Space Travel Brochure

Subjects

• Space Science

Grades

• 3-5
• 6-8
• 9-12

Brief Description

Students will create brochures that will entice reader to travel to the other planets in our galaxy.

Objectives

Students

• learn about the other eight planets in the Solar System.
• identify key facts about their assigned planet as they research.
• work as a group to develop a plan for promoting travel to their planet.
• work cooperatively to create a brochure.

Keywords

space, solar system, travel, space travel, brochure, advertising, advertise, planets

Materials Needed

• white paper (butcher paper)
• books on the nine planets (and other library and/or Internet resources)
• computers (optional)
• magic markers and other art supplies
• rulers (making writing easier)

The Lesson

After teaching about the nine planets, arrange students into eight groups. Assign each group a planet other than Earth to research.

Or you might put eight slips of paper -- each with a different planet name written on it -- into a hat or fishbowl, and have a member of each group draw the name of its assigned planet.

Ask students to imagine the day when travel to all planets will be a possibility. Each group will produce a travel brochure that will promote travel to their planet. Their goal is to create the best brochure -- one that will capture the excitement of a trip to their planet and entice others to want to go there.

Students will use library and Internet resources to research their planet. You might assign specific information that they must provide, for example, the

• size of planet;
• temperature of planet;
• number of moons; and
• unique features.

In addition, students will be looking as they research for the special facts about their planet that will make people want to travel there.

Provide for each group a large sheet of butcher paper. Fold the paper into a tri-fold brochure. Then students will follow your instructions to create a brochure. Those instructions might include the following, but feel free to adapt this to your students' skills and your teaching goals.

• The first panel (left backside panel, the panel that is most visible when the tri-fold brochure is folded) should include a picture of the planet and the title of the brochure.
• The next panel (left inside panel) should promote the planet. Students should write an introduction that will excite the reader and want him or her to book a trip to the planet. The text, written in paragraph form, should give the big reasons someone would want to visit the planet. Students are not allowed to make up any information; the brochure text must be fact-based.
• The next panel (center inside panel) might include any unusual information about the planet. It might also include pictures of the planet's moon(s) and information about them.
• The next panel (the right inside panel) should present a list of facts about the planet -- including its size and temperature. Facts might be bulleted or written in paragraph form.
• The next panel (left backside panel, which will be one of the first panels a reader sees when the brochure is opened up) will include pictures of the planet from different angles/views.
• The back panel (center backside) will include the names of the brochure's authors and the date.

Assessment

Students will present their brochures to their classmates. You might use this lesson as an opportunity to teach some rudimentary note-taking skills by providing a "Book of Planets" for each student. Students listen carefully and fill in missing information -- such as the planet's size, its temperature, and the number of moons -- as the presentation is made.

You might give a quiz based on the information about planets that students presented.

Submitted By

Submitted by Karen Hoskins, Barksdale Elementary School in Clarksville, Tennessee

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Copyright © 2006 Education World

05/11/2006

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