The Golden Record has a collection of songs, sounds, greetings and images of Earth. So, each student chose a song, sound, greeting and picture to represent them. They put all of this information on a website that they created. Next year, we’re thinking it would be a good fit at the beginning of the year. It allows you to learn more about your students, so it would be an awesome getting to know you activity. It is also a great way to embed digital skills with content, especially since our 6th grade students are going 1:1 with Chromebooks next year. Students used Google Suite products (Google Classroom, Google Slides, Google Drive, Google Docs and Google Sites) to share their information. If your school doesn’t use Google products, there are other ways, but Google is the most user friendly. We used the Science Learning through Engineering Design (SLED) structure, mentioned in previous blog posts. The great thing about the SLED structure is that it has both an individual component and team component, so students get to share their voice, but also need to learn how to collaborate with others for a successful product. It’s not just a science project. It also involves language arts, social studies, technology and engineering standards. It is a very student-driven project. We were guides and facilitators. We would begin each day with a recap of what we’d done the previous day and what student tasks needed to be completed. Mission ObjectivesHere are the objectives that students were working on achieving by the end of the project. Content and language objectives are part of the SIOP Model, which is to help educators meet the needs of English Language Learners. I've also found that it's a great way to begin a lesson and allows for consistency. I have different students read the objectives. When planning a lesson, it helps me pinpoint what exactly I want the kiddos to do. I think it also helps the kiddos be in the know. For big projects, I write a set of objectives that I want the students to meet by the end of the project. I don't write separate ones each day. Content Objectives: (What are we going to learn about?)
Day 1> Design brief - Paragraph summary of background information related to the challenge. After students read the design brief, they are able to identify the following elements listed below. > Identification - Problem, Goal, Client, End-user, Criteria, Constraints > Individual Design Chart - 3 potential options for each category (song, sound, picture and greeting) and reason for each option. If you run out of class time for students to work on this, it would be a good homework assignment. It's all about them and their opinions, so it's not something that they need explanation or much support. Day 2> Finish Individual Chart, if needed > Team Brainstorm - The focus was on sharing ALL of their options for ONLY one of the four categories (image, song, sound OR greeting) from their Individual Chart. We told students to choose a category that they were having a hard time narrowing down to one option and would benefit from feedback. Each student had uninterrupted time to share their options from their chosen category. This was followed by warm and cool feedback statements from group members. > Create Google Site -> Each lab group created one Google Site. Each group member got one page on the group site. Students had to create a descriptive title. Add ALL group members as collaborators. Add one page/student in the group. Day 3> Work Time - Individual Design Tasks Students worked through a checklist and had specific components for each category (picture, song, sound and greeting). Students were able to view Screencastify video demonstrations to help them with these tasks, if needed. Day 4> Work Time - Individual Design Tasks continued Day 5The Documentary is available to purchase on the PBS website or you can watch it on Netflix, Amazon or iTunes. We did not have time to watch the documentary, but it is a great resource. It is ~97 minutes long. **Depending on the age of your students, be aware that there are images of the human body and reproductive system at minute 9 and minute . It would be good to watch before the unit, during the unit (15 mins/day) or afterwards as a wrap-up activity. > Reflection - Journal Entry Questions > Web Design Reveal - Students had their website pages up on their Chromebook screens. Students rotated to another group member's seat and reviewed their website page. They were able to listen to the song chosen. Students shared warm and cool feedback on post-its. Warm and cool feedback is something we'd working on before. Warm feedback is a statement that starts with I like how... and provides positive observations of the work . Cool feedback is a statement that starts with I wonder if... and provide ideas for improvement. The best part of the project was reading student reflection after the project. Students answered questions in a Google Form. Some questions were rating scales, but we got the most information from were the open ended questions. I was so impressed with the thought and consideration that they put into their answers: - Before this design challenge I... - After this design challenge I... - How would you describe this project/what you learned/were able to do? Here are some student statements to answer the last question. "This project was definitely one of my favorites this year. I loved how you got to mix your personal life with a awesome space project. I learned how to use google sites, and I learned space and many other things can tie to you in many ways." The logbook, video demonstration links and The Farthest- Voyager in Space Documentary questions will be added to my TPT store.
Peace, love and space exploration, - CAPCOM Conrad
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AuthorApollo 13 fan. Educator. Lifelong Learner. Third generation Boilermaker. Space Exploration Enthusiast. Collaborator. Click Subscribe to stay updated!Archives
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