Week 3: Orientation

Week Three: Orientation
Collaborating on an ESS Analysis
This week, refer to the resources listed under Readings and complete the activity listed under Assignment. This week you will:

Work with your Event Team to collaborate on the construction of a practice ESS analysis of a meteorite impact.

Assignment
1. Go to the Exploring the Environment™ site and read about the "Giant Impact" theory. The event is the impact of a meteorite on the Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago.

2. Go to the Classroom and enter Event Space. Individually, post your suggestions for an ESS analysis by midnight Wednesday. The ESS analysis should include event to sphere, sphere to event, and sphere to sphere interactions. Refer to the Example of an ESS Analysis to see how you should structure your ESS analysis.

Note: Even though communicating in asynchronous time with team members accommodates different schedules and time zones, it can be problematic in that you will not always know when each team member will be submitting assignments. You and your Event Team members might want to make a schedule so that all team members will submit their assignments on the same day, even if not at the same time.

In Event Space, read and comment on your teammates’ submissions for their ESS analyses.

Between Thursday and Sunday, go to the Classroom to meet with your Event Team in Event Space. Within your team, come to a consensus on the various impacts of the event on the spheres, the spheres on the event, and the spheres on each other.

Submit your best analysis to your team Portfolio in the Classroom by the end of the week.

Suggested Activities for Your Students

NASA's Observatorium is a public access web site for Earth and Space data that includes Educator Resources, Fun and Games, and Teacher Guides.

You will want to locate other resources locally and on the Internet to supplement these. Post the resources you find in Resource Space in the Classroom.

Readings

An Example of an ESS Analysis This page provides a sample Yellowstone Forest Fires ESS analysis.

"Global Change Primer." Ground Truth Studies Teacher Handbook. pp. 11-30.

Looking at Earth from Space Destination Earth: The Official Website for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise. Click on Looking at the Earth from Space for 40 years of NASA Earth Science, including programs, missions, and spacecraft. See also the teacher guide for Looking at Earth from Space.

Web Site

Middle School Earth Science Explorer is linked to the Exploring the Environment (ETE) homepage. It is designed for grades 5 and 6, but may be valuable to teachers of other grades. It provides a model for creating your own classroom applications.