Venus Lesson Plans

Students study the Venus Flytrap including its habitat and how it eats.  In this ecology lesson plan students complete several experiments using a Venus Flytrap to see how it reacts to various conditions. 

Students take temperature measurements in closed systems over time and record data to demonstrate "greenhouse warming," which is observed in greenhouses and in planetary atmospheres like those of Venus, Saturn's moon Titan, and possibly Earth's.

Students role-play biologists, coal geologists, space warfare experts, astronomers, pollution-control scientists, and hydrophysicists as they answer the question, "Why is Venus so much hotter than the Earth?"

Students use the Internet to research and discover information about expeditions that were formed to observe the transit of Venus. In groups, they work together to present information about the expeditions and create a visual aid.

Learners learn about the characteristics of the planets Mercury and Venus. In this planets lesson, students learn about these planets and their differences from Earth. They also learn how the inventions of engineers have made it possible to learn about these planets.

Young scholars, after being given extensive information on surface roughness on Venus and a presentation on the electromagnetic spectrum, are introduced to the use of radar images for geologic feature identification. They explore the reflection of NASA and its findings with radar images as well. In addition, they simulate a radar image in a lab experiment with string and photographs.

Students investigate the June 2004 Transit of Venus, write a screen play, and produce a movie or animation of the transit including a narration. The difference between storytelling and storyboarding is made clear in this lesson.

Students practice using the tool of remote telescopes in order to make observations in space. The lesson includes the best times of year to make observations. They use the internet to obtain information and to initiate the use of the telescope.

Students conduct a poll to determine how different people get to a particular location. In this problem solving lesson, students ask both men and women to describe how they get to a particular location. Then, they determine the frequency of absolute and relative location in terms of gender. Students will graph their results and draw conclusions based on statistical data.

Students explore the transit of Venus and the information this minieclipse provides about the distance between the Earth and the sun. They create their own astronomical units.