Lesson Plan 5: Preparing for Mission Day

Overview
Students will run an activity, called a “mini mission,” using practice data.

Recommended Preparation

• Assign students to a team. Do not assign the Communications Team roles yet, because these students will not have much to prepare. Instead, wait until the day before the mission and assign the roles to two students who have not taken on heavy team roles. Give these students the Communications Team instructions and ask them to read it as homework. Make sure your choice for Data Officer includes a student who can type well.
• For homework before this class, students should read:
  • Overview of Teams
  • Their team’s instructions

Duration

10-15 minutes: Organize the students into teams and give directions

30-45 minutes: Run the mini-mission

Materials Needed

• One computer with the online moon map displayed on screen.
• Four report forms for each of the following teams: Moon Mapping, Comet Tracking, and Crisis Management. Print the report forms in different colors, one for each team. All the report forms are available on the website under Student Materials.
• Worksheets for each student. All the worksheets are available on the website under Student Materials.
• Comet tracking diagram and graphs for the Comet Tracking Team. This may be found on the website under the Student Materials/Comet Tracking Team section.
• Lunar map printed for the Crisis Management Team. This may be found on the website under the Student Materials/Crisis Management Team section.
• Practice data slips for the mini-mission. Cut these apart. (See the end of this document).
• Practice data answer key for the teacher. This may also be found on the website under Teacher’s Toolkit/Pre-Mission Prep.

Set up Classroom and Assign Roles

1. Organize your students following the Classroom Setup directions. For the mini-mission you will need only one computer. This computer will be used for the online moon map by a member of the Moon Mapping Team. You can also access the online moon map by a link available in the Pre-mission Preparation web page.
2. Using their team instructions, students may self-organize and choose one of the roles listed. Alternatively, you might want to make assignments.

Run Mini-Mission

1. Standing at the front of the room, the teacher or a student may hand out Mini-mission Reading 1, one apiece, to each team.
2. The Crisis Management Team needs to become familiar with the inventory and astronauts on each base. Decide where and how to move people and equipment at each base.
3. Each team should start processing the information, filling in the report forms, and giving them back to you, where you check them against the answer key.
4. After six minutes, hand out Mini-mission Reading 2 to the Comet Tracking and Moon Mapping Teams.
5. Continue handing out the remaining readings to the Comet Tracking and Moon Mapping Teams every six minutes.
6. During the mini-mission you should look for communication flow bottlenecks and make modifications now or write them down for discussion later. The idea is that when Mission Day arrives, the students will be well prepared with the mechanics of the mission and will be able to advance to more critical thinking and problem solving during the live event.

Mini-Mission Reading 1: Comet Tracking Team

Mini-Mission Reading 2: Comet Tracking Team

Mini-Mission Reading 3: Comet Tracking Team

Mini-Mission Reading 4: Comet Tracking Team

Mini-Mission Reading 1: Moon Mapping Team

Mini-Mission Reading 2: Moon Mapping Team

Mini-Mission Reading 3: Moon Mapping Team

Mini-Mission Reading 4: Moon Mapping Team

Mini-mission Reading 1: Crisis Management Team

Sample Inventory

Astronaut Roster

Transportation Resources