Student Stars Become Constellations

by Jerry Taylor
Technology Integration Teacher
Greece, NY School District
Web page: http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/taylor
TASK page: http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/task

Last year, some elementary students in my district (Greece, NY) worked on a writing project while studying "stars." I thought some of YOU might want to try the same project with YOUR students.

The ultimate goal was to get the students to write a short story about stars and constellations. To motivate the students, they each got to create their own "constellation." The students used a digital image of themselves, and Microsoft Publisher's "Autoshape" feature, to place stars on various parts of their bodies... head, arms, elbows, knees, etc.

Then, they deleted their picture from the file and were left with a group of stars which represented themselves. They then wrote the "myth" behind their constellation. The students' stories were published along with a copy of their "before" and "after" constellation pictures.

The project is listed on our "TASK" web page, complete with sample "before" and "after" constellation pictures. The address is:
http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/task/
activities/elemscihealth.htm