Discussion Questions: Space: Exploring Beyond the Horizon

Space: Exploring beyond the Horizon

Discussion Questions

FOCUS QUESTION Why have we always looked beyond the horizon and worked to discover more?

Throughout the unit, discuss the Focus Question with your students. Help them to synthesize how their personal experiences relate to the Focus Question and also how each Passage relates to the Focus Question. Read the Synthesis Discussion & Project Protocol for details about setting expectations for discussions.

Activate Background Knowledge and Expand Students’ Thinking

At the beginning of a unit or throughout a unit, explore with your students their background knowledge relating to the Focus Question and expand their thinking beyond their immediate answers. Remember that the student’s background knowledge is an asset that they bring to the discussion.

First frame the discussion with statements like these: It’s important to understand our planet and the space around it. We have been able to learn about our planet, the Moon, the Sun, the stars, our solar system, our galaxy, and much more beyond the horizon. Humans have a natural desire to learn and discover more, and we have continued to create better technology to help us do so. Then ask questions like these:

Why do we study outer space? What tools do we have to help us? What major space discoveries have been made throughout history? How do our questions guide our discoveries? What questions do you have about space? What do you think might be discovered next? Why have new discoveries changed previous classications or ideas? Why isn’t Pluto considered a planet anymore? Why do people want to go to Mars? Why did people want to go to the Moon? Is it better to focus on studying space and the unknown out there or xing the problems on our planet?

Connect Ideas between the Passage and Focus Question

Discussion Questions

After studying each Passage or before students begin the Synthesis Discussion & Project, use these questions to facilitate passage-specic conversations relating to the Focus Question. Encourage students to use examples from the Passage, either remembered examples or specic details, to support their answers.

Home, Sweet Home

What makes Earth the perfect environment for us compared to the other planets in our solar system?

What do astronomers think happened to form our solar system? How do they gure out likely theories when no one was around 4.6 billion years ago?

Apollo 11: The Eagle Has Landed

What were the challenges and accomplishments of the Apollo 11 mission?

What do you think it would have been like to be the rst person to step on the moon? What do you think it was like for the people on Earth watching this event on television?

Would you like to be an astronaut and travel into space? Why or why not?

Where Does the Sun Get Its Shine?

What is the Sun made of, and how does it shine?

What theory from the past about the Sun do you think is the most interesting? Did any make you laugh? Why?

How does our knowledge build on the research of others?

What's Wild about Space?

What are some of the more recent discoveries about space? What has helped people to make so many new discoveries?

The author wrote, “Astronomers, physicists, and other scientists continually make predictions about space. Some predictions have been proven, some have been disproven, and some are still waiting for proof. And there will be many more predictions to come!” How is making predictions an important part of science?

Discussion Questions

Martian Metropolis

What problems do we need to solve before people can live on Mars?

Why are people trying to gure out how to create a colony on Mars? Do you think people will actually live on Mars someday?

Would you like to live on Mars? Why or why not?

The Guest Star: Does the Beautiful Crab Nebula Hold the Secret to a Thousand-Year-Old Mystery?

What was the process for guring out what the “guest star” really was? How did ideas evolve over time, and why did it take so long to gure out the mystery?

How did making mistakes, documenting ndings, asking questions, creating theories, and building on the research of others play a part in guring out that the Crab Nebula is the remains of the “guest star’s” supernova?