Summary
Students investigate the properties and impacts of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on the Earth. Based upon the activity, this is best for older students or very precocious younger high school students. A prerequisite would be basic physical science, but can easily be approached early on in an environmental or earth science course.
Essential Question(s)
How can understanding potential dangers influence the decisions we make in our everyday lives?
Snapshot
Engage
Students contemplate how to prepare for a natural disaster.
Explore
Students actively read an article about CMEs using CUS and Discuss.
Explain
Students do research over CMEs for a presentation.
Extend
Students construct a persuasive presentation over CMEs.
Evaluate
Students reflect over their learning in specific strategies.
Materials
Lesson Slides (attached)
CME Article handout (attached)
CME Poster Rubric handout (attached)
Metacognitive Cards handout (attached)
CME Strikeout handout (attached)
Student devices with internet access
Engage
Pass out a Strike Out handout to each student.
Display slide 1. Once the slide is displayed, if you click again the weather alert tone and message will start to play. When it is complete, move on to the next slide.
Have students write down the three things they would gather together at the top of their paper.
When doing Strike Out for this activity, the students will be in pairs. Partners exchange papers and mark, or “strike”, out one thing on their partner's list that they think should be eliminated. Once that happens, the partners will combine their lists to make four things that they will gather when faced with such a dire emergency.
Once the group lists are made, have groups exchange their lists, and continue with the task of striking out one item that they have decided isn't worth keeping. After this has happened twice, the list goes back to the original group. The original group can “reclaim” one item that has been struck out, making a final list of three things they can keep with them when the CME strikes.
Explore
Pass out a copy of the attached article to each student. There is a slide with directions on how to CUS and Discuss as an active reading strategy. The students will:
Circle words they've never seen before
Underline details and/or evidence provided
Star the main ideas the article is sharing
After they are done reading the article, play the video on the slide.
Allow the students to read through the article again after the video. This is to see if they have any additions or insights to clear up some of the questions they had when reading the article.
Explain
Adding onto the article, have students go online and research CMEs, the probability of them, the danger of them, etc. Let them know that the purpose of this research is for the creation of a presentation of sorts, so they should be sure to document important details they plan on using.
Extend
Tell students that they are going to make a persuasive presentation over CMEs. There is a rubric attached for you to pass out to each student (or pairs of students from the Strike Out activity). The options are as open as you want them to be, and can included - but not limited to:
Public Service Announcement to educate the public of CMEs in a catchy way
News or radio broadcast as if a CME has occurred
Commercial pitching survival item for CMEs (which could relate to the Strike Out activity)
Two Minute Documentary over CMEs (preferably a la Blair Witch Project, Spinal Tap, Cloverfield, The Office, etc.)
No matter the method, the students must adhere to the rubric, technically be factual, but hopefully be very captivating.
Each group will present their end 'product' to the entire class.
Evaluate
Pass out a copy of the Metacognitive Cards handout to each student. Have students reflect over each component and how each component contributed to learning.
Resources
K20 Center. (n.d.). Strike Out. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f5062cdf
K20 Center. (n.d.). CUS and Discuss. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f5073969
K20 Center. (n.d.). Metacognitive Cards. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f507b085