Posted on June 14, 2018
Astronomy
For our final unit of science we had to learn about space and astronomy. I was really excited for this unit because I love learning about space. This unit was a little different than other units we have done this year. Instead of us all learning about the same things and doing a project on it we all had different topics to research and do a project on. The topics we got to choose from are the Big Bang theory, star life cycles, nuclear reactions, astronomical measurements, size and scale of our solar system, and radioactivity and radiation. I chose to do the Big Bang theory.
This was a partner project so I partnered up with Hannah. For this project we got to come up with the driving question and how we wanted to answer it. Our driving question was “What makes the Big Bang theory the most widely accepted theory among scientists?”. We chose to answer this by collecting evidence for the theory and displaying it in a slideshow. We also compared it to other theories and predicted how the universe will change based on the Big Bang theory. We then presented it to the class and it went really well. Hannah and I worked hard on this project and we worked very well together. Here is our slideshow.
Another cool aspect of this project was that we got to choose what we wanted to be graded on. There were 6 main criteria and we had to choose 4 of them. Here is how we chose to be graded and what grades we got. 
We learned about the different aspects of astronomy from the other group’s projects and presentations. This was a cool way to learn because each group explained their topic in a way that made sense to everyone and they did it in a fun, interesting way. The last thing we had to do was make a mind map showing how the different aspects of astronomy relate to each other. This was a little challenging because we weren’t allowed to take notes during the presentation but I was able to get it done. Every part of astronomy is connected to another part in some way. For example the Big Bang is connected to almost everything because it is the start of the universe. We learned about things in the solar system and everything in a system has to work together to keep it going.
I really enjoyed this unit because it was a fun topic. I loved doing a project with a lot of freedom because I was able to be really creative with it. I loved the topic I researched and I feel like I learned a lot about the Big Bang and how the universe works. I also enjoyed hearing the other group’s presentations and learning from them.