Japan Lands on Asteroid
Japan has dropped a pair of rovers on an asteroid name Ryugu, which then sent back images of the terrain on the asteroid. This came as many firsts: first soft landing on an asteroid, first deployment rovers in low-gravity settings, and first close-up snapshot of celestial object that may have helped seed life on Earth billions of years ago. With this article, I chose to have students use the strategy of Two Roses and One Thorn. I would use this strategy to gain a better understanding of what needs to be taught more of during this article and what sections the students are gaining an understanding for. By using the Two Roses and a Thorn strategy, I will be able to assess what parts of the article students are understanding and what I need to better explain or be more detailed about. Also, by having the students write down one question that remains, I can go through and plan how to better explain each topic. After deciding the strategy to be used, I began to think of misconceptions that might arise with students and I came up with these 4:
- Why would the Japanese land on an asteroid?
- What is considered a soft landing if the probes were dropped on the asteroid?
- Why is this first close-up of look at the sort of celestial object that might have helped seed life on Earth billions of years ago?
- Why do the scientists think that this helped seed life on Earth?
Standard: Grade 6–8 Earth and Space Science: Develop and use a model to describe the role of gravity in the motions within galaxies and the solar system.
Grand Challenge: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe