5th Grade Science: The Planets Working in groups, students will be assigned a planet. The teacher will provide a Think Sheet for the students to complete and websites to look for the answers to the Think Sheet. Student will then use the Think Sheet answers and a PowerPoint program to create a 10-`15 page slide show on the assigned planet. Students will use pictures from the internet to make their presentations aesthetically pleasing. Students may use animations and appropriate humor, but it is not required. The example PowerPoint is Jupiter. It is a 13 slide PowerPoint filled with high contrast font, quick facts on Jupiter from the Think Sheet, NASA images of the planet and its moons, diagrams, a statue of the god Jupiter, an animation of geological storms, humor, and a NASA tourism poster. The created background theme of orange and black was designed to represent the color of Jupiter and space. Groups can be difficult for some students, but it is necessary for students to learn how to work with other people. Students will have to manage one another as some students are content with others completing work for them. Sometimes in groups there are disagreements that need to be resolved on how a presentation should look or the order of slides. Students need to learn to cooperate and compromise with one another civilly. Another challenge for this lesson could be using PowerPoint efficiently. PowerPoint is powerful presentation software. There are many different applications and tools within the program that students may be tempted to explore instead of focusing on the basic slide show tools. The groups should police themselves, so they may learn to cooperate. Students may also struggle choosing fonts and colors that will add to the readability of their presentations. Students need to use fonts that will accentuate their points instead of choosing the "creative" fonts that might be too distracting. The students need to pay attention to the colors they use. In order for their presentation to be effective, colors between the background and the fonts need to be high contrast. Students may be enticed to use bold colors too often, diverting the viewer from the content of the presentation. As always with technology, some students may have difficulty completing technology assignments due to a number of reasons. They may come from low income homes where the technology is unavailable or some students may have learning disabilities. An advantage of groups is that there is an opportunity for peer tutoring. The teacher must make sure to assign groups that have more advanced students matched with those that need help.