Introduction
Students will become interstellar explorers tasked with finding the next planet for people to inhabit. They will search to discover livable and non-livable features of objects in our solar system. You and a partner will need to hop into your spacecrafts and visit four planets in hopes of finding a planet that we could eventually call our own! Certainly we will run into issues with other planets sustaining life (otherwise we would already be there right?), so be creative and come up with ways people could combat any planetary features that be detrimental to human existence.
Task
You will be partnered up with a classmate to keep each other company on your voyage. After all, interplanetary travel isn't a trip to the town over is it? You both have been selected to travel our solar system in search of a planet that the people of Earth can colonize.
You can name your space craft and choose the planets you think might have the best features for the first colonial space station! You will need to find out different features of each planet you visit that could be positive features in order for colonization to be possible. You will also need to inform us of the features of the planet that aren't helpful for good living conditions.
You will then need to make your judgement on which of the four planets you visited is the best choice to try and colonize. Why did you make this choice? What were the most important features to your exploration team? What can be done to counteract the negative features that would keep life from thriving on this planet? While visiting these planets you will keep a journal of the information you gather in order to come to a well thought out conclusion on where to start our colony.
Process
Day 1
Go here and get a good visual of the planets to help decide which planets you will want to be touring. This is also another good place to get starter information and visuals of planet sizes. Go over the planets and get a good idea of which ones you think are worth your time to travel to. Remember, space travel costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time so make sure these are educated choices with a purpose behind them!
Day 2
Blast off! Today is the day you start your quest across our solar system! Don't forget your journals because you won't be back to Earth for quite some time. Your cruising in state of the art space traveling ships so you can go 25 miles every second. We need to know how long you'll be gone so make sure you calculate that for us while your traveling from planet to planet. You'll be traveling covering two planets today.
1. http://www.theplanetstoday.com/the_planets.html
2. http://space-facts.com/planets/
3. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/
Day 3
We'll be covering the other two planets that you chose today! Make sure you're thinking of things like temperature, what the terrain is made of, atmosphere and all the other things we take for granted here on Earth!
2. https://www.space.com/16080-solar-system-planets.html
Day 4
Welcome home! You've returned to Earth and it's time to get all fo your information from your journals together and ready to present!
Day 5
Present you choices and conclusion to the class!
Evaluation
|
|
Task Completed |
Task Not Completed |
|
Chose four different planets to visit and explore for colonization. |
|
|
|
Calculated the distance and time the travels will take. |
|
|
|
Creatively come up with ideas to combat negative living conditions. |
|
|
|
Kept journal of the information gathered during interplanetary travels. |
|
|
|
Presented information and conclusions to the class. |
|
|
Conclusion
Students will have a deeper understanding of the other planets around them. It will also create a much deeper appreciation for the features and uniqueness of Earth after completing this WebQuest. They will also reinforce their writing, vocabulary and note-taking skills while using their journals. Finally, they will improve their public speaking skills when giving the presentation to the class.