The typical fall sports season features girls’ volleyball. If you are lucky enough to have the sport at your school, you are probably already getting tired of putting and taking down the volleyball net. What if I said I have an awesome Montessori PE game that uses the volleyball net? You might be interested. What if I said this game also ties into the First Great Lesson? This fantastic new game teaches your students about meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites!

 This game is like a turbo-charged version of Newcomb. When I played this game with my middle school students, I noticed that it did a much better job of practicing volleyball skills than Newcomb. Because we use smaller dodgeballs that can be palmed with one hand, many of your older students will be able to do a jumping throw over the net. This motion is the correct precursor to a volleyball spike. Because you will have so many more students who can attack the net, it will behoove the defense to try and start blocking some of those good throwers. Now we have students naturally making the motion for spiking and challenging them at the net!

 Because we are using dodgeballs that can be thrown pretty fast, the speed will be similar to a volleyball hit pretty hard. However, the students don't have to worry about stinging their forearms for the pass as they work on getting in a good position and reaction time. This game will also help your spikers understand good placement. They will naturally look for gaps in the defense to throw the ball at and alternate between long throws and little lobs over the net. All these concepts could take weeks of practice to teach, yet, by playing this game, my middle school students started naturally discovering these concepts for themselves.

 Without further ado, here is the lesson plan for meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites.

Meteoroids, Meteors, and Meteorites

Montessori Physical Education

Introduction:

            If you have ever witnessed a shooting star, you witnessed a meteor. Sometimes so many of them happen at once that it is called a meteor shower. Luckily, because the Earth has an atmospheric layer called the mesosphere, most meteors burn up before reaching the Earth's surface. When they do, they are called meteorites. Most of the time, they are harmless, but some meteor impacts have been devasting to life on Earth. Studying the difference between meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites integrates perfectly with the First Great Lesson. With my older students, I used this lesson to introduce the possibility that important components of life may have traveled to Earth billions of years ago via meteorite.

            This game is loosely based on popular games like NIMBY and Newcomb. This game will have your students throwing hundreds of times in one class alone. Plus, the students will experience the difference between a meteoroid, meteor, and meteorite.

 

Materials: 

·      A large play area

·      A volleyball net

·      Dodgeballs

·      Optional

o   A container for the dodgeballs

o   A scoreboard or scorekeeping device

 

Minimum Number of Students Needed:

While you could play this game with as few as two people, it is more fun with an entire class.

 

Prior Knowledge: The students should have had the First Great Lesson and any lessons on planetary bodies and the solar system.

 

Presentation

·      Begin by explaining that the students will play a game similar to a volleyball variation called Newcomb. The dodgeballs will represent a meteoroid, a meteor, and a meteorite. The students will discover that its name changes depending on where the ball is on the field of play. This correlates with how a meteor's name changes based on where it is in space and its relation to the Earth.

o   When the ball is on the meteor side in a student’s hand, it is called a meteoroid. A meteoroid is flying in space and has not encountered Earth’s atmosphere.

o   When the ball is thrown over (or sometimes into) the volleyball net, it has entered Earth’s atmosphere. Because it is in Earth’s atmosphere, its name changes to a meteor. This is the shooting star that we see in the sky.

§  Most meteors do not make it to Earth's surface. As the meteor travels through the gases in the mesosphere of Earth's atmosphere, a tremendous amount of friction builds up. The friction creates heat, and most meteors disintegrate under this intense heat and pressure.

o   When the ball hits the ground on the Earth team's side, it becomes a meteorite because it touches Earth's surface.

·      Split the students into two teams, each taking one side of the court. There should be a volleyball net separating the two teams.

·      One team is the Earth team, and the other is the meteor team.

·      The job of the Earth team is to catch any dodgeballs before they touch the ground. They act like the mesosphere blocking incoming meteors from hitting the Earth's surface.

·      Suppose an Earth team player catches a ball. In that case, it is worth two points for upper elementary and three for lower elementary. The Earth player must return the ball to the meteor side, going to their left around the volleyball net. There should be a container that the Earth player can dump the ball into and return to their team. Earth players should only return balls caught, and they should not pick up any balls on the ground. Instead, they should leave those balls for the meteor team to retrieve.

o   An Earth player can catch more than one ball at a time, but they only get credit when the balls are brought to the container on the meteor side.

o   If an Earth player catches a ball but later drops it, that is a point for the meteor team.

o   If an Earth player catches a ball thrown off a wall or the ceiling, that still counts as a catch.

·      The job of the meteor team is to throw dodgeballs over the net, so they hit the ground. If they do so, it is worth one point for the meteor team. Good strategy says that they should throw to areas without any Earth players. Alternating between short and long throws also works well.

o   When the ball is thrown, it is not worth any points if it hits any wall or the ceiling. It must hit the ground cleanly without any ricochets.

o   If the ball is thrown into or under the net, that is a point for the Earth team.

§  The net is acting like the mesosphere as well.

o   If the meteor player touches any part of the net while throwing a ball, it is a point for the Earth team.

§  This usually happens a player tries to "spike or dunk" the ball over the net. While a jumping throw can be fast and hard to catch, they put themselves at risk of touching the net.

·      Meteor players can go to the Earth side to retrieve a ball on the ground. They must go around the volleyball pole on their left side to enter the Earth's team area. Meteor players must be careful not to block or get in the way of an Earth player trying to catch the ball. If they do, that is a two- or three-point penalty.

o   Meteor players are allowed to carry as many balls as possible. Still, upon returning to the meteor side of the game, they can only keep one ball and must give away all the others.

·      If an Earth player uses the wrong side to return a caught ball, it is not worth any points. If a meteor player uses the wrong side to fetch balls, they are penalized for every ball they bring back.

o   The reasons for enforcing these specific ways of travel are two-fold. First, we want to minimize collisions between opponents running back and forth. Also, knowing that Earth players travel one way and meteor players travel the other helps to keep score.

·      After playing a three-minute round, have the teams switch sides. All the dodgeballs should be returned to the meteor side, and every player should start with only one ball. Then, play as many rounds as you can fit into your gym time.

·      After the game, go over the different terms that the students learned.

o   What is it called when a meteor player is holding the ball on their side, which is outer space (meteoroid)?

§  To help the students remember meteoroids, which they don't hear too often, tell them it has the same suffix as an asteroid.

o   What is it called when the ball is flying into or over the net, representing the mesosphere (meteor)?

o   What is it called when the ball hits the ground or the surface of the Earth (meteorite)?

o   After going over the terms, describe how every game started with the meteor players throwing their balls. What is it called when we see many meteors in the sky at once (meteor shower)?

·      If you have more time for the debrief, you can talk about meteorites and mass extinctions. You could also talk about potential technologies humans are developing to divert meteoroids and asteroids that might impact the Earth.

·      If you decide to play this game with middle school, it should be worth three points if the Earth player catches a ball. You should also eliminate the time limit and play to a score of fifty. This is because middle students are savvy and will purposely waste time if they are ahead.

o   Observing the developmental similarities and differences between the age groups was fascinating. For example, lower elementary needs three-point catches because they are not as good at catching. The middle school also needs three-point catching,  but for them, the reason is that they can throw much harder and jump much higher. The upper elementary is unique because their throwing and catching abilities are on par with each other, so the points for catching a ball are reduced to two points.

 Aims:

Direct:    For the students to learn and reinforce the terms meteoroid, meteor, and meteorite.

 

Indirect: 

 Listening to directions

Teamwork and team building

Communication

Strategy

Sportsmanship

Determination

 

 Physical skills practiced: 

·      Throwing

·      Catching

·      Jumping (either during the throw or catch)

·      Running and changing direction

 

Control Of Error: 

Enforcing the rule that each team should be going to their left side only is the only way a teacher can have any hope of scoring this game. It is tough to see everything, but if the students use the correct sides, that will help a lot.

 

Age: All Ages