Brief Description Objectives Materials and Resources Activity Description Internet Resources

• Grade Level: Middle School, High School

• Subject Area: Language Arts and Science

Brief Description

    Students will visit Websites with information on space fiction and collect information for their stories
Objectives

    Students will:

• Gather and use information for research purposes.
• Develop the skills to allow them to become independent inquirers about the natural world.
• Understand the place of the earth in the solar system.

Materials and Resources

    In developing our lessons and activities, we made some assumptions about the hardware and software that would be available in the classroom for teachers who visit the LETSNet Website. We assume that teachers using our Internet-based lessons or activities have a computer with the necessary hardware components (mouse, keyboard, and monitor) as well as a World Wide Web browser. In the section below, we specify any "special" hardware or software requirements for a lesson or activity (in addition to those described above) and the level of Internet access required to do the activity.

1. Special hardware requirements: None.
2. Special software requirements: None.
3. Internet access: A high-speed (greater than 1 MBPS via network) connection.

Activity Description

  Pre-activity preparation
    Have students read some samples of science fiction to familiarize them with the genre.

  Activity

• Engage students in a discussion of what makes something fictional. Extend this discussion to what makes a literary work of science fiction. Where possible, have students draw distinctions between elements of scientific fact and elements of scientific fiction. (Examples of this may include the presence of computers or robots with capabilities not yet available. The factual element is that computers exist, the fictional aspect is the capabilities ascribed to them in the story.)

• Allow students to visit the Websites on space fiction that are listed below in our Internet Resources. While they visit the site, students should compile examples of space fiction that they encounter.

Internet Resources

• An Inquirer's Guide to the Universe
  http://sln.fi.edu/planets/planets.html
  The Franklin Institute's Exhibit that probes the fact and fiction of space and space travel.

• Space Science Fiction.
  [http://sln.fi.edu/planets/sci-fict.html]
  This is a set of Web resources provided at the Franklin Institute's Exhibit An Inquirer's Guide to the Universe. These resources are at a level appropriate for most students.

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