Scaling the Planets

MATERIALS

Students to represent

  • Sun
  • Mercury
  • Venus
  • Earth
  • Mars
  • Jupiter
  • Saturn
  • Uranus
  • Neptune
  • Pluto
  • Stars

Background materials provided

  • "Charting the Planets"
  • "Our Solar System at a Glance"
  • Styrofoam ball
  • Knitting needle
  • Flashlight

ENGAGEMENT

Have the students set up a K-W-L sheet and fill in what they know about the planets.

Demonstration
Use a styrofoam ball and a knitting needle to represent the Earth, and a flashlight to represent the sun. Push the needle through the ball and shine the light on "Earth." Ask the students which side is night and which is day. Turn the ball while you discuss a 24-hour day (rotation). Earth is rotating. What would happen if the Earth did not rotate? Use a clock and the demonstration to show students the relationship of time to the movement of the Earth.

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EXPLORATION

Create a distance from the sun scale model. This may be scaled down for an indoor display. However, this is best demonstrated with the students representing the planets while outside.

Distances from the sun (based on 10 meters)

  • Mercury 0.4 meter
  • Venus 0.7 meter
  • Earth 1.0 meter
  • Mars 1.5 meters
  • Asteroids (the Asteroid Belt lies between Mars and Jupiter) 2.7 meters
  • Jupiter 5.0 meters
  • Saturn 9.5 meters
  • Uranus 19.0 meters
  • Neptune 30.0 meters
  • Pluto 39.0 meters

The students will "become" the planets and line up from the sun. Put a litho of the planet or the planet name around the neck of the students participating. Have the students begin by walking in a counterclockwise motion around the sun (prograde orbits as seen from Earth’s North Pole). Begin with Mercury and have this student walk very quickly; Mercury revolves around the sun in 88 days. Venus is next, taking 225 days; Earth a little slower in 365 days. Let the students help to decide the speed, comparing Mercury in 88 days with Pluto in 248 years. Ask the students to demonstrate how they would represent the differences in time. Mars takes 687 days. The remaining planets in order: Jupiter in 12 years, Saturn in 29 years, Uranus in 84 years, Neptune in 165 years and Pluto in 248 years. Once they are all revolving around the sun at various speeds, you can add the counterclockwise rotations. Mercury rotates in 59 days compared to Jupiter and Saturn in 10 hours. This will help the students regulate their own time representations. Earth takes 24 hours, as does Mars. Neptune takes 16 hours. All of these planets rotate counterclockwise (prograde).

Venus takes 243 days to rotate and rotates clockwise, as does Uranus in 17 hours (rolls on its side) and Pluto in 7 days (retrograde).


EXPLANATION

In their cooperative learning groups, have the students make a list of the changes on Earth if the movement of the Earth was eliminated.

Literature Connection

Cole, Joanna. The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System
Illustrated by Bruce Degen. New York, Scholastic Inc. 1990.
Livingston, Myra Cohn. Space Songs. Illustrated by Leonard E. Fisher. New York, Holiday House. 1988.

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Grades K through 1

Encourage the students to draw pictures of the things they do at night and the things they do during the day. The classes may wish to create a Learning Experience Story as a whole group to explain their drawings. The story and the drawings should be included in the NASA Gallery.

Grades 2 through 4

The students should write in their journals how the changes on Earth affect their lives.

Grades 5 through 6

The fifth and sixth grade students could hypothesize about the importance of the Earth’s rotation, revolution, and placement within the solar system and how that has lent itself to life on our planet. Let them hypothesize about life on Mars (exploration of Mars information included as a teacher resource). They could also write stories or poems about comets.


ELABORATION

Depending on your class, you may try any of these activities to further demonstrate the planet arrangement in the solar system.

Use the Solar System Puzzle Kits, as you desire (sets available for classes that wish to use them).

Create a scale drawing of the solar system. This could be created as a class project and as part of the NASA Gallery.

For example:

  • The Sun — size of an orange
  • Mercury — hole made by a staple
  • Venus — thickness of a small paper clip
  • Earth — thickness of a paper clip
  • Mars — half the thickness of a paper clip
  • Jupiter — thickness of a pencil, be generous
  • Saturn — thickness of a pencil
  • Uranus — size of the eyelet of a tennis shoe
  • Neptune — size of the eyelet of a tennis shoe
  • Pluto — thickness of a small staple

If you use a beach ball as the Sun, the other planets can be created using different size styrofoam balls. Another idea is to use fruit to represent the planets.

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EVALUATION

K-W-L
Have the students continue to add to the K-W-L sheet or do this as a class activity. This will help the students to think of questions that they might ask the scientist or engineer during the assembly.

K — What the students know about the planets.
W — What they want to learn about the planets.
L — What they have learned about the planets.

After completing the chart, have the students create a set of questions that they would like to have answered during the assembly.

IN THE NASA JOURNAL

Have the students complete a "Right Angles Reflection."

Right Angles Reflection
FACTS FEELINGS
1._________ 1.___________
2._________ 2.___________
3._________ 3.___________
4._________ 4.___________
5._________ 5.___________

 

CONNECTIONS TO THE NATIONAL STANDARDS

Grades K through 4

Objects in the sky have patterns of movement.

Grades 5 through 8

Most objects in the solar system are in regular and predictable motion.

OBJECTIVE

You can demonstrate the movement of planets.
You can demonstrate classification skills using the characteristics of the planets.

CONNECTIONS TO THE NATIONAL MATHEMATICS STANDARDS

Grades K through 4

Relate physical materials, pictures, and diagrams to mathematical ideas.
Use models, known facts, properties, and relationships to explain their thinking.

Grades 5 through 8

Connect mathematics to other subjects and to the world outside the classroom.

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Mercury


Venus


Earth


Mars


Jupiter


Saturn

 


Uranus


Neptune


Pluto

 
   

 

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