepage is an excellent resource on the internet to find additional information about your planet.

The Process

To accomplish the task, you will need to provide your research associates with the following products.
  1. INFORMATION - you must tell the class about your planet. You may present the information anyway that your group decides. You may write the information on note cards and read it to the class or you may write it out as a report and read that. You may have one person give all of the oral information or you may have each of the group members present parts of it. You must fully explain your planet so that your classmates understand it . This part of your project should take quite a bit of reading and note taking. You need to organize your information so that you can present it clearly to the class.

  2. NOTES - you must write down the most important facts of your information for your classmates to copy. Please type it. You need to give it to me at least the day before your presentation and I will make an overhead transparency for you to use.

  3. DIAGRAM - you need to make a drawing of your planet. It must be LARGE so that everyone can see it. It must cover the whole sheet of white paper. It should be completely labeled. All labels should be LARGE enough to be seen from the back of the room. Please do it in color.

  4. MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS - you will be designing the test to be given at the end of the presentations. Please make sure that your questions cover the facts that are most important to your planet.

Learning Advice

Evaluation

You will be evaluated as a group with input from each of your group members. Your performance will be graded at the end of the week, after your group presentations. You will use the following criteria to assess your group.

GROUP ASSESSMENT- please write the name of each person in your group. List exactly what they did to prepare for the presentation. Then give them a grade for their efforts. Each group member should do an assessment for all other group members.

  1. Beginning - they did very little to help or they were disruptive.
  2. Developing - they helped but often needed to be reminded to focus and to finish their assigned responsibilities
  3. Accomplished - they worked hard to help the group prepare for their presentation. For example, they read and took notes for the oral report, they helped to write the notes for the class, they helped to draw the diagram, and they wrote and edited some of the multiple choice questions for the test.
  4. Exemplary -they did most of the work on the presentation. They did the majority of the reading, wrote almost all of the notes, did the drawing and labeling for the diagram and wrote most of the questions for the test.

Conclusion

At the end of this activity you will become the resident expert on your planet and be able to assist the other research teams in assessing whether or not life will be able to exist on their planet.

Last updated May 21, 1996. Return to the Space Exploration Unit Page