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The Great Solar System Search and Report

Introduction  Initiation  Exploration  Explanation  Take Action  Assessment

Introduction

Grade: Middle School

Time Frame: 3 to 4 days

Objectives: Given a treasure hunt activity and some lecture/discussion, students will be able to:

• Know characteristics and movement patterns of the nine planets in our Solar System
• Know characteristics of the Sun and its position in the universe
• Know that the planet Earth and our Solar System appear to be somewhat unique
• Know that gravitational force keeps planets in orbit around the Sun and moons in orbit around the planets
• Know characteristics and movement patterns of asteroids, comets, and meteors

Materials: Computer lab, TV/VCR, paper, pencil, Bill Nye Video

Overview: 

Overhead Notes

Benchmarks On-Line

• The sun is a medium-sized star located near the edge of a disk-shaped galaxy of stars, part of which can be seen as a glowing band of light that spans the sky on a very clear night. The universe contains many billions of galaxies, and each galaxy contains many billions of stars. To the naked eye, even the closest of these galaxies is no more than a dim, fuzzy spot.
• The sun is many thousands of times closer to the earth than any other star. Light from the sun takes a few minutes to reach the earth, but light from the next nearest star takes a few years to arrive. The trip to that star would take the fastest rocket thousands of years. Some distant galaxies are so far away that their light takes several billion years to reach the earth. People on earth, therefore, see them as they were that long ago in the past.
• Nine planets of very different size, composition, and surface features move around the sun in nearly circular orbits.  Some planets have a great variety of moons and even flat rings of rock and ice particles orbiting around them.  Some of these planets and moons show evidence of geologic activity. The earth is orbited by one moon, many artificial satellites, and debris.
• Large numbers of chunks of rock orbit the sun. Some of those that the earth meets in its yearly orbit around the sun glow and disintegrate from friction as they plunge through the atmosphere—and sometimes impact the ground.  Other chunks of rocks mixed with ice have long, off-center orbits that carry them close to the sun, where the sun's radiation (of light and particles) boils off frozen material from their surfaces and pushes it into a long, illuminated tail.

Astronomy for Kids (kid size planet facts):

Take a Journey Through Our Solar System! We live in a very small part of the universe, but it's what we call home, and it's a very interesting place. You can visit all of the members of our planetary family by clicking on the name or the picture of the planet you want to visit. Enjoy your trip! How Big is the Solar System? Even though we live in a very tiny part of the universe, our neighborhood is still a very large place. If you would like to find out just how big it is, visit the How Big is the Solar System page.     Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. Mercury is named for the Roman messenger god because it quickly appears and disappears from the morning and evening skies. Many astronomers have never seen Mercury because it's only visible a few days out of the year, and does not rise very far above the horizon. Mercury     Although Venus is named after a goddess of beauty, the reality of this planet is far from its name. Venus is a very unpleasant place, with winds that blow constantly at hundreds of miles per hour and extremely high temperatures. This planet is an example of a runaway greenhouse effect on a planetary scale. Venus     Earth. Our home in the planetary neighborhood, and as the saying goes, there's no place like home. Our planet is unique in the solar system, and not just because we live here. Did you know that Earth is only planet in the solar system that can have eclipses of the Sun? Earth     Always known as the Red Planet, Mars has probably been the source of more science fiction (good and bad) than any other planet. Mars is much smaller than Earth, but recent research shows that it once had flowing rivers. Mars also has a canyon that stretches over 2000 miles. Mars     The ruler of the night skies, Jupiter is by far the largest planet in our solar system. Jupiter is so large that over 1300 Earths would fit inside it! It also makes up its own miniature solar system with its family of at least sixteen Moons! Jupiter     The Ringed Planet, Saturn is probably the most visually stunning planet in our planetary neighborhood. Saturn's giant rings are actually made of of thousands of small particles of dust and ice. The divisions in the rings we see from Earth are caused by some of Saturn's smaller moons. Saturn     One of the mysterious gas giants, Uranus has rings like Saturn, but they are very faint and weren't discovered until the planet was visited by the Voyager spacecraft. The planet is also the only one in our solar system that lays on its side instead of standing straight up. Uranus     Neptune was the last stop that the ground breaking Voyager spacecraft made on its journey through the solar system. The amazing mission had one more surprise for us, though, as it found "geysers" on Triton, one of Neptune's moons. Neptune     The most distant planet in our solar system, Pluto is so far away that the Sun is not much bigger or brighter than most of the other stars in its sky. Pluto also has a moon, Charon, that is nearly as big as the planet itself. Pluto

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Initiation

Teacher: Movie Conductor

Students: Spectators

Method: Watch Bill Nye the Science Guy in Plants and Moons video #41 which talks about the 9 planets and some common facts about them.

Exploration

Teacher: Facilitator, Coach

Students: Decision Makers, Investigators

Methods: First the kids will be broken up into groups of 6. They will then draw out of a cup two pieces of paper with their topic assignment on it (topic cards). The kids can then be taken into the lab to complete the Treasure Hunt below. After the treasure hunt, each student should choose some sort of presentation method to present the information by (Power Point, Inspiration, Word, Hyper Studio, Poster, Overheads, etc.) and create a presentation for their two topics to be presented at the end of the unit. Schedule more lab time and assign this part as homework.

Treasure Hunt

an Internet-Based Treasure Hunt on the Solar System

Instructions | The Questions | The Internet Resources | The Big Question

Instructions

Use the Internet links below to uncover some "Treasures of the Solar System. Each resource link will help you find the right information for your assigned topics. Use the links and paper/pencil or Word to take notes. 

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Questions

• Classify it as a Gas Giant or Jovian planet.
• Where is it located?
• What is its size?
• What is it made of?
• What is it like on the surface?
• Does it have a moon(s)? rings?
• Can you see it from Earth?
• How did it get its name?

• Describe the moon's phases from our view on Earth.

Sun:

• Describe the different layers of the sun.
• What is its location in the solar system? 
• What temperatures are the different layers?

Comets, meteors, meteorites, and asteroids:

• What is each composed of?
• What does each look like?
• Describe its flight path.
• How can each one interact with Earth (can we see it/can it hit Earth)?

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Resources (click a picture below)

• Astronomy for Kids
• Our Solar System 
• Windows to the Universe
• Star Child
• Moon Phases

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The Big Question

Look over all the questions above and your answers to them and state what you feel are the 4 - 5 ways to classify objects in the solar system.

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Explanation

Teacher: Expert, Tour Guide

Students: Curious adventurers, Presenters

Methods: The teacher should present overhead notes and points from the overview on the different topics (planets, moon, sun, comets, meteors, meteorites, and asteroids) while discussing them with the class.

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Take Action

Teacher: Consultant, Facilitator

Students: Creators

Methods: The kids could then begin to build a concept map on paper about the facts they found and the notes presented in class.

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Assessment

Most of the assessment here should be observation. You can look at the treasure hunt results and check them off for completeness. The concept maps should be a work in progress during the unit.

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