Lesson The Evening News

Learning Objectives

After this lesson, students should be able to:

• Summarize their experiences in the Amazon rainforest by developing and presenting briefings for a TV evening news program.
• Prepare questions and answers and practice being interviewers and interviewees.

Educational Standards

Each TeachEngineering lesson or activity is correlated to one or more K-12 science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) educational standards.

All 100,000+ K-12 STEM standards covered in TeachEngineering are collected, maintained and packaged by the Achievement Standards Network (ASN), a project of D2L (www.achievementstandards.org).

In the ASN, standards are hierarchically structured: first by source; e.g., by state; within source by type; e.g., science or mathematics; within type by subtype, then by grade, etc.

State Standards

Introduction/Motivation

(In the continuing storyline of the Lost in the Amazon unit, read aloud to the class the following information from the associated activity Eye Witness Reporting.)

Congratulations! You successfully made it to Manaus! You're at the airport, soon to board a plane that will take you and your teammates home. You are really looking forward to seeing your family and friends and enjoying all ordinary comforts that you have been missing while surviving the airplane crash and adventure in the Amazon rainforest.

Just as you are boarding the plane, the pilot arrives to thank you and your team for saving his life. He wishes you a safe trip home and best of luck with your future endeavors. He is much stronger and recovering quickly after getting the medical help he needed in Manaus.

As you settle into your seat, you reflect on your recent adventure through the Amazon rainforest and how much you've learned and accomplished in the last two weeks. Soon after take-off, a flight attendent informs you and your teammates that word of your grand adventure has spread back home. You're a local celebrity! News reporters are waiting at the airport to interview you and your teammates. You are excited about being in the evening news program, but also a little nervous—you've never been on TV before! What will they ask? How will you respond?

Lesson Background and Concepts for Teachers

Refer to the Vocabulary/Definitions section.

Associated Activities

• Eye Witness Reporting - Student groups develop briefings for a TV evening news program that summarizes their experiences surviving in the Amazon rainforest. To hone their communication skills, they role play as interviewer and interviewee in a class presentations.

  Watch this activity on YouTube

Lesson Closure

Discuss common themes that students reported. For example, was any consensus determined on the most interesting and most challenging activities? Which activity was liked the least? Ask the students hw they felt they did implementing the Lost in the Amazon unit. Would they like to implement similar units that have adventure-based themes and focus on engineering?

Vocabulary/Definitions

news: A report of recent events.

reporter: A person who investigates, gathers, summarizes and relays information about events for a news medium.

Assessment

Worksheet: Have each student group complete the associated activity worksheet.

Copyright

Supporting Program

Acknowledgements

Adventure Engineering was supported by National Science Foundation grant nos. DUE 9950660 and GK-12 0086457. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.