Planet Posters

Two weeks ago each student chose a planet (or other solar system object) to research and make a poster about. Today they brought in their posters, and each student told the class what they learned in their research.  The kids were very engaged and asked so many good questions that we spent all morning doing this.  So next week we will put up the posters at the appropriate distances from the Sun poster (which I made and put up near the school entrance today) to make a scale model of the solar system.   The discussions today were so full, frank, and wide-ranging that I can't hope to capture them in a blog post.  I will simply leave you with a short video with amazing images of Jupiter's moon Europa.

I think the posters were quite successful as a learning experience. The kids learned by researching and making them, but they also learned by listening to other kids talk about their posters, and they all learned when I answered numerous questions in more depth as they arose.  I think a key to real learning is that the posters should not be just a laundry list of facts, but should really be based on the students' questions.  When I issued the assignment, I offered some questions they might be interested in answering:

• What would it be like to visit?  What is the temperature?  Is there a solid surface? Would the Sun look bright from that distance?  If the temperature is extreme, think about ways to convey how extreme it is.
• Does the planet have moons or rings? If you chose a moon to begin with, briefly describe the host planet.
• What are seasons like on that planet? This depends on how tilted the planet is with respect to its orbit.
• How long is the year on that planet?  How long is a day?
• Are there volcanoes? Rocks? Rivers/lakes/oceans?  (If so, are they made of water or some other substance? Moons of Jupiter and Saturn are especially interesting in this respect.) Clouds? Earthquakes? Storms? Lightning?
• Could you possibly find life there? 

I think these questions helped prevent a "laundry list" result.  One thing I would like to do better next time is have some kind of first draft with feedback and then a final draft. I don't know how to do this with posters, but I would like to give kids feedback before it's too late to change the final result.