Space Exploration: Past, Present, and Future
Please follow the link to download the virtual field trip powered by Google Earth. This is an extension for the Ender's Game unit that takes students through the history of our space travel program, a look into UFO's at Roswell, NM, our first lunar landing, and possible manned exploration of Mars. To move about the trip, double click the locations designated and follow the instructions within. At the end of the trip, the students head to Kennedy Space Center and follow the links to Discovery Education where they must watch a video and answer and essay question on whether or not they would make great astronauts. After their video, the students take one last trip to Moscow, Russia, to learn about a rival space program.
The goal of this extension would be to familiarize students with space travel, its accomplishments, struggles, and future as many students may not have a background in space exploration. Having the students view the technology that we have in our society will give them a reference point to help imagine the futuristic technology discussed within the novel.
Though this is not a global PBL, this is a global webquest of sort, designed to make students familiar with different media that can be gathered and used to extend a complex topic. This will help create ethical minds as they are introduced to history that has defined a generation, and helped to launch careers not only in the space exploration field, but the Science Fiction genre of writing. Because of our fascination with outer space novels, TV shows, and movies about this concept were excepted into the main stream. Finally, it helps students link the novel with present technology and aspirations of space exploration.
Space exploration is a culture all its own, with nations coming together on the international space station, the moon, and working together toward a common goal. After the students have learned about the topic in general, the tour takes them to Moscow, Russia, where they can follow the link to learn about their program and compare it to ours. The novel Ender's Game uses real life tension created during the Cold War and Warsaw Pacts that remain evident in characters. The students will have already been familiarized with these concepts via the glogster assignment.
As Gardner emphasizes the developing the ethical mind, students can see professionalism through teacher demonstrations using new technology to enhance learning. My students have used the glogs and prezis created during this semester, as well as created their own, learning in groups, delegating responsibility, and holding each other accountable for their own work.
As far as using and sharing this technology, it was a bit more difficult that I had planned. It is a great tool for educators to share information, or to extend learning with students, but as I am always looking for digital media tools that students can use to create new presentations, this one may prove to be a bit frustrating. First of all, to view the samples I had to download a 15 day free trial of a software that would allow for a .kmz project to be viewed. And even after the initial download I still had problems viewing, as many times the files came up blank even after I had completed the final project. I could have just as easily created this type of presentation with a Prezi, though it would not have the aesthetically pleasing look as the field trip does flying from location to location, including the Moon and Mars.
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