From: PHaddon@aol.com
Subject: Re: Planning a Mars Night for families
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 1996 08:44:16 -0500
Dear Marg- WOW - a Mars Night! You've got a great opportunity to... * validate and showcase students' effort and achievements; * create very positive PR for teachers, school, and kids; * raise level of awareness of and knowledge about the Mars Mission along with uses of technology in education. Below are some ideas on how to organize this event for your classes, grade level and/or school. 1) Assign an independent research project which parallels the Live From Mars module. - Brainstorm a "project ideas list" for your students (basically, keep topic Mars and astronomy-related) PLUS a "project presentation" list. Let kids know that their projects will be on display at your 'Live From Mars Exposition' in December. Discuss with them the various ways they might choose to present their research information, eg., a diorama, a poster, a video, a multimedia display (using HyperCard, HyperStudio, PowerPoint, etc.), a radio program, a 3-D model, a mobile - involve students in this part of the process, their ideas will be non-stop! - Allow kids to work independently or in a small group (2-3 kids max). - Provide a 'Topic Shopping' period in the school library/media center, allowing students time to see what materials are available for research. - Send letter home (to be signed by parent/guardian) outlining project requirements, project objective, due date, etc. 2) Brainstorm with colleagues ways they can support the Exposition in their various disciplines. Have teachers (or students) keep examples of student work related to the LFM unit that could be displayed. Poetry, writing, graphing... - For Live From Antarctica 1 and Live From the Statosphere, the English teachers on my middle school team implemented wonderful poetry units and we highlighted the kid's poetry at our exposition. The math teachers helped with spatial relationships and making of timelines, constructing of graphs, making solar systems to scale, etc. The Industrial Tech teacher had the wood shop classes create a mock-up of the Kuiper Airborne Observatory in our school concourse! The social studies teachers took classes to library to do research for projects, held debates, taught about timelines, and helped organize the kids' project portfolios (aka, Mars Mission Logbooks). - Be sure to pass all ideas past your building administrator... and CLEAR THE DATE! - Inform your school custodians and enlist their help (getting the gym ready, bringing in tables, risers [useful for displaying projects], clean -up afterward, etc. 3) Enlist a small group of parent volunteers who might help by - organizing publicity - decorating the exposition hall (gym, cafeteria, etc.) - providing refreshments 4) During the next few weeks, keep a camera handy and take pictures of kids interacting in various parts of the LFM module (at computers, doing science simulations, reading, writing, planning... whatever). Ask a parent (or school media club rep) to videotape kids at various points in the unit; these clips can be edited together as a 'digest' and run continuously at the Exposition. 5) Spotlight technology at the Exposition. - Run a phone line into the gym (be creative...) and have a computer station available (manned by students) to access the LFM homepage and other linked Mars sites. - Save all email questions sent to "question-lfm" along with the answers that students receive. Print them (larger font size) and make a bulletin board display. - Set up a TV-VCR and run tape of November 19th broadcast. - Set up TV/VCRs and computer stations necessary to showcase students' projects. 6) Ask for student volunteers to help in the following areas (perhaps parents or other teachers could organize and coordinate these groups... DELEGATE!): - set-up - Exposition Tour Guides (make simple red vests in home ec class to wear with white shirt, black pants/skirt) - Publicity (signs, flyers) - clean-up 7) MAXIMIZE PUBLICITY POSSIBILITIES - local paper - local TV coverage - school and school district publications 8) INVITE - local government officials - school board - central office administrators - classes from area schools (elementary and nursery) - students and families This will be a great event for your kids - they will LOVE having their efforts showcased AND being involved in the production! It will also be a lot of work for you. My advice is to involve a small group of your colleagues to help organize the event right from the beginning and then delegate the various tasks. And, finally, please share the event with Passport to Knowledge by sending us pictures and/or videos, news articles, samples of student work, etc. Let us know which items we may keep and which you need to have returned. Best of luck! Pat Haddon Passport to Knowledge