Up, Up, and Away

Grade Levels: 6 - 8

Overview

Students use a Web resource to learn about hot-air ballooning, including a recent, daring attempt to make an around-the-world balloon flight. Then they write a journal entry as a flight participant.

Objective

• Students will practice taking the point of view of another person.
  
• Students will practice distinguishing fact from opinion.
  
• Students will recognize main idea and details and apply this organizing strategy in paragraph writing.

Procedure

1. Tell students they are going to use the World Wide Web to learn about a type of adventurous travel: hot-air ballooning.
   
   
2. Log on to NOVA Online's Balloon Race Around the World website. Click “History of Ballooning” and have students read excerpts from this brief history of ballooning.
   
   
3. Return to Balloon Race, and click “Virtual Balloon Flight” to experience a four-minute balloon flight over Nevada's Black Rock Desert. If you do not have Shockwave (or cannot wait for a download), you can view the flight as a slide show, with or without audio.
   
   
4. Now return to Balloon Race, and click “Global Contenders '97/'98” for information on each around-the-world crew and their particular balloons.
   
   
5. Return to Balloon Race, and click “Expedition '96/'97.” On the Expedition '96/'97 page, click “ The Flight Team,” then click the names of some crew members to learn about their roles, backgrounds, and thoughts about the flight.
   
   
6. Return again to Balloon Race. If students wish to read some questions and answers about ballooning and the race, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Join Us/Email” and then on “Balloon Race Around the World ” under Read Other People's Comments.
   
   
7. Follow the January 1997 flight by returning to the Balloon Race home page and clicking “Expedition '96/'97.” Now click “Newsflashes.” At the end of the text, click “(previous newsflash)” to read additional Newsflashes in reverse chronological order.
   
   
8. Discuss students' reactions to the aborted balloon flight and how the different participants might have felt. Encourage them to think like a flight member.
   
   
9. Tell students that they are going to write journal entries for one of newsflashes they have just read. They will write their entries from the point of view of an actual member of the flight team or an accompanying journalist. Remind them to think about both the facts of the flight and their opinions about the events.
   

Extension

Students might enjoy returning to NOVA Online's Balloon Race Around the World. They can click “Up, Up, and How Far Away?” to learn how to estimate the distance to a visible hot-air balloon using their thumbs and arms as measuring tools.