Grade 6 Interplanetary Travel Agent Project Outline: Rough Draft Due Monday October 29th

Interplanetary Travel Agent Project

Scenario

You are a travel agent located in the nearby Andromeda Galaxy. You have been asked by your superiors to boost the travel business in your galaxy. You have decided to look beyond your own galaxy and into the Milky Way. The first destination you decide to investigate is a cute little solar system that has 8 planets and one dwarf planet. Upon doing some research you learned the names of these planets to be:

a)      Mercury

b)      Venus

c)       Earth

d)      Mars

e)      Jupiter

f)       Saturn

g)      Uranus

h)      Neptune

i)        Pluto *dwarf planet

Your travel agent partner, Glockenspiel, has told you he wants to investigate the little blue planet called “Earth”. This means that you have to choose one of the other 8 planets to investigate first. The first thing you need to do is make an interesting brochure to give to your clients. So, pick a planet and let’s take off!

Marking

1) Be sure to use effective writing strategies when writing your brochure. Your work comes alive when you use:

Alliteration: Using more words in a row that start with the same letter (e.g., Visit fun, fabulous, far-out Neptune!)

Similes: A comparison using like or as (e.g., The surface of the Moon is cratered like a pepperoni pizza!)

Exaggeration or Hyperbole: Say things about your planet that stretch the truth (e.g., If you visit Venus you will have the best time in the Universe!)

Slogan or Rhymes: (E.g., Visit the Earth and you’ll say; that just made my whole day!)

Descriptive Words: Use descriptive words in place of simple words (e.g., Visit Saturn’s ultra awesome radical rings). A thesaurus helps you find new words!

Short Sentences:  At times, short sentences make a strong impact (e.g., Visit now!)

Sentences with Questions: (e.g., Are you tired of the same dull summer vacations?)

Providing a number of effective writing strategies will help you earn a higher level.

2) Accuracy is Important.

For example, the slogan “Fun in the Sun” would not work if you were promoting Pluto since it is so far from the Sun. You may want to say instead that Pluto is a “Nice quiet place to get away from it all!”

3) Follow the Writing Process

The steps for you to follow are:

1) Brainstorming              2) Research        3) Rough Draft                   4) Editing             5) Final Copy

Your final copy should be a neat, colourful, attractive brochure that would encourage someone to visit your planet.

Assignment Requirements

Your brochure must:

a)      Include a minimum of 15 facts about your planet (place small numbers next to each fact please)

b)      Be very neat! You don’t have to be an artist to be neat.

c)       Be creative! This project provides you with that opportunity!

d)      Include relevant illustrations about your planet. Only one of the images can be computer generated or photocopied; please draw the rest by hand.

e)      Include the planet name, your name, and an image on the front page.

Presentation

You are expected to give a brief oral presentation about your planet; between 2 and 3 minutes in length. During the presentation you are to share important features about your planet.

You will be assessed on the following:

• the quality of content
• volume, pace, tone of voice, expression
• preparedness

Have fun space travelers! I know your projects will be out of this world!