Your task as an astronomer is to model the solar system using technology.  You and your crew are just one group that have been asked by NASA to chart the solar system in order to create a simulation model for future astronauts. After you have accomplished this, you will present your model to the Director of NASA. They have given you several requirements for the simulation. Your simulation should include a map of the solar system that shows the appropriate distance, location, size and relation to the sun amongst the eight planets. You and your team can use a variety of options to complete your simulation. These include Google Suite tools (such as Google Slides, Google Docs, Jamboard, or any equivalent tool such as Microsoft Office), Coding resources (Scratch.edu, tynker.edu) or 3D printing software (Tinkercad) to present. Your map should also include a short descriptive paragraph for each planet explaining its distance, location, size, and at least 3 facts about the planet. If creating a video, you will still want to include descriptions for the planets as well as the three facts.  Presentation to “NASA Directors” must answer the question: how does this simulation/model help future scientists?

If you build it carefully, this crazy contraption demonstrates one of the basic laws of nature.

Photo of the Earth & Moon created from images from the the Galileo spacecraft.

Video Description:  Find out more about how our sun's position in the sky changes due to Earth's rotation, revolution and tilt. Learn from the experts -- Dr. Alex Young and Dr. Nicki Viall explain these connections so students understand patterns within the Earth-sun relationship.  Video Length:  2:19NASA eClips is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students, through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Our World videos (grades 3-5) help students understand the differences between science (the natural world) and engineering (the designed world).  These video segments supplement elementary learning objectives not only in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but also in reading, writing, visual and performing arts.

Video Description:  Picture this. NASA sends a spacecraft to land on an asteroid, grab a piece of that asteroid, and then send that sample back to Earth to study. Learn more about all that NASA can learn about the formation of the Solar System from the close encounter of OSIRIS-REx with near-Earth asteroid Bennu.  Video Length:  3:55.NASA eClipsTM is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Real World segments (grades 6-8) connect classroom mathematics to 21st Century careers and innovations.  They are designed for students to develop an appreciation for mathematics through real-world problem solving.

Video Description:  Satellites are expensive to build and expensive to get into space. With all the changes in technology, is there a way to make satellites smaller? Find out just what NASA can pack into a 1U CubeSat, a satellite small enough to fit in your hand.  Video Description:  3:24.NASA eClipsTM is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Real World segments (grades 6-8) connect classroom mathematics to 21st Century careers and innovations.  They are designed for students to develop an appreciation for mathematics through real-world problem solving.   

Video Description:  CubeSats are changing the way we collect information. They may be small, but these little satellites are helping us answer big questions. And using a swarm of CubeSats can give us simultaneous measurements without repeatedly sending commands to the satellite to tell it what to do.Video Length:  2:21.NASA eClipsTM is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Real World segments (grades 6-8) connect classroom mathematics to 21st Century careers and innovations.  They are designed for students to develop an appreciation for mathematics through real-world problem solving.

Video Description:  What defines the limits of the solar system? Where does the Oort Cloud fit within this defined space? Paul Chodas, from NASA's Near Earth Object Program, answers these questions and fills us in on some of NASA's missions and explorations that have helped shape our understanding of the solar system.  Video Length:  2:22.NASA eClipsTM is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Real World segments (grades 6-8) connect classroom mathematics to 21st Century careers and innovations.  They are designed for students to develop an appreciation for mathematics through real-world problem solving.

Video Description:  Volcanoes play a role in how Earth looks today. Thanks to NASA's missions, we know more about volcanoes in our solar system. Studying volcanoes can teach us about the interior properties of the planets and moons. Learn how the slope equation is used to identify how a volcano was formed.  Video Length:  4:46.NASA eClipsTM is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Real World segments (grades 6-8) connect classroom mathematics to 21st Century careers and innovations.  They are designed for students to develop an appreciation for mathematics through real-world problem solving.

Video Description:  Paul Chodas, Manager for NASA's Near Earth Object Program, explains Astronomical Units (AUs) and how this unit of measure helps simplify an understanding of distances within the solar system. To further simplify thinking about these vast distances, distances within the solar system are explained scaled to the size of a football field.  Video Length:  2:25.NASA eClipsTM is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Real World segments (grades 6-8) connect classroom mathematics to 21st Century careers and innovations.  They are designed for students to develop an appreciation for mathematics through real-world problem solving.

Video Description:  In addition to planets and their moons, there are many small bodies orbiting the Sun. How did these bodies form? Learn more about comets and asteroids and the role these play in our Solar System, as well as NASA's Rosetta and NEOWISE missions.  Video Length:  3:09.NASA eClipsTM is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Real World segments (grades 6-8) connect classroom mathematics to 21st Century careers and innovations.  They are designed for students to develop an appreciation for mathematics through real-world problem solving.

Find out more about how our sun's position in the sky changes due to Earth's rotation, revolution and tilt. Learn from the experts -- Dr. Alex Young and Dr. Nicki Viall explain these connections so students understand patterns within the Earth-sun relationship.

Use this activity to help your students learn and/or review the solar system in an active way!  Students will group themselves (or you can organize the students as needed) and then complete the activities with movement.

This lesson includes activites at all stages of the 5E model.  When possible multiple options were provided at each stage. Cover Image: "solar system" by Philippe Put is licensed under CC BY 2.0

The purpose of this hypermedia is to provide Teachers and English Language Learners content based interactive tool to learn about the Solar System.  It can be used as a whole class lesson, in a small group or students can work on it individually.  This hypermedia presentation is full of visual images and figures to reach to different proficiency level learners.  The Solar System presentation starts with a site map which lists all the nine planets in order with links to Sun and the moon. The Power Point slides have information about each of the nine planets with facts and actual real graphics of the planets taken from the NASA website.  Students can explore each slide and click on Hyperlinks to learn more about each individual planet.

This collection of activities is based on a weekly series of space science mathematics problems distributed during the 2012-2013 school year. They were intended for students looking for additional challenges in the math and physical science curriculum in grades 5 through 12. The problems were created to be authentic glimpses of modern science and engineering issues, often involving actual research data. The problems were designed to be one-pagers with a Teacher’s Guide and Answer Key as a second page.

Join Joe as he embarks on an exploration of space in this episode of Super Science Show with Joe. Accelerate your way through the planets and take a closer look at our solar system. Learn how to design and build your own rockets at home- straw rockets- and launch them.