For example, although the object of this Web Quest is a fictitious scenario about planetary colonization, students discover many important facts that will clearly help them in any unit about the planets they are studying in class. Links in this project take the students to web sites maintained by NASA, JPL, and many educational institutions. Teachers should encourage the students to check their book and magazine facts against the information listed on these web sites. The Planetary Web Quest fits nicely into the third grade solar system curriculum covered at our private school. While I am not sure about the California State Framework for Science, teachers in grades three through high school could use this activity as a resource gathering tool for any unit on planets, the solar system, habitats, environment, climate, natural resources, or even population growth.
Interdisciplinary links increase as the age level rises.
Middle school students, for example, could read the Martian Chronicles while researching aspects of Mars. Teachers and students could discuss current events surrounding space exploration through analysis of NASA's space probes like Voyager. Most importantly, students will use higher level thinking skills in their quest to process the information they gather. The scenario that is given here demands that students not only choose a particular planet and defend why they wish to colonize it, but also describe why they did not choose other planets. This calls for higher level comparing and contrasting which can only be done if sufficient synthesis of information has taken place.