Unit+of+Instruction

**Welcome to our unit on Astronomy!!**

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Grade Level: 3 Unit: Astronomy

__Lesson Objectives__  __Time Required to complete this lesson__: Two Weeks
 * Student will understand Student will understand the planets in our galaxy in relation to our sun.
 * Student will be able to: Identify every planet and its characteristics as well as its location.
 * Students will be able to identify the difference between what a moon, star, sun, and planet.
 * Students will be able to know what a satellite is and what functions certain ones have.
 * Students will also come up with a question about space that they have. Once they have a question they will use the scientific method as well as scientific inquiry to solve their problem. They will use tools such as books, the internet, and other available resources in order to find the solution.

__Title of lesson__: Space and beyond!

__Description of lesson__ In this lesson we will be exploring space including planets, our solar system, stars, moons, galaxies, satellites and more. The goal is to get kids to understand that there are things outside of our world and what we know about them. It is also to give them a perspective of how big the universe is and how big our world is in comparison to it. Lastly they will explore a topic of their choosing, probably from a list of predetermined ones I have made. They can also approve one with me if none of my topics interest them. Once they have chosen a topic, they will then learn to use the tools at their disposal such as the internet and books to answer their question. They will use the scientific method and inquiry then will create a poster for the class. After everyone is done we will set the posters up around the class and everyone can walk around and learn about the many questions we answered. They will bring their notebook and report their favorite findings!

__Assignments and our plan of attack__

The first day will be introduction where I will present a brief introduction of space and the planets. The next few days we will spend in the library reading and researching through books and computers to review the information we have learned as well as obtain new information and really grasp the information. When using the computers we will learn to copy and paste important information as well as type new information into documents we can print out for later use. On another day we will go outside and we will become planets. We will convert the distance between our planets and sun from miles into feet. Once we have done this different groups of students will represent different planets. Larger planets will have more students and smaller planets fewer. We will also spread apart according to our conversions to get a real life representation of size and distance of planets. Lastly we will do our individual or group presentations. Students will be able to work in either groups or by themselves towards a question they have selected. They will use all of the tools we have learned to answer their question as well as give a visual representation of their findings through computers and posters. Each student or group of students will study a planet and share with the class their findings. They will also make their planet using crafts and random types of sporting balls.

__Resources/materials needed__: We will need some arts and crafts several types of sporting good balls. We need calculators as well as library and computer time. We will need a day on the soccer field. Videos to go along with the introduction.

__Technology used__: We will be using computers to obtain information on their planet as well as searching for ideas on how to construct the planet and what size it should be.

The technology used in this lesson changes the teaching / learning in this way: They will learn to search efficiently on the internet for the information they are required to.