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The Martian HaikuQuest

Introduction Japan is quietly preparing the

technologies that will enable the settling of Mars before the year 2100.

To help establish a link in the public mind between Japan and Mars, Sony is sponsoring a worldwide contest for the best Haiku written about the Red Planet.

The Task

To win the contest, write a haiku that successfully captures the rugged beauty of Mars while staying within the spirit of the haiku form.

Do it well, and the 1 Million Yen prize is yours!

The Process

First, learn about the haiku form:

Three short lines [One vertical line in Japanese]

5-7-5 syllables [in Japanese], some flexibility, but less is more

Often alludes to a season or nature Captures the essence of a particular

moment, with a surprising twist Show, don’t tell!

The Process

Some example haiku

Summer’s end nears –

now the slow bee allows

stroking of fur

From http://www.haiku.insouthsea.co.uk/teachshow_s2.htm

The Process

Some example haiku

daffodils open

around my mailbox

but no letter

From glindsay65 on flickr

The Process

Some example haiku

If you are tender to them,

The young sparrows

Will poop on you

From A Few Fireflies and I: Haiku by Issa

The Process

You will work in teams of two. One person is to study graphic

images of Mars and think of metaphors for the features they see.

The second person is to look at factual, scientific information about Mars and think of how these might be used in a poem.

Process

Here are your simulated web pages.

One person is to look only at the left side of the screen, the other only to the right.

You will not have time to study both sides of the screen, so focus on your own task.

Like Mercury, Venus and Earth, Mars is mostly rock and metal. Mountains and craters scar the rugged terrain.

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

The dust, an iron oxide, gives the planet its reddish cast.

Thin atmosphere and an elliptical orbit combine to create temperature fluctuations ranging from minus 140 degrees Celsius to a comfortable plus 20 degrees Celsius on summer days at the equator.

Mars was warm and wet about 3.7 billion years ago. But as the planet cooled, the water froze. Remnants exist as ice caps at the poles.

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars is about half the size of earth. Its atmosphere is composed mostly of carbon dioxide and is very thin, exerting about 1/100 the surface pressure that the earth's atmosphere exerts.

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

Percival Lowell, an amateur astronomer who studied Mars into the early 1900s, thought he saw canals that must have been dug by inhabitants.

Upon closer examination with modern telescopes and planetary probes, they turned out to be optical illusions.

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Process

Share your impressions with your partner.

Draft your Haiku tying together both the facts and visual impressions.

Issues experienced in this simulation

Interdependence No time for surfing More resources brought into the discussion

by working in parallel Scaffolding Taking advantage of the web’s timeliness and

colorfulness Transformation of information, not simply

retelling

Why teach this way? Because tomorrow’s adults will need to…

think together think for themselves know how to teach themselves new tricks make sense of information they’ve never

seen before generate their own questions and know how

to find the answers