For your convenience,
we have separated these activities into two categories: classroom-ready
hands-on activities that can be printed and online activities that require
the use of a computer.
Hands-On
Activities
Hawai`i
Space Grant Consortium: Exploring the Planets in the Classroom
This site contains more than 25 hands-on science activities for the classroom. Exploring topics such as the Earth, the planets, geology, and
space science, it provides classroom-ready materials for both teachers
and students.
Elizabeth Roetteger's Science Activities
The homepage of Elizabeth Roetteger, a planetary scientist and educator, lists
a series of hands-on science activities such as the following:
| Impact
Cratering |
This
lesson has students creating and measuring model craters. |
| Toilet
Paper Solar System |
Students describe
the relative distances of planets from our sun using a roll of toilet paper!
In the advanced version, describe the eccentricity of orbits in
terms of the varying distance from the sun. |
| Toilet
Paper Geologic Time Scale |
Use a roll
of toilet paper to measure out the 4.6 billion year time span since
the Earth formed to scale. |
Exploratorium Snacks
Dozens of pages full of Snacks…but not the kind you eat. They’re the kind you can
learn from and have fun with. Exploratorium Science Snacks are miniature versions
of some of the most popular exhibits at the Exploratorium. Some of these tidbits
include:
| Persistence
of Vision |
Use a cardboard
tube with a narrow slit to show how your eye adds together strips
of light to give you the impression of a larger image. |
| Reflections
of a Star |
A reflected
image of the Sun can be used to observe the earth's rotation and
to measure the angular diameter of the Sun |
The
Thousand-Yard Model, or The Earth as a Peppercorn
This outdoor exercise has students visually demonstrate how big
the Solar System is. Students will make a scale model of the sizes
and spacings of the planets using common household materials.
Constructing
a Pinhole Protractor
Scroll down past the main article to find the start of this activity.
This lesson teaches middle or high school students to build and
use an inexpensive device for estimating the angular sizes and
distances of objects.
Sighting
Angular Size
This site includes brief plans to help middle or high school students
construct a simple quadrant for measuring angular size and altitude
in the sky.
Project
CLEA
Project CLEA has developed web-accessible laboratory exercises that illustrate modern techniques of observational astronomy,
for high-school and college-level classes. In particular, you'll want to check out the lab "Measurement of the Rotation of
Mercury by Doppler Radar".
Online Activities
Science
Education Gateway
In partnership with SEGway and NASA, this site contains online space-related
activities.
| SKI
EARTH: Search for Ice and Snow |
Elementary
and middle school students find areas on Earth covered in ice and
snow by investigating Space Shuttle images. |
| Find
that Planet |
Students in
grades 4-12 learn how to use the Web to find and plot the location
(ephemeris) of a planet in the sky from a specific location and
time on Earth. |
| Ice
on Venus?? |
Students will
use maps and images of Venus to determine if ice exists on the surface. |
The
Best of the Solar System
This activity introduces students to planetary research. By studying some
famous images of the Solar System, students improve their ability to
recognize planets and surface features. In the exploratory activity,
students learn to focus on details by studying uncaptioned images, then
compare their observations to those of experienced researchers.
Your
Weight on Other Worlds
This web site will automatically calculate what you would weigh on the Moon,
other planets, other moons and some stars. It also provides additional
information on the difference between weight and mass, as well as the
relationship between gravity, mass, and distance.
Your
Age on Other Worlds
Here you can automatically calculate your age in other planetary"days"
and "years". In addition, it provides information on the rotation
and revolution periods of the planets, as well as introducing Kepler's
Third Law.
Solar System Trading Cards
In this simple web-based interactive game students answer factual questions
about the Solar System and collect "Solar System trading cards".
It can serve as a fun review for elementary school students.
Center
for Earth and Planetary Sciences: Earth Day Activity
Learn about remote sensing and how satellite images are used to study Earth's
surface. This Earth Day Activity allows students to test their skills
at interpreting satellite images. At the end you and your students can
test their skills in the Geography
From Space Quiz.
Sky View Cafe
If you have a Java-enabled web browser, Sky View Café is a free
Java applet that allows the viewer access to many kinds of astronomical information,
in both graphical and numerical form. For example, you can find which
stars and planets are visible in the sky above your hometown, tonight or
any night. You can see solar or lunar eclipses or determine
when Mercury will be visible in the sky. Sky View Café includes
star charts, a 3-D orrery, displays of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn,
an astronomical event calendar, an ephemeris generator, and many other
features.
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