"A System In The Sky"

1. To clarify students' misconceptions about the sun, earth, and moon system through the use of technology.
2. To provide real-life pictures and virtual representations of the sun, earth, and moon which will lead to further excitement and involvement in the science concepts.
3. To provide a fun-filled learning environment that will enhance the students critical thinking, while helping the students to become more comfortable with technology that is used in classrooms and businesses today.
   

Lesson 2:
This lesson was used to further the students knowledge about what factors affect size.  We  used a pre-made experiment web on Kidspiration that walked the students through the basic steps of the scientific method.  (We will be using this web for each of the remaining activities that we do throughout the unit).

Lesson 3:
Our third lesson was used to increase students' understanding about how many is 1 million.  This will increase their awareness of just how big the sun is compared to the earth and moon.  We used Excel to implement this lesson.

Lesson 4:
One of our reading groups performed the "Planet Parade" for one of the first grade classes in our school.  During their performance the students were using a microphone and one of the students not in the play was recording it with our school camera.  We then downloaded the play onto a DVD so that it could be played back to the students on the monitors in our classrooms.

Lesson 5:
This lesson was used to demonstrate the ability of using a computer web to help them learn successful studying habits.  This will also help them integrate the information learned in the past lessons of the unit as well as in upcoming lessons.  We used Kidspiration's web building to implement this lesson.  (The web will be expanded upon with each new lesson that we do in class).

Lesson 6:
This lesson exposed the students to fun, interesting and informational websites that furthered their understanding of the unit.  These websites were available for their use during independent work times.  This lesson also offered us the opportunity to discuss safety issues about internet use with the class.  This kid-friendly list of websites was sent home with the students.

Lesson 7:
We divided this lesson up into three groups.  One group created the moon phases on the computer and found the phases of the moon off of one of the websites that we had given them. Another group of students created a lunar calendar using PowerPoint.  They also used the internet to find a lunar calendar. Last, we had a group of students working on creating a space facts game on the computer.  They collected the facts that they needed and worked as a group to decide how  they wanted their game to work.  They used Kidspiration to create their games.  These games were available on our two computers in the classroom for students to use during specified times of the day.

Lesson 8:
The students each created a PowerPoint presentation based on what we have completed in our Science unit.  They needed to include a summary of facts that they learned and could insert examples or pictures to reinforce their facts.  This acted as a written assessment for us of what the students learned about the lesson and what technology lessons impacted their learning the most.

Lesson 9:
This lesson was our oral assessment of the project.  We used the technology cart at the school and had the students create a science panel.  Each of the students had a part in the panel, some as announcers, some as science experts, and some as directors.  Each expert found out facts about their specialty and used examples of activities that we had done in class.  This panel was played as a live broadcast for the rest of the school to view.