Margie Adkins
The site The Movie Loft: Movies and Animations from NASA and Elsewhere (http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/movies/movies.html) is a collection of movies and animations of planets, stars, galaxies and other astronomical things which which were obtained from public-domain government ( NASA ) web sites. The images include data loops, animations, and simulations listed in 4 categories: Space Activities by Humans,The Sun,The Planets, and The universe. These videos illustrate material that is covered in one of our Reading stories. They would also be very useful for a Science unit on the Solar System. Our current Science series (FOSS) includes Solar Energy as a 5th grade unit. I would spend 2-3 weeks expanding on this unit to include information on the Solar System. I would then assess their knowledge using a variety of tools including a project rubric and a written test.