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Unit Plan |
Earth's Place in the Cosmos
Jody-Lee Moro
Weston Middle School
Weston, MA |
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AGI, TERC, and their employees do not warrant the completeness, accuracy, appropriateness,
and/or safety of the procedures, materials, and content contained herein.
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Stage 1: Identify Desired Results |
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Unit Description |
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Students will start their investigation of the Exosphere by looking at how scientists measure distance and time in Astronomy. Students will create scale models of the Earth-moon-sun system, the solar system, galaxies and universe in order to deepen their understanding of Earth's place in the universe. |
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Relationship to the Big Ideas in Earth Science: |
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18: The Earth exists in the solar system, in the Milky Way galaxy, and in the universe, which contains many billions of galaxies.
21: Earth scientists use representations and models, such as contour maps and satellite images to help them understand the Earth.
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Unit Enduring Understandings: |
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- The scale relationships of the Earth, sun and moon are important for understanding astronomical processes and observed phenomena.
- The scale relationships between astronomical objects are important for understanding the nature and structure of the universe.
- The Earth is just one planet in a solar system in a galaxy filled with billions of stars in a universe filled with billions of galaxies.
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Unit Essential Questions: |
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- How do you measure distance and time in the universe?
- What are the scale relationships among the Earth, moon, sun, stars, Milky Way and other galaxies?
- How does the size of the Earth compare to the size and structure of the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy and the universe?
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What students will need to know and be able to do (knowledge and skills): |
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- Light years and astronomical units are units of distance in Astronomy.
- Light travels in straight lines.
- Stars emit light in all directions.
- When you look at the light from stars, you are seeing them as they appeared in the past.
- Scientists use ratios and proportions to create scale models of the Earth-moon-sun system, the solar system, and galaxies in order to understand size and distance in the universe.
6. Compare and contrast the structure of the solar system, galaxies and the universe.
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What do students typically misunderstand? |
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1. The solar system is 2-dimensional.
2. The universe is infinite.
3. A light year is a unit of time.
4. With in a galaxy the stars are close together ("blobs of stars").
5. The earth is the center of the solar system.
6. There is only one galaxy- the Milky Way.
7. Stars are small dots of light.
8. Stars seen in the night sky are part of the solar system.
9. The apparent size of the sun is bigger than the moon.
10. A galaxy is the same thing as the solar system. |
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Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence |
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What is the Goal of the performance? |
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For the Ademordnian's to get from their home in the Adromeda galaxy to Washington D.C. on earth. |
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What Role does the student assume in the performance? |
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SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) scientist |
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A |
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What Audience does the student address? |
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Fellow scientists and the Ademordnian's. |
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What is the Situation for the performance? |
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An alien civilization that calls themselves the Ademordnian's has contacted SETI in Arizona. This event has been major news for the last two weeks. The Ademordnian's are a friendly civilization that have the technology to send five diplomats to planet Earth. The spacecraft they plan on using can travel at speeds close to the speed of light. The United States government would like to welcome the alien visitors to our planet as soon as possible. |
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P |
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What Product should be produced? |
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Your job is to create a tour guide that the Ademordnian's can use to get from the Andromeda galaxy to planet Earth. |
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What are the Standards for the product? |
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You will need to include the following in the tour guide in order for the Ademordnian's to reach planet Earth:
1. Length of time it will take the Ademordnian's to get from:
A. Andromeda galaxy to Milky Way galaxy.
B. Milky Way galaxy to the Sun in the solar system.
C. Sun to planet Earth.
D. Planet Earth to Washington D.C.
2. The distance from the Andromeda galaxy to the Milky Way galaxy in light years.
3. The distance from the outer fringes of the Milky Way galaxy to the sun in light years.
4. The distance from the sun to planet Earth in light years and Astronomical Units.
5. The distance from the upper atmsophere of planet Earth to Washington D.C. in miles and kilometers.
5. Maps to scale of the following:
A. Andromeda galaxy to the Milky Way galaxy.
B. Milky Way galaxy to the sun in the solar system.
C. Sun to planet Earth.
D. Planet Earth's upper atmosphere to Washington D.C.
6. What the Ademordnian's will see along the way as they travel from:
A. Andromeda galaxy to the Milky Way galaxy.
B. Milky Way galaxy to the sun in the solar system.
C. Sun to planet Earth.
D. Planet Earth to Washington D.C.
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Preconception Survey: |
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1. How big do you think the solar system is? The Milky Way galaxy? The universe?
2. How many galaxies do you think are in the universe? How many stars might be in a galaxy? How many star(s) might be in a solar system?
3. What do you think a galaxy is? What do you think a solar system is?
4. What do you think a light year is? What do you think an astronomical unit is?
5. How close do you think the nearest star to the sun is? How far away do think the sun is from Earth?
6. Do you think the universe is mostly full of stars and galaxies or do you think it is mostly empty space? Explain. |
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Quizzes, Tests, and Academic Prompts: |
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Pre-conception Quiz.
Scale Models Quiz (Math: scale factors, ratios, proportions etc.).
Informal open repsonse questions for homework.
Journal reflections.
Final Quiz.
Post-conception Quiz. |
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Other Evidence: |
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Questions raised by students.
Observations made by teacher during class discussion.
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Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences, Instruction, and Resources |
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Use WHERETO as a guide to describe the learning experiences, instructional strategies, and resources you will use to help students
address the essential questions of the unit and achieve deep understanding of the big ideas. |
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W:
1. Pre-Conception Quiz.
2. Explain the outline, purpose and goals of the unit to students and mention the performance assessment we will be working toward.
3. Students will write down the Essential Questions in their journals.
Essential Question: How do we measure distance and time in the universe?
#1. Knowledge and Skills: Light travels in straight lines.
#2. Knowledge and Skills: Stars emit light in all directions.
#3. Knowledge and Skills: Light years and astronomical units are units of distance that scientists use in astronomy.
NOTE ORGANIZATION: EACH NUMBER PRECEDING THE LETTER BELOW MATCHES THE KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS FROM ABOVE. STUDENTS WILL LEARNING OR DEMONSTRATING SKILL OF THE ESSENTIAL QUESTION FROM ABOVE.
How will you hook students through engaging and thought provoking experiences?
H#1: Laser demonstration. Shine a laser beam on the ceiling and ask students to start sharing with each other (class discussion) what they know about light. Throw some chalk into the air around the beam of light and ask students to share their observations. Alternatively, shine the laser beam into a fish tank and talk about what students observe.
H#3: Show five minute clip from the movie “Star Wars” in which Hans Solo takes his spaceship to light speed, discuss the following:
1. Is this possible?
2. How long would it take even if it were possible?
3. Where in the universe might he be? How do you know?
What events, real or simulated, can students experience to make the ideas and issues real?
E#1, 2: “Project Star: The Universe in Your Hands.” Students will complete a small activity which proves that light travels in straight lines and emits light in all directions.
E#3: Activity: Students will complete Activity A, to compare distances between objects in the solar system and nearby stars using light years and astronomical units. As a class we will discuss Activity B. Click on the following link to reach the activity on the Internet:
Click here for a link to the activity.
How will you cause students to reflect and rethink to dig deeper into the core ideas?
R#1: “Project Star: The Universe in Your Hands.” Students will work in pairs to respond to the following questions about the campfire scenario. Students will share their answers during class discussion.
R#2: Show clip from film “Contact” in which SETI scientists receive signals from the star Vega. The signal comes out of Adolph Hitler’s speech… Have students work in pairs to create an explanation that explains why there is a time difference.
How will students exhibit their understanding?
E#1: “Project Star: The Universe in Your Hands.” Demonstration: Students will watch the demonstration and individually respond to the following questions:
• Explain what you saw happen regarding the beam of light.
• Why does this happen? Explain.
Teacher will read the journal entries and individually respond to students.
E#2: Self-Evaluation: On computer- Light Years Mind Game:
Students will look at different images and see how far back in time they are (how many light years). In their journals, students will explain why astronomical units are an appropriate unit of distance for the Solar System but light years are a more appropriate unit of distance for galaxies and the universe.
Link: http://school.discovery.com/schooladventures/universe/itsawesome/lightyears/
Essential Question: What are the scale relationships among the earth, moon, sun, stars, Milky Way and other galaxies?
Essential Question: How does the size of the earth compare to the size and structure of the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy and the universe?
#1 Knowledge and Skills: Scientists use ratios and proportions to create scale models of the universe in order to interpret size and distance in the universe.
#2 Knowledge and Skills: When you look at light from stars you are seeing them as they appeared in the past..
#3 Knowledge and Skills: Compare and contrast the structure of the solar system, galaxies and the universe.
NOTE ORGANIZATION: EACH NUMBER PRECEDING THE LETTER MATCHES THE KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS FROM ABOVE STUDENTS WILL LEARN OR USE TO ANSWER THE ESSENTIAL QUESTION FROM ABOVE.
How will you hook students through engaging and thought provoking experiences?
H#1: Have 6 balls in the front of the classroom: basketball, soccer ball, beach ball, tennis ball, ping pong ball, and softball. Ask students to think about (in pairs) which two balls most accurately represent the scale relationship (in terms of size) between the Earth and moon. Have a short class discussion about predictions. The answers will be given on a chart at the end of class for students to compare and discuss.
H#1, 2: Students will watch the Eams video: “Power’s of Ten” and write a reflection on it. We will discuss reflections as a class in terms of how big the universe is and logical ways to think about distance in the universe.
H#2, 3: Students will be given the URL for the Astronomy Visualization Picture of the Day: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html and asked to write down in their journals (while discussing with partners) as many observations as they can make about the image they are looking at (local cluster of galaxies). Give some prompts such as:
1. How far away from the Milky Way do you think these galaxies are?
2. How many stars do you think are in an average galaxy?
3. Look closely at their shapes- are they the same, how are they different?
H#2, 3: Read an excerpt from one of Stephen Hawking’s books on the universe (A Brief History of Time, the Universe in a Nutshell). Discuss with students:
1. How big do you think the universe is?
2. Can we ever really know about how big it is?
3. Is it possible to create a scale model of the universe?
What events, real or simulated, can students experience to make the ideas and issues real?
E#1: In groups students will be asked how they would go about creating a scale model for size and distance of the earth and moon system, they will write their thoughts in their journals. After brief class discussion of the possible methods, in groups students will be given the URL: http://www.clarkfoundation.org/astro-utah/snippets/scrunch4.htm and follow the steps to see how to scale the earth and moon system in terms of size and distance. Class discussion will follow.
E#1, 3: Scale Models of the Solar System:
Students will build a scale model of the solar system both in terms of distance and then in terms of size of the planets.
Link: http://cosmos.colorodo.edu/~urquhart/stars/solar_system.html
For students who have trouble with the online activity, students can do a more simple version of a scale model of planets to size and distance on graph paper.
E#1, 2, 3: Scale Models of Galaxies (the local group):
Give each group of students a different galaxy from the local cluster (Magellenic Clouds, Andromeda galaxy etc.). On their pie plate galaxy give students distance from Milky Way in light years and angle to Milky Way. The students job is to figure out to scale (in the classroom) how far away from the Milky Way each galaxy is and then come together through class discussion about how to arrange the local group in the classroom.
How will you cause students to reflect and rethink to dig deeper into the core ideas?
R#1, 2: Show Discovery School Video (about 10 minutes) "Scaling the Solar System." Have discussion about how the students and scientists went about creating a scale model of the solar system in Peoria, Illinois. Have model cars and airplanes around the room to spark discussion about how and why one goes about creating scale models.
R#1, 2: Give an example to students of a textbook diagram of the solar system- ask them to describe what is incorrect (or correct) about the diagram and why it may be misleading to readers, they will record their thoughts in their journal. Reference: Holt Earth Science Copyright: 1992.
R#1, 2, 3: Visualization: http://www.anzwers.org/free/universe/localgr.html
Discuss with students the image of the local group of galaxies and compare and contrast what they see on the screen with the scale model they created in class.
1. How are they alike? How are they different?
2. What are the limitations of a scale mode?
In journals have students reflect on their experiences in class: “2 things you learned today and 2 things you are unclear about.”
R# 2, 3: Visualization: http://imgrsc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2003/18/images/a/formats/web_print.jpg
Students will bring up this image on the webpage and read the background information about the Hubble telescope than look at the image:
In groups of three students will discuss:
1. How much of the sky is represented in this image?
2. Are you looking at stars or galaxies? How do you know?
They will elect one spokesperson to explain to the class their thoughts and we’ll have a discussion.
How will students exhibit their understanding?
Quiz: How to create scale models (math).
Quiz: Relative size and structure of Earth, moon, sun system, solar system, Milky Way Galaxy, local group and universe.
Post Conception Quiz
GRASP Activity/ Project
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