Grade: Elementary
Subject: Science

#2585. Hyperstudio Solar System Review

Science, level: Elementary
Posted Tue May 14 18:41:50 PDT 2002 by Traci Nemetz (nemetz9808@msn.com).
Darnell Elementary school, Las Vegas, Nevada
Materials Required: computers, Hyperstudio
Activity Time: 30 minutes to create stack
Concepts Taught: solar system review

I recently finished teaching a unit on the solar system, which is a part of the second grade science curriculum. As we were finishing the unit, I was trying to decide how to assess my students. In the past, I have had my students write me a one page paper about all the things they learned during a particular unit. However, they often leave out important facts that should have been learned. For example, I wanted to be sure that my students learned that the sun is a star, not a planet. So I decided to create a hyperstudio stack that reviewed the information the children have learned. I think often times children don't know how to focus or pick out the important facts. This review was to provide them with that support. Each card has a question and three possible answers. They will learn if their answer is right or wrong by the sound that they hear after clicking on an answer. After answering the question correctly, they will click a button to move to the next card. Rather than giving them a worksheet to review before the test, this is a fun way for them to test their knowledge. Since they have never worked with a hyperstudo stack before, I thought they would really enjoy going through cards. 18 students participated in this activity, which met Nevada Standard 14.2.1. Students will observe and describe the sun, moon, planets, and stars. This activity also met Curriculum Essential Framework objective 4.1. Students will use technologies a san education tool in all content areas.


The students can to go to the computer by themselves or with partners to run through the stack.

How to create stack: (familiarize yourself with Hyperstudio first!)

Open up Hyperstudio and create 7 or more different cards, each having one question and three possible answers. Place each answer on a button. Make the button with the correct answer make some kind of happy sound so they know they got the right answer. If they chose the wrong one, they won't hear anything. Create a button in the bottom right hand corner to take them to the next card. I asked the following seven questions or fill in the blank statements:
1) The sun is a ____________. (planet, star, or moon)
2) The closest planet to the sun is __________. (Earth, Venus, mercury)
3) How many days does it take for the earth to revolve around the sun? (7, 30, 365)
4) What is the coldest planet? (Mercury, Uranus, Pluto)
5) What does orbit mean? (path around the sun, stands still, hides)
6) You weigh less on the moon because of ___________. (amount of gravity, the temperature, less air)
7) The largest planet is (Jupiter, earth, Pluto)

Students could either go to the computer with a partner or on their own. The stack was used as a review of the science objective 3.5; students will observe and describe the sun, moon, planets, and stars.
I assessed their performance by checking to see if they included all seven questions that were in the stack, in their written summaries. If they included all seven items and more, they received an E ) exceptional progress. If they included 6 of the items, they earned S+. 5 items S (satisfactory progress). 4 items, S- and 3 or less N (needs improvement).

To involve each one of your students in making a card for the stack, have each one of them come up with a question to put on a card. Then the questions would be coming from the students and they would take ownership in their learning. If out of 18 questions, there were some important objectives that were not mentioned, then you could a few extra cards.

A hyperstudio stack could be used for any grade level or subject.