Author: Windows User

St. Mary’s - Jr. High
Twitter - Assign.
Colonizing Mars

#AlliSci

Grade 7: Students will research and then compare the similarities and differences between Earth and Mars: physical composition, types of rocks, plate tectonics, geological time scale, sudden changes, gradual changes, water cycle. Students will then use this information to select the safest area to colonize/live on Mars.
Grade 8: Students need to research and present all technologies that could be used to create water for a trip to Mars: space shuttle, colony and atmosphere. What are the concerns/ issues we must consider? Here’s a link to help initiate the conversation: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/big-idea/07/mars
Students must also research primitive methods of distilling water on Eath and suggest ways to distill/clean/produce safe water on Mars.

#WeberSoc

Grade 7: Students will create various projects to draw settlers to the new colony on Mars. Create an advertisement that is effective at getting immigrants to the colony. Students will also consider how the new colony will address multiculturalism based off of historical lesson learned from Canada.
Grade 8: Students will comment about lessons learned from the Spanish takeover of the Aztecs. What do we need to consider when colonizing a new area? Lessons of what to do or what NOT to when moving into Mars. Students will also be adding in lesson that we SHOULD use from the Aztecs regarding growing crops, building and engineering projects. Students will also be periodically commenting on the project based on various topic covered in class.

#StoneEng

Grade 7, 8 & 9:
Students will have to decide on cultural items to bring to our new colony. These can be in the form of: book, song, poem, movie, art, etc. You only get ONE of each item to share with fellow colonist. You need to comment on WHY you chose that item—educational value, entertainment, life lessons/morals, audience, etc. Also, give a short description of or provide a quote from literature that will help others to know about your selection. Feel free to attach pictures of items, youtube videos, discussion or blogs related to your items.

Grade 9:
1) Students must research all technologies that would be necessary to first travel to and then colonize Mars: environment, space suit, space shuttle, space station, payload, materials, hazards etc.
2) Students must research and then debate the economical, political, and environmental issues/concerns of humans traveling to Mars. Should we colonize? Should we find solutions to the problems on Earth?

Grade 9:
Students will develop, in groups, a tax structure for the new colony. You must gather support for your tax structure, by informing the other grades of your plan.
What social programs will need to be offered? How will these be paid for?
What political structure/parties will we have on Mars? Create a political party in your groups that will reflect needs/values of those on Mars.
Develop a party platform about the environmental, political and social issues you will fight for. Develop a campaign to let others know your platform (video, infographic, prezi)

Rubric/Marking Scheme:
Relevancy of Information:
4: pertinent, significant, insightful, compelling
3: relevant, meaningful, convincing, thoughtful
2: general, appropriate, plausible, cursory
1: trivial, irrelevant, superficial, vague
Degree of Detail:
4: precise, compelling, comprehensive, in-depth
3: thorough, complete, focused, substantial
2: ambiguous, cursory, partial, simplistic
1: confusing, irrelevant, sketchy, undeveloped

IN ONLY 140 CHARACTERS!
All students will be expected to first research and then create a well thought out tweet that will positively add to our classes discussion.
All students will need to have:
3 Quality Tweets (minimum)
3 Quality Comments/Responses to others in the project (minimum)
The Quality of Tweets and Comments is of great importance for this assignment. You may also include links to improve our conversation - pictures, youtube videos, websites, research, etc.
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To get you started, here are some ways that you can present your information. Remember, you should do some research before you tweet:
Compose your thoughts and deliver it creatively
Debate/Critique your work
Argue why your understanding is logical
Show what you have learned - each step of the way
Explore different ways of coming to your conclusion
Identify 1-2 people in the class who have a similar understanding or a different understanding
Digital Citizenship: Please use professionalism and make sure that all links have school appropriate content (including all advertisements).