Forums

Hello everyone, I am currently a student teacher for a eighth grade Science class. We will be doing a unit on are solar system and I had an idea that would require the students to develop a space station on the moon. My idea is to divide the class into three separate groups; marketing team, design team, and resource team. Because I am only a student teacher, I really have no idea how this will go. So, I was wondering if anyone would like to give me some ideas, warnings, or advice. Also I was thinking of trying to keep this as open-ended as possible. First, I really do not know what I can expect from eighth graders. Second, I feel if I provide them with a sample of what I expect than I either limit their creativity or overwhelm them. I plan to continuously monitor their progress so that they will certainly fulfill my expectations. All suggestions are welcomed and thank-you.

Here is a NASA lesson for students to build and design a plant growth chamber for life on the moon (could be adapted to another planet, if needed). Very much an inquiry lesson. You can even order seeds that have actually been to outer space. I personally haven't done this lesson, as I'm a new teacher and seem to be already running out of time in this 4th and last qtr. Good luck. http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/plantgrowth/home/index.html

Ken, Thank you for the link on Nasa's lunar plant growth! A group of teachers at our school were brainstorming different integrated projects that our students could do. One of the ideas we came up with was having our students design a center on the moon that could sustain life. They would have to budget wisely and design all aspects of the center. It sounded great when we discussed it, but when it came down to designing the project it went downhill. We were stuck on the details and how to go about implementing the project. The lunar plant growth challenge seemed similar and is definitely much more organized than what we would have been able to come up with in a limited amount of time. Thanks again!

Role-playing and simulations are outstanding ways of getting students engaged in investigative learning, as well as being sure that the lesson takes into consideration the students' different learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc.) In terms of whether or not a lesson like this would be appropriate for students in eighth grade: I do similar activities with students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, and they have definitely learned a lot from such experiences. I have even integrated elements of STEM, particularly those of robotics, remote sensing, and practicing the scientific process, into these scenarios to make the lesson both more rigorous and more relevant to the types of tasks that would undertaken in the real world (see topic entitled "Solar System Exploration and Elementary-Level Robotics"). Given that these younger students could get so much out these lessons, I'm sure that your eighth-graders would be able to also. Depending on what exactly you want your students to do, there are several different tools and sources of information that you can have them draw upon to use in various parts of the lesson. Do you want them to find water on the moon (biology, use of instruments, engineering a new type of technology that can do the job)? Do you want them to figure out how water can be brought to the moon (engineering, math involving weight, mass, fuel consumption, cost, etc.)? Do you want them to figure out how to filter and reuse water (chemistry, engineering a filtration device, building a model)? Are you going to have them do anything beyond just water? Take a look at the attached lesson plans which were developed by NASA and see if there is anything that you might want to integrate into your unit. You may also want to check out the following: http://science.howstuffworks.com/what-if-moon-colony.htm

Attachments

Lunar_Colonization.pdf (13.02 Mb)

Lunar_Lander.pdf (3.68 Mb)

Sustainability_of_a_Lunar_Colony.pdf (1.36 Mb)