Process     

 
• Based on the duty assignment (assigned by the admiral) you will research your topic.  You must use the links provided and should use your review book and textbook as guides.  Keep track of any sites or books used for your research and include them in your research notes when the mission is complete.

• Each crew member in the group will compile a part of the information and will hand in their work along with the completed group project.  Each crew member will be given an individual grade as well as a group grade so make sure that YOU do your part!!  (Check the evaluation section to see the scoring rubric.) You are a team so act like one!  Here are the roles you must choose from:

• Captain - In charge of compiling all information from team to present to the admiral (Ms. Solimene), in charge of assigning duty rosters (who will do what research-Captain included), and must provide a daily log on the teams progress.  The Captain must be organized and motivated, if you are not willing to keep on top of your crew, don't choose this role.
• Design Team Commander - In charge of compiling the power pointt presentation.  You should have an excellent knowledge of power point and should be well organized in order to keep the mission on task.
• Communications Lieutenant - In charge of compiling the worksheet tto be presented to the other crews (rest of the class).  This includes making copies of the worksheet and giving them to the captain to hand in.  You must be able to use word.
• Technical Ensign - Your job will be to find interesting ggraphics for the power point presentation and worksheet.  You will also be in charge of locating the definitions of any terms not understood in the research.

 
• Make sure that you fully understand all of the information your are finding, you will be presenting this to the other crews (as well as our alien friends) so make sure you know what you are talking about!   All crew members must present part of the presentation.

• Once you have all of your information you will create a power point presentation of at least 12 slides (1 that's a cover/introduction sheet, 1 that's the closing, and at least 10 information slides) to discuss your topic.  Be as creative as possible, we want to impress our alien friends :-)  Here are some tips for your presentation:

• Please print a copy of your teams' slides (from the slide sorter view) for the captain to keep as a record.  Please include in addition to that your individual notes and a copy of your presentation labeled on a disk (or CD).  These will be used to help aliens all over the universe learn the wonderful world of chemistry!

• The last part of your mission will be to include the worksheet you have created based on the information from your presentation.  Once your presentation is complete the other crews will attempt to do the worksheet and any misunderstandings will be addressed.

So when your mission is complete you will have handed in:  Captains' log, research notes (from each crew member), a print out of the slides (from the group), a copy of the presentation on a disk (from the group), and worksheets for the other crews (the class) plus one for the admiral.

This lesson will most likely take 1 full week of classes.  My school has an A/B day schedule so the students will either have 7 or 8 periods to complete the project.  Basic knowledge of microsoft word and power point are necessary, so if a student does not understand a program some extra help may be necessary.  The majority of the time during the week will be left up to the students, but the Captains' log should be stressed as very important, and constant monitoring must be done.

I randomly pick the groups, but I allow the students to choose what role they will play.  Any teacher using this can adjust that based on your class and needs.

The biggest stumbling block I can forsee is time spent off task.  Constant monitoring by the teacher will keep this at a minimum.

This lesson is easy enough for a novice teacher.  Some of the presentations may be so good that you can use them in your class the following year :-)
 
 

Variations

This lesson could be done as an at-home project.  Access to a common computer and available work time may be a problem though.  You may want to pick the groups and assign the roles yourself if you feel that your students may be goofing off when they should be working (based on your class).