Our place in space C.E.U. - 4th grade
1. We started out analyzing a poem called "The Beckoning" to decide the role space exploration has played for humanity - and will continue to play for years to come.
2. So, what do we really know about the history of space exploration? We tried our hand at categorizing space terms, and we kept our charts for the duration of the unit.
3. Speaking of history, how does this crazy timeline work - BC? AD? Let's make some sense of this so we understand just how long ago people were making up myths to explain the cosmos.
4. After focusing on ancient mythology, we moved on to early astronomers. We learned the story of the great Galileo and what he went through to try to prove what he believed in using math and science.
5. Galileo wasn't the only early astronomer. We each were in charge of looking more closely at an early astronomer to understand the progression of theories. We put our summaries together to create an astronomer comic strip.
6. On to science fiction! We started out watching the Jetsons and reading excerpts from classic sci-fi stories to get an understanding of the actual definition of science fiction. Then we sketched pictures of current-day technology (which was once sci-fi), and we sketched technological ideas that would be considered futuristic We shared our ideas.
7. We interviewed our parents to find out how they thought the world would look in the future, related to specific aspects of life, like school and the environment, and then we were ready to start brainstorming futuristic ideas for our own sci-fi narratives. We ran our ideas across our classmates to get input.
8. We diligently worked on our final drafts - ending up with a creative sci-fi narrative!
9. Moving right along, we entered the Space Race. We learned of the back and forth accomplishments the U.S. and U.S.S.R. experienced in their pursuit to make it to the moon. We used the events to create "One Up" conversations.
10. Since we were learning about the different eras in space history, we each chose a topic and created a model to represent it. We did our research to inform the class of the facts behind our beautiful models.
11. Here are our masterpieces!
12. And here are our presentations.
13. We had learned SO MUCH about the various times in history related to humanity's "Place in Space." It was now time to organize our resources to inform the public of all we had learned. We composed the most amazing expository essays based on space history that Mrs. Young has ever seen a fourth grader write!!!
14. We had a break in the writing process when we were lucky enough to have a NASA engineer mom come visit to tell us how satellites are built. Then we got to engage in a challenge to try to create our own satellites based on specific mathematical limitations. FUN!
15. FINALLY! Our final expository essays, hot off the press!!!
16. In the end, it was time to reflect. We had come so far in our knowledge of Our Place in Space over the years. We looked back on our original classifications of space history terms. Some we had correct, and some we would move to different categories. But, best of all, it was quite evident how much we had learned and accomplished over the course of the unit! Mrs. Young is really proud of us!