April 22 - May 3
In the final module, course participants are expected to develop and implement a Comparative Planetology Lesson Plan.
- Introduction & Perspective
- Assigned Readings
- Study Questions & Problems
- Individual Activities
- Checklist
- Discussion Questions
Most of our focus for this module is the lesson plans. The reading is of other people's plans.
Show a synthesis of the course by writing a summary of your world. Your approach can be creative; the important thing is to go beyond numbers and dry facts, and capture some character of your world in the context of comparative planetology.
Because of the nature of the final project, there are no text readings assigned for this module. Read the lesson plans submitted by others.
Because of the nature of the final project, there are no questions or problems to address in this module.
Individual Activities:
First, post the current version of your lesson plan to the main conference duringg the FIRST week of the module. You will also post this to the homework conference, when final. This must be submitted within the text of a message, not as an attachment. Your lesson plan is your final project, and the work associated with it - and the entire final module - counts as 25% of your grade. SEE PROJECT REQUIREMENTS.
Second, post a summary of your
world to the main conference. The summary may include
straight information, but what I'm really looking for is
some insight into the world. What is the most interesting
thing about your world? Does it make a good example for
highlighting some aspect of comparative planetology? Can it
help us understand Earth or ourselves better?
If you do give general information, please also express it
in meaninful terms: where is your world located? How big is
it, compared to something within human experience? What
would it be like to be there? Note that chemical atmospheres
can be described in terms of smells & tastes, surfaces
have texture as well as color, one might have a sense of
weight or lightness, freedom or difficulty of movement,
interesting sky or light sources, give you interesting
abilities (could you jump and achieve orbit?), or other
things. DO NOT take these questions and answer them
literally; DESCRIBE your world and TELL US what's
interesting about it. (If you're feeling creative, you
might write a travel brochure or travelog. This is not at
all required.)
Finally, read other people's preliminary lesson plans. Give substantial feedback to at least three lesson drafts. Give priority to lesson drafts which have not had substantial feedback yet. (This means that people who post their lesson drafts early have an advantage, and people who give early feedback have the widest choice.) Bring in (cite online sources, summarize other sources and tell how to get them) information and activities to support or extend the various lesson plans. Help each other make sure the science is accurate, the lessons support the National Science Education Standards and state or local standards, the lessons respect diverse learning styles and student inquiries, etc. You may wish to help others find the appropriate Science Standards that match their idea or lesson, and other, interdisciplinary ties.
FINAL
PROJECT:
(instead of homework)
Submit your final lesson plan to HW Submissions BY FRIDAY, MAY 3, preferably prefaced with:
"The following lesson plan can be distributed and used freely, as long as full, attributed copies (including this message and the original source) are included."
If you don't wish to give this permission, please substitute another statement that spells out what permissions, if any, you're willing to grant. A certain amount of sharing is expected, given that this course has been supported by public funding.
1. Submit final lesson plan to main Module 7 conference and homework conference.
2. Submit world summary to Module 7 and homework conferences.
3. Critique at least 3 other lesson plans.
Post the required products to the M-7 conference folder, and provide feedback to other course participants.
Montana State University
last updated 5/5/02