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Go Big or Go Home
Go Big or Go Home
RESOURCES:

NASA Astrobiology Institute
Professor Rip Ripley referred to this in Go Big. Its physical location is at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California.

NASA: Mars Meteorites
Location of 34 known Mars meteorites found on Earth, with several photos. Also includes links to archives of Mars meteorite news stories.

NASA/JPL Home Page
All sorts of news about exciting space research, including links focused on Kids and on Education.

Crazy Horse Memorial
Brady's dad works at the Crazy Horse Memorial. Here's a great link telling all about the memorial, with photos.

Black Hills Museum of Natural History
This is where Brady and Quinn went to meet up with Professor Rip Ripley. The museum is in downtown Hill City, and features an amazing collection of dinosaur skeletons and skulls, including the original STAN the T-rex. They also have meteorites and lots of other fossils.

Also, check out the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, housed in the same Hill City Museum. Lots of info on fossils, minerals, and meteorites.

ACTIVITIES:

Bullet At the end of the story, the seven co-conspirators promise never to tell anyone the truth about what became of Fred. Ask seven students to each take the part of one of this group. Try to convince the rest of the class why you think your character would or would not ever break his promise. Follow this with a discussion of what might happen if one of them did indeed let the truth get out.
Bullet Have students each write a newspaper article, or present a TV news feature, announcing that the missing Mars meteorite has been found, and it's not at the bottom of Pactola Lake. What happens next????
Bullet The medieval siege catapult built by the Carvers was an amazing creation. Encourage kids to create a model of this catapult and display their projects.
Bullet Ask students which part of this story they thought was the funniest. Then ask them to illustrate the incident they chose.
Bullet What does that word mean, astrobiology? This would make an excellent “expanded vocabulary” activity, trying to explain and define this relatively young science.
Bullet Divide students into small groups to pursue information about meteorites. Where have they been found? What kinds? What are they made of? Where did they come from? Work on different ways each group share their knowledge with the other kids. Perhaps you could bring in a local expert on meteorites, to talk to the class.
Bullet Ask students to discuss and debate the Crazy Horse Memorial. Include reasons in favor of this amazing project and also points some people have raised against altering the mountain itself. What about Mt. Rushmore? Compare the two monuments.
Bullet Quinn wears a Go Big or Go Home t-shirt in the story. Have your students design and actually make their own original Go Big or Go Home t-shirts
Bullet This story features titles for all the chapters. Ask kids to write about why they think the author chose the title he did for each of the chapters.
Resources and Ideas for Teaching Will's Novels
Bearstone and
Beardance
The Big Wander
Changes in Latitudes
Crossing the Wire
Downriver and
River Thunder
Far North
Ghost Canoe
Jackie's Wild Seattle
Jason's Gold and
Down the Yukon
Kokopelli's Flute
Leaving Protection
The Maze
Never Say Die
Take Me to the River
Wild Man Island
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