The Solar System Webquest

Team A-5's WebQuest

Introduction || The Task || The Process ||Resources || Learning Advice

Introduction

Our class is going on a tour of the Solar System. We will use the Internet and other classroom resources to make a book about the Solar System. You will be working on a team with two classmates.

The Task

Your task will be to learn about a planet and to write a story that tells other people about your planet.

The Process

I will put you on a team and you will be given a planet to learn about.
You and your team will try to find out as much as you can about your assigned planet.
You need to answer the questions below and find out at least one other interesting fact about your planet.
You can use internet resources by clicking on underlined words.
After you do your research you will write a report that will go in our class book.

Questions

1. How far is your planet from the sun?

2. How long does it take your planet to orbit the sun?

3. How long is a day on your planet?

4. Does your planet have any moons? How many? What are their names?

5. What color is your planet?

6. Has NASA ever visited your planet? Is there life there?

7. Does your planet have any interesting features like rings or spots?

8. Is your planet a gas planet?

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Resources

Places to look:

Internet Resources
Classroom Resources
1. Classroom Library of solar system books
Computer
1. The Magic Schoolbus in the Solar System

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Learning Advice

When you write your report, it's a good idea to start with a sentence that names your planet and says something important about it. Like: "Earth is the only planet in our solar system with liquid water."
Next you can tell other things about it like its color, number of moons, and so on.

Be sure you write complete sentences with capital letters and periods.

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Assessments and Rubrics

You can use the rubric below to see how you are doing.

Needs Work	Almost There	Good Work	WOW!
	Standard 1.18 Using technology to do research
Didn't find any information on the internet.	Found information on the internet and answered some questions.	Found information on the internet to answer most of the questions.	Found information on the internet to answer all of the questions and added information that you found.

	Standard 3.1 Teamwork
Had trouble being part of a team.	Worked well on your team most of the time.	Worked well on the team all of the time.	Took on a leadership role and helped other people on your team work together.

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Conclusion

Now you should be an expert on your planet. Try this just for fun! When you are all finished by yourself, not with your group, do one of the activities below.
1. If your planet had life, draw what a "person" there might look like.

2. Pretend you are an astronaut from NASA and you visited your planet. Send a postcard home to your class.

3. Do you think we will be able to visit other planets when you are grown up? If no, why not? If yes, tell how you think that will happen.

4. Pretend you are an alien from your planet visiting Earth. Write a letter "home" about Earth.
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