New Review: THE MIGHTY MARS ROVERS

The Mighty Mars Rovers describes the six year mission of Spirit and Opportunity. Steven Squyres's tough rovers were meant to last just three months, but they were able to battle though treacherous terrain, mechanical errors and long sandstorms to send back valuable data proving the existence of water on Mars. As Rusch states, the rovers "did the work of geologists, meteorologists, chemists, photographers, mountain climbers, and crater trekkers." What The Mighty Mars Rovers does well is show that scientific discovery takes a lot of patient trial and error. When trying to see if Opportunity could venture down a giant crater, NASA scientists had to work months to create simulations on Earth of Opportunity's situation before they could comfortably send the rover down a steep hill. While this book provides interesting information about the planet Mars, it focuses mostly on engineering process of building and maintaining the rovers. My only reservation about The Mighty Mars Rovers is that the layout of the book can be distracting at times. A few of the sidebars make it difficult to follow the main narrative; also, the photographic background of the Martian surface makes the text difficult to read on several pages.  

The Mighty Mars Rovers is an excellent resource for teaching space exploration and discovery.

Grades 5 and up 
3.5 out of 5 stars

6th Grade Animal Research

For many years every sixth grader at Durham Academy has been required to research an animal for sixth grade science using multiple sources.  They pick an animal, take notes online, cite their sources and then write a first person report from the animal's perspective.  In the past, I have not been happy with students taking their notes online because it often led to cutting and pasting long passages without ever processing the information available in the source.  Also, some students would take all their information from one source and just cite three more without ever using them.

This year I encouraged the science teachers to give the students a note-taking template that I created and have the students take written notes.  The first day of the project we had the students find four strong sources.  Most students selected our animal encyclopedia, Encyclopedia Britannica Online and/or WorldBook Online,  a website, and a book in the library about their animal.  The second day we cited all our sources on Google Drive.  Today the students started taking notes, and it was amazing to see how relaxed and engaged they were with their research.  Using their iPads and the books, they could have all of their resources in front of them at once.  The four-page template packet helped them organize their information easily.  Everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing and how to do it; that goes a long way to avoiding the stress and anxiety that can come with a research project.  We required the students to show us their notes at the end of each page of the template before they started on the next page.  This allowed us to make sure that they had detailed notes and they were using all of their resources.  The student took excellent notes and stayed on task the entire period.  I anticipate that they will be done with their research much sooner than we planned. 

After they finish the research, they will still write their report from the animal's perspective.  The finished product will include a cover illustration that they draw, the two page report, a bibliography, and a note about the author. 

For this project and this grade level, I think the iPad worked best as an information resource rather than a place to record notes.  Handwritten notes ensured that students were taking complete notes, using multiple sources, and avoiding plagiarism.  Once the students complete their template, they can then use that document to develop their typed report on the iPad.