Planet+Research+Project

Students will complete a research project in pairs or groups in which they will research a planet and create a presentation on that planet. Students will complete a research plan, develop a draft of their presentation, and then present their project. To satisfy the expository writing requirements, students will write a short paper explaining what they learned about their planet from their research. The paper they write must answer all questions in the research plan.

What we will research: (this will be on the graphic organizer that Ami makes with us)  **__ Questions to Research __** 1. Who is our planet named after? 2. How far away (distance) is our planet from the sun? 3. What is the distance across our planet? 4. How long is one year on our planet in Earth years? One day on our planet equals how many hours/days on Earth? 5. How many moons does our planet have? 6. Is this planet made of rock or gas? 7. Is this planet an inner planet or an outer planet?

[|Planet Project Rubric.pdf]

Week 1 (Oct. 26-30):Background knowledge, TAKScopes Week 2(Nov. 2-6):Background knowledge, pick planet, library "trash or treasure" lesson (one day), begin research Week 3(Nov. 9-13):Research-done by Tuesday, Presentation Plan Week 4(Nov. 16-20):Work on Presentation (SS week) Week 5(Nov. 23-24): Presentations
 * __ Timeline: __**

__**Choose Planet**__
 * __ TEKS: __**
 * W-3.25A** generate research topics from personal interest or by brainstorming with others, narrow to one topic, and formulate open-ended questions about the major research topic

W3.25B ** generate a research plan for gathering relevant information (e.g.,surveys, interviews, resource materials) about the major research question
 * __Graphic Organizer from Mrs. Uselman__
 * W3.26A ** follow the research plan to collect information from multiple sources of information, both oral and written including **i ** student-initiated surveys, on-site inspections, and interviews **ii ** data from experts, reference texts, and online searches **iii ** visual sources of information (e.g., maps, timelines, graphs) where appropriate

W3.26B ** use skimming & scanning techniques to identify data by looking at text features (e.g., fold print, captions, keywords, italics)
 * __Mrs. Uselman's Trash/Treasure Lesson and Research__
 * W3.26C ** take simple notes and sort evidence into categories or an organizer
 * W3.26D ** identify the author, title, publisher, and publication year of sources
 * W3.26E ** differentiate between paraphrasing and plagiarism and identify the importance of citing valid and reliable sources
 * W3.27A ** improve the focus of research as a result of consulting expert sources (e.g., reference librarians and local experts on the topic)
 * R 3.16A **understand how communication changes when moving from one genre of media to another
 * R3.16B ** explain how media design techniques influence messages
 * R3.16C ** compare various written conventions used for digital media (e.g., informal language in e-mail vs. formal language in web-based news articles)

<span style="font-family: Arial#20Narrow,Bold;"> W3.20A create brief compositions that  **<span style="font-family: Arial#20Narrow,Bold;"><span style="font-family: Arial#20Narrow,Bold;">i  **  establish a central idea in a topic sentence  **<span style="font-family: Arial#20Narrow,Bold;"><span style="font-family: Arial#20Narrow,Bold;">ii  **  include supporting sentences with simple facts, details, and explanations  **<span style="font-family: Arial#20Narrow,Bold;"><span style="font-family: Arial#20Narrow,Bold;">iii  **  contain a concluding statement
 * __Expository Writing__**