Science 7

My vision was to take Grade 7 students on a year long discovery of a "New Earth" through a hypothetical journey to colonize an exoplanet.

PART 1: A NEW EARTH

Introduction: Students are introduced as the members of a new crew for a journey into space in search of a new home. I, as the director, will be responsible for choosing our direction. Their jobs are to be the specialist to advise and provide recommendations.

Elaborate backstories are fun! Choose from:

Scenario 1, Earth has been, or is, in danger of being destroyed by _______ (comet, nuclear war, etc)
Scenario 2, Earth has, or will, run out of resources due to __________ (overpopulation, unsustainable resource management, pollution, etc)
Scenario 3, _______________ (the government, private citizen, company, etc) has provided money for new exploration to resettle a select group.
ETC... (Cross-curricular with ELA idea - have students come up with the backstory...)

Copy of 01 Earth Catastrophe

2. Baseline data:

What is it about Earth that makes it capable of supporting life? Before exploration can happen, an understanding of our planet's habitability is needed. We usually try to boil the ideas down to 6 factors (see the slideshow).

I take this opportunity to talk about communication skills and to review the scientific process.

I like this free flap book by STEM-tastic Teaching Resources as notes.

Assignment: Research and gather information about the factors that affect Earth's habitability.

I use this opportunity to ensure students learn all the expectations for classroom procedures like group work, submitting assignments, assessment scales, etc.

01 Slides Introduction

01 Assignment Baseline

Introducing exoplanets X, Y, Z

I printed and placed the three planet images on the wall. Students were able to look at the image and make initial observations and conjectures about which planet they thought would be the most suitable.

Planet images.pdf

3. A more in-depth understanding of factors affecting habitability:

Topics:

Carbon cycle
Water cycle
layers of the earth
seismic waves (and seismic shadows)
crustal movements - convection of the mantle
earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountains as a result of crustal movements

Section culminating assignment: Planet Analysis (see slides)
the circles in the slideshow are meant to be filled in with the p and s waves corresponding to the shadow zones. We did this core analysis as a class after completing some studies on the different seismic waves. From there students can make inferences about the thickness of the internal planet layers.

02 Planet Analysis

Copy of Planet Cores

PART 2 LANDING SITE DECISIONS

Cover Rocks and Minerals Unit (under the premise that we will need to know what the planet is made of)

At some point I would like to create an assignment with hypothetical rock/mineral samples from "sites" that students would analyze to narrow down from a possible list of landing sites (6 sites to 2)

Segway from soil quality leading to the production of Plants
Cover some parts of Ecosystems and Plants Unit:

biotic and abiotic components, interactions among these components
role of plants within the environment
human uses of plants as sources of food and raw materials, and give examples of other uses

needs of different plants and their tolerance for different growing conditions
intended and unintended consequences of environmental management practices
methods used to increase yields, through modifying the environment and by creating artificial environments

Assignments:
1. Site choice plus rationale
2. Colony "set up" plus rationale

03 Planet Analysis Review

Site development idea proposal

PART 3 LANDING

Cover all Structures and Forces Outcomes

Assignment: Build a landing pod for an "egg"straunaut to land in that will withstand landing forces

essentially an egg drop project with no parachutes allowed

PART 4 SURVIVAL

Refer to the "best" student colony plan to brainstorm all the essentials we will need to survive. Students should recognize basic needs like water and air are already available on the planet so only 2 priorities remain:

Food: students will want to hunt, we talk about not knowing ecosystem impacts and possibilities of toxicity, covering biomagnification.
Plants are safer. Cover seed germination, vegetative propagation, plant structures, and processes.
Shelter: students brainstorm possible shelter hazards on this planet mainly temperature changes. Earthquakes can also be included - but we said if the pod can withstand landing, it should survive an earthquake.

Cover heat and temperature outcomes

Assignment: Convert their landing pod into a heat-proof shelter

I used small frozen Freezies as astronauts that students have to keep from melting
A heat lamp and hot plate (set on low) simulated sunshine and the thinner crust of this planet

I'd never say no to a coffee.

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