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Overview Lessons & Materials Pre Mission Prep. Mission Day Assessment Student Pages




Scope & Sequence


Interdisciplinary Approach


Unit : How to Apply  

Lesson 3 : Team Building/ Letters of Commitment

Basic Readings

  • Team Building

Recommended Readings

  • Team Building
  • Team Rules

Homework Due

  • Bring ideas to share about what to put in the Letter of Commitment

Overview

  • Second Step—Students begin team building process

Duration

  • 25 min. Teams discuss Team Building/Rules
  • 15 min. Teams draft ideas for the Letter of Commitment

Materials

Articles

Topics

  • What makes a team work well together? What are our team's strengths?
  • Earth as a system. The earth system is a set of interrelated and interdependent spheres (biosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere)
  • Focus on definitions of the spheres and the "system" nature
  • Vocabulary: ecosystem, natural hazards, consequence, ecologist, interrelationship, interaction

Outcomes

  • Students choose rules which apply to their team
  • Students create Letter of Commitment

Discussion Tips
Discuss the things that make good teams. Discuss the things which make teams not work succeed (one person doing all the work, one person doing all the talking, etc.) Perhaps have each student share one thing they believe is one of their strengths (what is one "Job well done" you've had in your life?). Review the features of what makes a good letter. How should each team "sell" itself to Challenger to be "accepted" for the mission?

Procedure
In their emergency response teams, students read and discuss team building articles. Now is a good time to use a team building activity such as the "Sheet Activity" the CLC uses in teacher workshops. Students begin team building process by discussing how teams work and agree upon the measures they will use to evaluate their team's effort.

Basic Homework

  • Complete: Letter of Commitment

Recommended Homework

  • Take home resume form and complete it

Extensions
See the Careers section of the Launch Pad. There are some valuable resources here to encourage students to begin thinking about careers as technicians, engineers, programmers, specialists, and scientists. Note: To view "Extensions", select "Show All in upper right pull-down menu on student website.

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