We started looking at material for the final exam in Astronomy class. While this assessment has the possibility to look like many things I started to think about the course title and how that could be a part of the final. The students have been doing a great job creating their own information for this class and the assignments that they have been given. The course title is "Planetary Astronomy." When thinking about this and the final I became interested in what the students thought about the class. I have spent a lot of time during the past few years taking the students on what seemed to be a tour of the Solar System and have not given them the time to take their own tour. With the computers in the class, I think that they could gather enough information to design their own tour. The software is there (Photostory) and the internet (along with print sources) could provide ample information for the students.
If anyone has thoughts or ideas of how this could look please let me know. I think it will be a good project but there are some questions that I still have and some that I am sure I have not thought of. I really do not know how I would grade this projects (or do I let the students grade themselves?).
2 comments:
If the students are creating a tour of the solar system, then I think a framework for how you assess this project is whether or not the tour is worthwhile for the customer. You're going to have to decide what the criteria are for that, but I think it could certainly involve some of the following:
Would customers "pay" to take the tour? (take the time to view the project)
After taking the tour, would customers know the essentials about the planets (and other objects) in the solar system?
After taking the tour, would customers be interested in learning more about one of the destinations on the tour? (interested enough to be a returning customer that would sign up for another, more in-depth tour)
Also, wouldn't it be interesting for them to give the tour now in 2006, but could they do some hypothesizing (I think that is a science word) about what it will look like in 2206?
Also, why don't you ask them what they think should be included and have them all submit ideas on your class blog about what should the final projetc look like. They could even decide the rubric to grade the projects.
Let me know if you want to sit down and we can chat more...
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