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THE CREATORS OF GALAXY

About the project

“Somewhere something incredible is waiting to be known”

The universe and the solar system for kids is a place of infinite mystery. Children look to the night sky and the stars with wonder, and let their imagination free at the prospect of exploring the stars and the planets. To inculcate and further the sense of discovery and wonder the theme ‘Planets’ was taken up for the Project Based Learning so as to help our young minds understand it and spark a curiosity for learning more.

Driving Question

Why Earth is considered the only planet with life on it?

Process

The possibility of finding life beyond Earth is a topic that has captivated us for decades. Keeping this in mind the students of class II decided to create their own planet and holding an exhibition of their newly created planets. Creating your own planet can be an engaging and creative way to learn about space and planets. It can also be a form of artistic expression or storytelling by imagining a unique world with its own inhabitants.

Bottom of Form

During the winter break the students were asked to watch the movie ‘Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about Space’ along with some discussion questions. We began by learning about our galaxy the milky way, the solar system and then the planets through various means of videos, PowerPoints, hands on activities and demonstrations. This gave us an understanding what would be required for creating our own planet. On this basis, the students were divided into the roles of creators, model makers, scientist, and astronauts. The responsibility of each role was explained to the students.

The project was integrated with other subjects like, creative writing in English, coding and decoding in Math, drawing celestial bodies in art class, learned song on planets in music, making 3D models in computer class, and learnt Surya Namaskar in our PE class. A senior science teacher gave us a talk on constellations.

The children went on a virtual tour of the planetarium which helped them gather information about the different planets. They also went on a virtual tour to the international space station with renowned astronaut Sunita William who apprised them about the international space shuttle.

The project was culminated by sharing the entire journey with the parents and unveiling of the exhibition of the newly created planets.

Project Culmination

All the contributions of the children were assimilated and put together in the exhibition. The parents were invited for the unveiling of the Exhibition on the day of culmination. Culmination was not just one-point display of their learning over the course of this project but also a proud moment for the students to savour the success of their efforts.

Teacher Reflection

Space, planets, rockets, astronauts, moon and stars have always intrigued and excited the children. This was evident in their eagerness to learn and share about what they knew and what they learnt about planets. The students contributed during the discussions and attempted each activity taking an extra effort of performing the tasks perfectly.

Creating scientific thinking, reasoning behind the most usual things, developing a rationale is the basic intent of Environmental Studies.  This PBL on planets was a great learning platform which created a life-long learning and children surely benefitted from it.

PRODUCTS AND DELIVERABLES

  1. Worksheets
  2. Observation journals
  3. Reflection sheets

MATERIALS USED

  1. Videos
  2. Puppets
  3. Story books
  4. Pictures
  5. Globe
  6. Flashlight