Scholastic
Lesson Three: The Earth, Movement in Space
If you feel like you're standing still, you're wrong! The Earth is constantly rotating and orbiting under our feet. Demonstrate the Earth's movement within the solar system with a collaborative activity. With a candle or lamp in the...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Galileo: Revealing the Universe
To gain an understanding of the significance of Galileo Galilei's revolutionary ideas, class members watch the short video "Stargazing Before Galileo," and conduct a close reading of Galileo's Sidereal Messsenger. They then...
Curated OER
The Battle for Ultimate Power
Students gain an understanding of how the powers of 10 and scientific notation can be used to represent the scale of things in the universe. They relate the number of stars in the universe to the number of grains of sand on Earth's beaches.
Core Knowledge Foundation
Third Grade Skills Unit 7: What’s in Our Universe?
Over four weeks, third graders participate in lessons that boost spelling, grammar, reading, and writing skills. Scholars explore spelling patterns, suffixes, singular and plural possessive nouns, quotations, and conjunctions....
Curated OER
Exploring Scale And Ratio
Students measure the actual size and distance of the solar system using scale and ratio. They watch and discuss a video, create a distance-scale solar system model, and compare the scale sizes of planets to their actual sizes.
Curated OER
The Nine Planets
A solid lesson on teaching the nine planets in our solar system is here for you. In it, young scientists learn the correct order of the planets, and they choose one of the planets to do a research report on. They must come up with five...
Curated OER
Voyage: A Journey through our Solar System
Students build the Voyage scale model of the Solar System on a playground and "travel" to each planet. They recognize that the Sun and planets are tiny worlds in a vast space, giving them a new perspective on the Solar System, and...
Space Awareness
Living in the Milky Way
Get to know our galaxy with an astronomy-themed, hands-on activity. Scholars watch an informative video, answer questions, and construct a model of the Milky Way in order to examine its contents and the distance inside it.
Curated OER
All the Universe is a Stage
Learners research the solar system and design a storyboard for a video game about the solar system. Then they create an actual video game using Stagecast Creator software.
Journey Through the Universe
Impact Craters: A Look at the Past
The Galle crater on Mars is also known as the Happy Face crater because of its appearance. First, scholars use pebbles and flour to simulate craters and study their properties. They then apply this knowledge to help decipher the history...
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
Planetary Distances on the Playground
There's no need to stay inside; get out of the classroom and create a scaled map of the solar system on your playground field! In collaborative groups, scholars identify the distance between the sun and other planets, place planet...
Curated OER
Planets on Parade
Review all of the planets in our solar system with this informative PowerPoint. Each planet is listed on its own slide, accompanied by facts and an image. There are three multiple choice question listed at the end of the presentation.
Curated OER
Scale Activities
How do you put something as large as the universe in perspective? Use a series of scale experiments. Classmates collaborate around four experiments to examine the scale of the earth-moon system, our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy,...
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
The Planets and Scale
Scholars gain an insight into the relative size of planets and distance between inner and outer planets with the help of informational text, a data table, and a series of four questions.
Teach Engineering
An Inflated Impression of Mars
Help your class understand the magnitude of the distance between Earth and Mars with an activity that asks small groups to use balloons to create scale models of the Earth, Moon, and Mars. Class members figure out the distances...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
Utah Open Textbook: Earth and Space Science
From the vast universe to natural disasters, Earth and Space Science studies phenomena near and far. A complete textbook offers informational resources for a high school Earth and Space Science course. Chapters include topics such as the...
Curated OER
The Solar System
High schoolers research origin of solar system, discuss theories they have found, and create paper mache solar system models.
NASA
Dark Matter NASA Conference
Young scholars calculate the escape velocity of planets in our solar system and use that knowledge to calculate the escape velocity for NGC 2300 group. They then suggest reasons for the escape velocity to be higher than possible given...
University of Colorado
Clay Planets
Why do scientists use models? In the first installment of 22, groups create scale models of our solar system. They then share and discuss their models.
Curated OER
Solar System Socratic Questions
Students reflect on and discuss theories of how the solar system was formed. They respond to prompts in a structured sequence to relate the formation of the solar system and the age of the Earth.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Introduction to the Universe
Fifth graders write descriptive imagery and identify facts about various components of the universe. They listen to the book "The Magic School Bus, Lost in the Solar System," develop a list of descriptive words from the story, compose a...
Curated OER
WebQuest Solar System Colonization Project 2000
Sixth graders complete a WebQuest to study the names and locations of the planets in the solar system. They investigate the causes of the seasons and the distance between the planets using astronomical units. They use technology to...
Curated OER
Practical Illustrations of Astronomical Concepts Relating to the Solar System
Eighth graders are introduced to concepts related to the Solar System. In groups, they participate in an experiment in which they must describe a ray of light and how it travels. They draw a diagram of the electromagnetic spectrum and...
Curated OER
Bringing the Solar System to Life
Students walk marked paths as they simulate the orbit of the planets. In this solar system lesson, students recognize the relationship between the sun and the planets. Students visualize how the phases of the moon are seen.