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Total Duration:
Greater than 120 Minutes
Materials and Resources:
1. Field Trip to the Moon DVD (contact Mr. Fred Kepner for a free copy)
Investigate conditions on the moon using this link. Compare these conditions with conditions on Earth.
Read through the Educators Guide to familiarize yourself with the Ecosystem Investigation on page 9.
Day 1
(Read page 6 of the Field Trip to the Moon Educators Guide.)
1. Establish Prior Knowledge by asking students the following questions (10 minutes):
What have you heard, or what do you know, about human missions to the Moon?
What do you think it would be like to visit the Moon? What do you think living there would be like?
Are humans able to live there now? Why or why not?
If you have time, you may want the students to investigate conditions on the moon using this website.
2. Show Field Trip to the Moon DVD (25 minutes)
3. Ask students the following debriefing questions after the video (10 minutes):
What makes Earth habitable?
How is being on the Moon different than being on Earth?
Day 2
1. Recap Field Trip to the Moon DVD and after-video debriefing questions (5 min).
2. Distribute Food Web handout on page 15 of the Educators Guide. As a class, read through the descriptions of each type of organism in a food web.
3. Divide the class into a minimum of 6 groups of no more than 4 students.
4. The groups will complete Task Card 1 on page 14 of the Educators Guide.
Day 3
1. The students will complete Task 2 on page 15 of the Educators Guide.
2. Facilitate a final discussion using these questions or have the students answer the questions for homework in their science journal:
How have your ideas about living and working on the Moon changed after watching the DVD and working on these investigations?
What problems did you and your team encounter as you completed each task? How did you and your team solve the problems?
Do you think the lunar station you planned will be able to support a sustainable habitat for humans? Why or why not?
What kinds of careers do you think are going to be important if humans are going to return to the Moon to live?
Assessment Strategies
Prior-knowledge questions can be assessed for completion.
Food webs can be evaluated to ensure that organisms are accurately labeled based on their role in an ecosystem.
Food webs cab be evaluated that energy arrows are flowing in the correct manner.
Final discussion questions can be evaluated for accuracy or completion.
Acceleration:
Intervention:
The students may be given a food web that is already created and asked to identify the organisms in the food web based on the way the organisms get or use energy.
View the Special Education resources for
instructional guidance in providing modifications and adaptations
for students with significant cognitive disabilities who qualify for the Alabama Alternate Assessment.