Moon, Mars, and Beyond

Meadowbrook has been given the opportunity to display select final projects at the San Diego Aerospace Museum in Balboa Park between June 18 and June 22. Possible final project ideas include: Power point presentations, games, sci-fi stories, skits, and more. Here are a few pointers that will help you make a good final project. You teacher will provide additional pointers, guidance, and let you know what the expectations are for each project type.

This is the most important criterion that your project will be judged on. Good projects will incorporate many details about their destination as well as information that you learned from working on your specialties. You do not need to include everything that is on this list, but you should consider covering at least half of these points.

Length of day and year, distance from the sun and earth
Temperature, gravity, terrain, atmosphere
How you will get to your destination and how long it will take (transportation)
What you will do to stay healthy (space health)
How you can exploit the destination to make money (commercial opportunities)
What you will do to find out more about your destination (research and exploration)
How you will get around and get things done (robots and rovers)
Possibility of encountering other life forms (astrobiology)
How you will make your destination more habitable (terraforming)
How you will protect yourself and your equipment from radiation (radiation)

Regardless of the project type, it has to incorporate substantial knowledge of your destination and the challenges of space exploration. If you can not incorporate significant knowledge into your project, we suggest that you revise your project or select another one.

Things to consider for specific projects:

Power points:
1. All team members participate in presenting the material;
2. The presentation identifies the team members, begins with an overview, includes at least one slide for each topic covered, and concludes with a summary of the major ideas;
3. The slides all use the same background, font size, and style;
4. The font size is legible from the back of the classroom;
5. Graphics add to the meaning of presentation;
6. Presentation style is smooth and well rehearsed;
7. Presenters do a good job handling questions.

Knowledge based games (like Jeopardy and Who Wants to be a Millionaire):
1. All team members participate in presenting the game;
2. Game follows established rules or has well defined rules (if you invent a new game);
3. Wrong answers, if used, are possible and well formulated;
4. The game progresses logically from easy to hard questions;
5. The slides (or visuals used) all use the same font size and style;
6. The font size is legible from the back of the classroom;
7. Graphics add to the meaning of the game;
8. Team does a good job moderating the game with classroom.

Board games:
1. Includes a board, playing pieces, and cards;
2. The board is attractive and contributes to the theme;
3. Playing pieces and cards are attractive and “in the theme”;
4. Game follows established rules or has well defined rules (if you invent a new game).

Sci-fi stories:
1. Front cover includes a graphic that is representative of story;
2. Back cover provides information that interests you in reading the story;
3. Intriguing plot;
4. At least 6 pages long;
5. Proper use of language;
6. Appropriate for intended audience (children, teenagers, adults).

Skits:
1. Interesting characters;
2. Intriguing plot;
3. Smooth, well rehearsed presentation;
4. All team members participate.

Cartoon strips:
1. Interesting characters;
2. Intriguing plot;
3. Well-executed graphics;
4. Style of graphics is consistent throughout cartoon strip;
5. Has the look and feel of a cartoon strip.

Travel brochure and poster:
1. Has the look and feel of a travel brochure and travel poster;
2. Informative, but with a marketing slant (emphasizes positives);
3. Graphics enhance content;
4. Graphics are well executed.

The room in which we be displaying is round and there will be large tables that will line the circumference of the room. Projects such as board games will lie on the table. Projects in the form of posters will be leaning against the wall. If you make a skit, it can be recorded, turned into a DVD, and run on a large screen computer. A similar approach can be taken with power point presentations or some of the games.

In order to be able to present a broad selection of projects, projects that are mounted on a board should be no larger than 22”x28” (standard poster board) with a vertical orientation (stands on the 22” side). If you make a power point presentation you can mount the power points on poster board or record the presentation on video. A similar approach can be taken to other projects.

Make sure that the name of all team members will be visible and provide contact information, including a phone number, so that we can call you if there are some issues or questions about the project.

This is just to get you started. Your teachers will provide additional guidance.