Space Journal: A Mini Lesson from Texas OnCourse

Grade Level: Middle School

This lesson is part of our middle school curriculum, designed to acquaint the students with MiddleGalaxy. They will go through the game and create a journal of the people and careers they encounter. 

Don't forget to download the full Middle School Curriculum Guide here!

Instructional Objectives:

College and Career Readiness TEKS

  • §127.2(c)(1) - The student investigates one or more careers within the 16 career clusters. The student is expected to:
    (A) identify the various career opportunities within one or more career clusters
  • §127.2(c)(3) - The student investigates the professional skills needed for college and career success. The student is expected to:
    (A) apply core academic skills to meet personal, academic, and career goals;
  • §127.3(c)(3)- The student evaluates skills for personal success. The student is expected to:
    (A) use interpersonal skills to facilitate effective teamwork;
    (B) use problem-solving models and critical-thinking skills to make informed decisions;
    (D) identify skills that can be transferable among a variety of careers;

Cross-Disciplinary Standards

  • I.A. Intellectual curiosity
    1. Engage in scholarly inquiry and dialogue.
  • I.C. Problem solving
    1. Analyze a situation to identify a problem to be solved.
    2. Develop and apply multiple strategies to solve a problem.
    3. Collect evidence and data systematically and directly relate to solving a problem.

Time Required: Two class periods, approximately 40 minutes per class period.

Materials required:

For each student:

For the class:

  • Internet access. At the teacher’s discretion, this could be completed in groups of 2–3.

Procedures:

  1. Have students log in to Middle Galaxy. 
  2. Once you’ve walked through the first mission with the students, have them complete a game. After 10 bonus rounds are completed, they can go on to use their tokens for additional cards and play.
  3. While they are playing the students will also complete their Space Journal handout.

Closure:
This can be done the next day at the start of class, if the students took the whole period to complete their journal and play the game.

  • Think-pair-share – Students will get a couple of minutes to think about what they’ve written in their space journal. Then they will pair up with another student and discuss their findings. Finally the teacher will select students to share what they’ve discussed and their thoughts on their findings.

Extension Activity:
The students choose one profile from their journal to do further research on. They can develop a character portrait with a description or complete a short essay about what they think a day in that character’s life is like on a mission.

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