As written, this exercise is intended to foster the connections standards.  It makes the students connect their general knowledge with German-language knowledge on a particular topic.  To foster these standards, however, the student outcomes must be assessed in terms of knowledge:  a statement that identifies several vocabulary items in proper relationship is "worth" ("'Bestenstern' ist 'Komet' oder 'Schweifstern'") more than a grammatically-correct simple sentence based on a cognate ("Hale-Bopp ist ein Komet").

     If grammaticality is stressed in assessment, then this task can easily be arranged to foster communication -- it is a natural for checking command of prepositions ("Hale-Bopp ist neben dem 'Fuhrmann', über dem 'Grossen Hund," usw.).