Introduction

The Earth will become full in the next 10 years.  Because of overpopulation, almost every country is practicing zero population.  There is not enough food to feed the people here.  You and your team of scientists are to visit a planet to gather information to see if we can send a colony to live there.  You will need to complete each task in a manner that will help convince the leaders of Earth that it is worth the money. 

The Task

Your tasks are as follows:
1.  Research your assigned planet.
     Find this information to be enter onto a database
     a) Name of Planet
     b) Number of Moons
     c) Name of four moons (unless Planet has less)
     d) Distance from Sun
     e) Revolution
     f)  Rotation
     g) Atmosphere
     h) Spacecrafts that have visited 
     i)  Discoverer
     j)  Year
     k) Name origin
     l)  Diameter
     m)Density
     n) Mass
     o) Interesting fact
2.  You will keep a log of your trip.
3.  Make a list of things that you will need to take to make your trip successful.
4.  Make a scale model of your planet.
5.  Create a poster/collage showing the things we have now as a result of space exploration. 
6.  Create a PowerPoint presentation.
 

Here are the steps for you to follow:
  1.  You will be assigned to a group of 4 students.
        Commander - Person in charge of making sure group is working to make this 
              mission successful.  You will help with the orginization.
        Navigator  - Direct the workings of the group.  Make sure they are going in the 
              right direction.
        Scribe  - Writes down information found by group
        Information Specialist (possibly 2 students) - In charge of looking up information.
  2.  Each team will investigate a different planet.  No team will investigate Earth.
  3.  Everyone is responsible for making this mission a success.  If you do not complete 
              your job, the entire mission will fail.
 

You may use any book or magazine in your classroom or in the library for information. 

There are many web sites that have lots of information.  NASA has almost unlimited sources

• Views of the Solar System

  
• Star Child
• Spacescience

Evaluation

Your project will be evaluated with the following rubric.
 
 

.	Better Stay on Earth 1	Lost in Space 2	Mission Accomplished   3	Mission Most Successful 4	Score
Research planet	Less than 3 task accomplished.	Between 4and 8 tasks accomplished .	Between 9and 14 tasks accomplished	All 15 Tasks accomplished	.
Log of Trip	Very  weak with very little happening.	Weak incomplete sentence, many words misspelled.	Story interesting but  weak grammar	Story interesting grammar excellent	.
Things to Take	Only enough for a weekend trip.	Only enough for  a week trip	Just enough things to  cover the  trip	Enough things to  cover  the  entire around trip	.
Scale Model of  Planet	.Under grade level work	Not  very presentable	recognizable, colorful	Very recognizable, colorful	...
Poster	Poster very messy and unreadable	Poster out of allignment, 1 - 2 colors,	Poster centered, colorful, readable	Poster centered, colorful, readable with information	.
Power Point Presentation	1 to 2 pages	3 to 4 pages	3 to 4 pages with graphics	5 to 6 pages with graphics	.
.	.	.	.	Total	.

Conclusion

You will have learned about the planets of the Solar System.   You will understand the criteria for interplanetary travel.
 

• Do you think we will ever have interplanetary travel?  Support your answer.
• Compare and contrast lifestyles of a twelve year old in 1900 and 2000
• Do you think there is life in outerspace? Support your answer.

Credits & References 

http://www.solarsystem.com

http://spacescience.nasa.gov/images.html

This Webquest was created during an Iredell/Statesville School's summer 2000 workshop.