In January of 1998, the eighth
grade science teacher at my school received a grant which allowed
all her students to participate in an online project called MoonLink.
The program arranged for the students to form mission control
groups and act as a team of NASA scientists who would oversee
the launching of a moon probe. Using Internet access to the MoonLink
web site, the students were able to gather and analyze data from
the actual launching of a moon probe by NASA. To increase the
level of student interest and understanding surrounding the project,
the science teacher asked the other eighth grade teachers to
devote some of our class time to subjects related to the moon
thus making the project into a cross-curricular one. The history
teacher instructed the students on NASA history and the race
to the moon, the English teacher had her students write poems
and read stories about moon lore, etc.
As the Latin teacher, I thought
long and hard about connections between the moon and Latin which
the students would find interesting and useful in their mission
preparations. I finally decided to focus on lunar and planetary
nomenclature: I thought that the study of how planets and planetary
features were named by ancient and modern scientists would encourage
the students to access their knowledge of mythology and use their
basic Latin language skills.
My presentation will demonstrate
the activities I developed. Since my eighth graders were presently
ahead in their Latin I text, I decided to take a week of class
time to complete the following activities:
|
Day 1 |
View and discuss the paintings
of NASA artist Robert McCall |
|
Day 2 |
Group work on a planetary nomenclature scavenger
hunt |
|
Day 3 |
Discuss mission project |
|
Day 4 |
Research and work on mission project |
|
Day 5 (sometime
in the future) |
Display and discuss mission projects |
