|
Heinlein Juveniles
So far only Have Spacesuit--Will Travel has on official AR test. I have written teacher made tests for all the other juveniles.
Heinlein Juveniles
I wrote AR tests and summaries for the Heinlein society. The Heinlein Society is trying to get official AR tests for all Heinlein juveniles. Teachers with school e-mail accounts may contact me for chapter summaries and AR tests that they may input into their AR system manually. AR makes it impossible to share any other way. The problem of AR tests is that students do not share their knowledge of the “big picture.” Higher level thinking skills need students to take what they know and expanding their comprehension through literature to today’s medicine, astronomy, politics,and sociology. Between Planets Discussion Questions Where was Don Harvey born? Why this cause him problems? What are Martian dragons like? Describe their appearance and civilization. What was the significance of Don’s ring? How did he manage to get it to the right people? Compare Isobel with other female characters created in Heinlein juveniles. Activities Create a doll or puppet that looks like a Martian dragon. Research Japanese internment camps. Is it possible that Earth would place any Venusian born people in such a camp if war happened? Citizen of the Galaxy Discussion Questions Research Gypsies or Romani people. How is the culture of the Traders similar and different to them? Research slavery. Where is slavery still practiced on earth? What efforts are being done to stop it? Where was Thorby the most free? As a slave? As a Trader? As a member of the military? As the head of Rudbeck? How was Thorby identified? Have you heard of any real cases where a missing child was identified? What methods are used to prove identities? Do you think this will change in the future. Research and prove your point. Much was made of the memory technique of Renshawing. Research memory and discuss if you think this technique is possible. Activities: Make a board showing a timeline of Thorby’s life. Make a board game for Citizen of the Galaxy similar to the game of life. Compare and contrast share cropping in the South to share cropping in the book. Farmer in the Sky Discussion Questions What types of people would be needed to colonize other planets? Compare these to American pioneers. Should punishment fit the crime? How did the ship’s captain punish people. Was the punishment appropriate? Why? Opinion: What do you think that the race that make the sleds was like? Why did they disappear? What do we know about Ganymede today? How is that different than Heinlein’s Ganymede. Activities Design Scouting Badges for each of the planets besides Earth. Design a sales campaign for Ganymede? How would you market land to settlers? Have Spacesuit--Will Travel Discussion Questions If you wanted to learn something that wasn’t taught in your school, how would you do it? Heinlein had a connection with space suits. Research it. Compare and contrast Bruce Coville’s My Teacher Flunked the Planet with this book. What is different about Heinlein’s Pluto and Pluto today? Was the trial that the Mother Thing’s people gave Earth fair? Give reasons for your answer. Activities Make a commercial for Safeway Soap. Make a slide show for Mother Thing’s people explaining why they should spare Earth. Podkayne of Mars Discussion Questions Describe Podkayne. How is she alike and different from other Heinlein female characters? Describe Clark. How is he alike and different from other Heinlein boy characters? Describe how Martians have babies? How is this an improvement over the way we have babies now? What medical advancements do we currently have that could lead to the Martian way? How is parenting different because of it. Compare Heinlein’s Mars and Heinlein’s Venus in Podkayne. How are the government’s alike and different? Compare and contrast Las Vegas to Heinlein’s Venus. Research working parents with stay at home moms. How are these parenting styles different? What does research say about the differences? Research Grumbles From the Grave. What problems did Heinlein have publishing this book? Why were there two different versions of this book? What are the differences? Activities Make Podkayne’s Martian diary. Draw some Venus ads. Red Planet Discussion Questions How is Mars different than Earth? How is Heinlein’s Mars different than what we currently know about Mars? How would humans terraform Mars? You may wish to read Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars by Spider Robinson. What adjustments in civilization would people living on Mars have to make to survive? Compare and Contrast Red Planet with the Boston Tea Party. How are the boys similar to John and Samuel Adams? Activities Have a debate on what the Second Amendment really means. How is it linked to Gun Control? Rolling Stones Discussion Questions Describe the Stone Family. How are they unusual? Research television. Why was it called the Great Wasteland? What are Heinlein’s views on television? Research teen-aged inventors and entrepreneurs. Who are famous inventors and entrepreneurs that were successful before age 25? Watch Star Trek: Troubles With Tribbles. How are David Gerrold’s Tribbles similar to Heinlein’s Flat Cats. How are they different? Describe home schooling Heinlein style. Activities Write and illustrate a pamphlet explaining how to properly care for Flat Cats. Make your own Galactic Overlord comic book . Space Cadet Discussion Questions Describe the Venerian civilization. How is it different from ours? Describe education in the Space Patrol. How is it different from our schools? Heinlein felt in 1948 that we could have reached Venus in 1971. Research what happened to the space program that lead us to the moon in 1969 and then stopped. Discuss: Should we have the equivalent of a Space Patrol to prevent nuclear war in outer space? Would you pick and train the same type of people that Heinlein suggested? Activities Have a mock trial for Burke. Try him on kidnapping and murder charges. Star Beast Discussion Questions Describe Lummox from Lummox’s viewpoint and from John Thomas Stuart’s viewpoint. Describe Betty. How is Betty similar to Isobel from Between Planets or other Heinlein female characters? How is she different? How would a Hroshiian ambassador to the United Nations react to the treatment of Lummox. Activities Draw a wanted poster for Lummox. Make a newspaper with Betty and John Thomas Stuart’s wedding as the headline story. Make a comic book version of this story. Starman Jones Discussion Questions Describe Max. What makes him unusual? What real life characters have some of Max’s traits? Describe Sam. What events have made Sam the way he is? Research Apprentice Programs from medieval guilds to modern trade unions. How does the Astrogator’s Guild compare to them? Compare the way ship jobs separate people. How are enlisted men different from officers? Can you think of any examples of this in your life? Activities Make a pamphlet on how to take care of a spider puppy. Have a mock trial for Max. Should he be kicked out of the guild for lying about his record? Do you agree with the guild’s decision? Time For The Stars Discussion Questions Research telepathy experiments . What uses have been proposed for telepathy? What fiction books have used telepathy? Research communication with satellites and other planets. What problems would time delays cause? Research twin research. How can twins be alike and different. What happens when twins are raised apart? What fiction books have used twins as main characters? Activities Make a chart that shows ships and twin connections. Test everyone in class for ESP using the Kreskin’s ESP game or equivalent. http://www.gamepile.com/game27.html Tunnel In The Sky Discussion Questions Compare and contrast the survival test in this book to the Survival television reality shows. Compare and contrast this book with Robinson Crusoe. Research suspended animation. What ethical problems are there with someone who recovers after a long period of suspended animation? Rod appears to have some problems with believing females have the same abilities as males. What females in this book proved him wrong? Name some real life females that proved women could compete with men. Activities Make character sheets for the those in Rod’s survival group. Name their strengths and weaknesses. Have a mock School Board Meeting on a survival class. Discuss how the class should be taught and graded. What fiction books have used twins as main characters? |