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School Visits: Astronomy Classes

Planet Trek, Grades 4-12

Program Description:

Grades 4-7

Students use astronomy skills to find planets in the night sky. With hands-on activities and media, students model the planets to scale, explore cratering and other planet processes, travel to Mars with Pathfinder, record and study Jupiter’s moons, examine Saturn’s rings and “discover” a new planet.

Grades 8-12

Using scientific inquiry skills and hands-on activities, students identify planets in the night sky, model the planets to scale, and explore planet processes and landforms.

Students simulate radar mapping of Venus’ surface, travel to Mars with NASA missions, record and study Jupiter’s moons, “discover” new planets, and examine the possibilities of life beyond earth.

Vocabulary: 

Possible Activities:

• Locate planets in the night or morning sky
• Build a simple scale model of the planets with clay
• Simulate radar mapping techniques for Venus or Earth
• Examine and identify Martian landforms
• Experience the Pathfinder mission to Mars in 3D
• Examine a life-sized Mars rover
• Track and record the motions of Jupiter’s moons
• Discover a new planet with a “blink comparator”

Pre-Visit Activities (in your classroom): 

• Review vocabulary (above).
• Review related websites (below).
• Discuss planet differences: how much would you weigh (http://www.spacegrant.hawaii.edu/class_acts/Weight.html),
   how high could you jump, how old would you be (http://www.spacegrant.hawaii.edu/class_acts/HowOld.html ), where would you go, how long would it take.

Post-Visit Activities:

At CSSC: 

• Visit exhibit: “Planetary Landscapes: Sculpting the Solar System” 
• Visit exhibit: “Our Place in the Universe”
• Visit Exhibit: “Planet Trek”

In your classroom:

·         Making Craters in the Classroom: http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/classroom/activities/1-stardst-ch01.pdf and http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com/10feb00/teach10.html

·         Make a Comet in the Classroom:  http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/segwayed/lessons/cometstale/Make_ins.pdf  or http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/segwayed/lessons/cometstale/make_script.html

·         Mars Landforms Activities:  http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/SPACEGRANT/class_acts/MarsQuizTe.html and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/education/modules/webpages/activity5.htm

·         Scale Modeling Activities:
Solar System: http://stardate.org/resources/tguide/activity4.html and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/education/modules/webpages/activitypage.htm  and
http://lyra.colorado.edu/sbo/mary/Scale/
Saturn scale model: http://cosmos.colorado.edu/~urquhart/Cassini/scale_saturn.html
Comet scale model:  http://cosmos.colorado.edu/~urquhart/comet/scale_comet.html

• Complete list of Solar System Classroom Activities: 

Related Websites:

The Nine Planets   http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/billa/tnp/ 
An overview of the history, mythology, and current scientific knowledge of each of the planets and moons in our solar system. Each page has text and images, some have sounds and movies, and most provide references to additional related information. 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) – all about planets, missions, earth, space, and Solar System education:
Home Page:  http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/   
Top Images http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/   and
Exploration home page: http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html  and

Complete list of Online Resources: 
Solar System Images, Animations and Guides  

Solar System Classroom Activities 

State of California Science Standards:

Grade 4:

Life Sciences

3. Living organisms depend on one another and on their environment for survival. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know: 

b. for any particular environment, some kinds of plants and animals survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all. 

Earth Sciences

5. Waves, wind, water, and ice shape and reshape the Earth's land surface. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know: 

a. some changes in the Earth are due to slow processes, such as erosion, and some changes are due to rapid processes, such as landslides, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes.

b. natural processes, including freezing/thawing and growth of roots, cause rocks to break down into smaller pieces. 

c. moving water erodes landforms, reshaping the land by taking it away from some places and depositing it as pebbles, sand, silt, and mud in other places (weathering, transport, and deposition). 

Investigation and Experimentation

6. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept, and to address the content the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

b. measure and estimate weight, length, or volume of objects.

c. formulate predictions and justify predictions based on cause and effect relationships. 

Grade 5:
Physical Sciences

1. Elements and their combinations account for all the varied types of matter in the world. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know: 

b. all matter is made of atoms, which may combine to form molecules.

g. properties of solid, liquid, and gaseous substances, such as sugar (C6H12O6), water (H2O), helium (He), oxygen (O2), nitrogen (N2),and carbon dioxide (CO2).

Earth Sciences:

5. The solar system consists of planets and other bodies that orbit the sun in predictable paths. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know: 

a. the sun, an average star, is the central and largest body in the solar system and is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. 

b. the solar system includes the Earth, moon, sun, eight other planets and their satellites, and smaller objects such as asteroids and comets. 

c. the path of a planet around the sun is due to the gravitational attraction between the sun and the planet.

Investigation and Experimentation

Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept, and to address the content of the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

b. develop a testable question.

f. select appropriate tools (e.g., thermometers, meter sticks, balances, and graduated cylinders) and make quantitative observations. 

g. record data using appropriate graphic representation (including charts, graphs, and labeled diagrams), and make inferences based on those data.

Grade 6:

Heat (Thermal Energy) (Physical Science)

2. Heat moves in a predictable flow from warmer objects to cooler objects until all objects are at the same temperature. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

a. energy can be carried from one place to another by heat flow, or by waves including water, light, and sound waves, or by moving objects. 

c. heat flows in solids by conduction (which involves no flow of matter) and in fluids by conduction and also by convection (which involves flow of matter). 

d. heat energy is also transferred between objects by radiation; radiation can travel through space. 

Energy in the Earth System

4. Many phenomena on the Earth’s surface are affected by the transfer of energy through radiation and convection currents. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know: 

a. the sun is the major source of energy for phenomena on the Earth’s surface, powering winds, ocean currents, and the water cycle. 

b. solar energy reaches Earth through radiation, mostly in the form of visible light. 

c. heat from Earth's interior reaches the surface primarily through convection. 

d. convection currents distribute heat in the atmosphere and oceans.

e. differences in pressure, heat, air movement, and humidity result in changes of weather. 

Ecology (Life Science)

5. Organisms in ecosystems exchange energy and nutrients among themselves and with the environment. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

e. the number and types of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and abiotic factors, such as quantity of light and water, range of temperatures, and soil composition. 

Investigation and Experimentation

7. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept, and to address the content the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

a. develop a hypothesis. 

b. select and use appropriate tools and technology (including calculators, computers, balances, spring scales, microscopes, and binoculars) to perform tests, collect data, and display data.

c. construct appropriate graphs from data and develop qualitative statements about the relationships between variables.

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