A Planetary Day, A Planetary Year
Objectives and State of Maine Learning Results Performance Indicators: Learners will be able to describe the cycle of day/night and attribute it to the turning of Earth. (Pre. K-2. Science and Technology. G. #1.) (3-4. Science and Technology. G. #1.) (5-8. Science and Technology. G. #5.) Learners will be able to define rotation and explain how it causes a planetary day (Pre.K-2. Science and Technology. G. #1) (3-4. Science and Technology. G. #3.) Learners will be able to define revolution and identify a planetary year as one revolution. (3-4. Science and Technology. G. #3.)
The General Idea: How do we measure a day? A year? Students often take for granted that a day has 24 hours in it and that there are 365 days in a year. But how do we determine what a day really is? Or how many days there are in a year? This activity will help students to understand that a planetary day is the amount of time that it takes for a planets to rotate once around its axis and a year is the amount of time it takes for a planet to revolve once around the Sun.
How Much Would a Can of Soda Weigh?
Objectives and State of Maine Learning Results Performance Indicators: Learners will be able to demonstrate that gravity is what causes objects to have weight (3-4. Science and Technology. I. #1.) (Secondary. Science and Technology. I. #2.) Learners will be able to explain that the nine planets do not exert the same amount of gravitational force (Secondary. Science and Technology. I. #2.)
The General Idea: Weight is the name we give to the force acting in a direction toward the center of a planet. The pull of gravity is the natural force of attraction exerted by a planet upon objects at or near its surface. The force depends both on the mass of the planet and its diameter. (For example: a planet having twice the mass, but with the same diameter, of Mars would result in a surface gravity twice that of Mars). This activity will help students understand this concepts by comparing the various relative weights of a can of soda if placed on the surface of each of the nine planets and our Moon.
The Scaled Solar System
Objectives and State of Maine Learning Results Performance Indicators: Learners will be able to explain the scale of the solar system in terms of size and distance (3-4. Science and Technology. G. #1., L. #4.) (5-8. Science and Technology. L. #4.) (Secondary. Science and Technology. L. #3., L. #5.) Learners will be able to identify generalizations that people may have about the solar system and exceptions to those generalization (5-8. Science and Technology. K. #1., K. #2.)Learners will be able to reflect on and what they are learning in this activity (3-4. Science and Technology. L. #3.)
The General Idea: Most of us have seen models of the solar system at some point. And most of those models placed planets the size of baseballs just a few inches apart. With models like these it’s no wonder that students often understand the differences in size between the planets without actually understanding the scale of the solar system. This activity deals with relative sizes and distances in the Solar System.
Interplanetary Tourism
Objectives and State of Maine Learning Results Performance Indicators: Learners will be able to describe the characteristics of the planets (3-4. Science and Technology. G. #1.)Learners will be able to present information effectively and persuasively (3-4. Science and Technology. L. #5.) Learners will be able to use various types of evidence to support the claims that they make about their planet (3-4. Science and Technology. K. #4., K. #5.) (5-8. Science and Technology. K. #4., K. #8.) Learners will be able to work effectively in groups, including activities such as brainstorming (3-4. Science and Technology. K. #6, L. #7.) (5-8. Science and Technology. L. #6.)
The General Idea: This is an effective and enjoyable project for teaching the properties of the planet. By researching the characteristics of the planets and promoting tourism on each, teams of students will discover interesting and practical information about the planets. Encourage your students to be as creative as possible and to use their imaginations. In addition to learning about the planets, students will investigate ways that information can be slanted and after the activity they will look at real travel brochures and discuss where the information in them might be slanted as well.
Rotation of the Earth
Objectives and State of Maine Learning Results Performance Indicators: Learners will be able to infer that the rotation of the Earth causes apparent movement of the constellations in the night sky (3-4. Science and Technology. G. #3.). \Learners will be able to recognize that the patterns of the stars from various directions (Pre.K-2. Science and Technology. K. #6., Mathematics. G. #1.)
The General Idea: If you look at the night sky on a regular basis you will see that it doesn’t always appear the same. Actually it very seldom appears the same. From season to season the constellations twist around the north star. Many students may wonder if the constellations are really spinning around us as they appear to be doing. In this activity students will view constellations from various directions so that they will begin to understand how the stars appear to move through the sky, when in fact it is Earth that is moving through the sky.
Stars Give Off Light
Objectives and State of Maine Learning Results Performance Indicators: The learners will be able to explain that stars give off light (3-4. Science and Technology. G. #2). The learners will be able to demonstrate an understanding that moons and planets get their light from starsThe learners will be able to show that the Sun is a star(Pre.K-2. Science and Technology. G. #3). The learners will be able to describe the effects of Sun light on how we see other stars during the day.
The General Idea: To the untrained eye, the night sky is ablaze with the light of thousands of tiny dots. From here on Earth it is sometimes hard to tell the stars from the planets. This activity will help students understand that while both the stars and planets appear to shimmer in the night sky, they are very different objects indeed.
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