Notes to teachers:
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Provide a large envelope for each teams' study notes and
storage disk.
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4-5 students on a team may be large enough for group work.
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Set up centers around the room and in the library, using
a variety of resources. Video center, laser disk center, CD-ROM center,
Internet centers, and a book and magazine center.
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Create a close deadline for work to be done at each step;
student discovery questions (brain-storming discussion), Big Six research
organization and definition of work strategy, centers (note-taking and
image saving), outline/story board (analysis of information), creation
of power point presentation, and presentation to the World Life Studies
Federation.
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With teams consisting of 4 people, break up the team when
you can with some at computers, or magazine stations while others are spell-checking
note cards as they enter notes into an Alpha-smart keyboard Computer or
spell-checking machine.
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Send out invitations to "notables" in your area to be the
Federation members for the presentations. Select the mayor of the town,
the Superintendent of your district, the Principal, the Librarian, the
Nurse, or any Geologist and Scientist in the area to attend this important
conference! Give them an overview of the goals of this project.
Schedule several meetings and different "notables" to
give plenty of time for great presentations and discussion.
Content Standards that will be addressed:
Science Grade 6:
Students will conduct an investigation about
planets, sun, moons, and stars in our Solar System, describing the physical
characteristics of these places and evaluating the environments.
Students will propose a hypothesis to explain from collected evidence.
Language Arts Grade: Students
will identify and use the structural features of, as well as differences
among different resources to gain meaning from text. Students will
choose the form of writing that best suits the intended purpose (review,
report, narrative). Students will develop the topic with supportive
details And use organizational features of electronic text (keyword
searches) to locate information. they will revise writing to improve
organization and consistency of ideas. Students will write research
reports that pose relevant questions, support the main idea with facts,
details, and examples as well as write a persuasive composition that states
a clear position, in support of a proposition or proposal, with organized
and relevant evidence.
Information Literacy Standards:
The student who is information literate accesses
efficiently and effectively, evaluates critically and competently,
and uses effectively and creatively all information, as determined by the
literacy standard indicators for all three standards. (American Library
Association, 1998)
Reflection:
This project could easily take 5 weeks
to conduct, or more. Math, art and social science can also be included.
Research skills, language arts and science are the focuses.