Kuiper Belt Lesson Plans

Students create glitter-covered comet models. Then they make large outdoor chalk drawings of the solar system and place their comets at the location of the Kuiper belt. They carry their comets around an orbit of the sun, shaking various amounts of glitter from them to simulate the dust a comet releases when in orbit.

Students explore the Solar System and examine the characteristics of al the planets. Through research and discussion, they create catalogs of the Solar System's components. Next, students use their findings to create Powerpoint versions of their catalogs. The lesson concludes with students creating travel brochures of a chosen planet.

Students work together to develop a classification system for planets. They take a class vote and read an article about an astronomer's classification system. They write an essay on how scientists make decisions for the general public.

Students examine the new categories of planets and how planets were reclassified.  In this solar system lesson students complete activities using Venn diagrams and images of planets. 

Motivate your class with this lesson plan. Learners explore the solar system and practice working with fractions using this resource. They construct scale models of our solar system, and use fractions to correctly configure the solar system to scale.

Students identify the main components of the solar system. In this earth science lesson, students order the planets according to their distances from the Sun. They differentiate planets from dwarf planets.

Students read and discuss a news article about the possibility of a recently discovered object in space being a tenth planet. They answer comprehension questions, complete an online "Planet Size Comparison" activity, and write a journal entry.

Students identify and name the eight planets and the five dwarf planets in our solar system. For this space science lesson, students view a slideshow of the planets and label them on an included Solar System chart.

Students develop a sense of the scale of our solar system by creating a one to ten billion scale model. They calculate the relative sizes and distances for the planets and asteroid belt using a guiding worksheet. To create the model they place traffic cones at the appropriate distances on a field or sidewalk and use food items such as poppy seeds and gum balls to represent each planet.

Learners explore the discovery of miniplanet Quaoar and the newly disputed status of Pluto as a planet. They create an updated student astronomy text to reflect these potential revisions to the solar system.