Week 7: Solar System Scale

1. What did you do in lab today?

In lab, we made a model to simulate how far apart the planets are from each other and from the sun in our solar system. We discovered that the models that are typically made in schools are wrong. The planets are very far away from our sun. The furthest planet we tracked was Mars and in our model it was about 75 meters away from our sun. The planet was also represented by a piece of play-dough that was about 1 mm.

2. What was the big question? 

The big question was how big is our solar system?

3. What did you learn in Thursday's discussion?

In Thursday's discussion, we learned that the Moon does rotate at the same speed as the Earth. Because they rotate at the same speed, we always see the same side of the Moon. We also learned that it takes the Moon 28 days to orbit the Earth. I also learned that the Moon is younger than the Earth and 1/4 of the size. We discussed how the Moon does have gravity, just less. That is why we weigh less on the Moon. While we weigh less, our mass remains the same. We learned that different cultures have different ideas of what the Moon is or how it came to be. These cultural ideas are a good way to build connections with students and have conversations about their beliefs.

Pressbook Chapter 5

1. What did you learn?

I learned that Pluto is not considered a planet because it only meets 2 out of the 3 requirements. The two requirements that it meets are that it orbits the sun and it was formed into a circular shape because of its gravity. It does not meet the third requirement of "clearing the neighborhood." This has not been met because other dwarf planets and other objects have been found near Pluto's orbit.

2. What was most helpful?

The thing that was most helpful was the chart that shows the diameter and distance from the Sun of different planets. With the way that we are taught about the planets, we often come to the conclusion that they are pretty close together and pretty close in size. However, in reality, they are very far apart and significantly smaller than the sun. 

3. What do you need more information on?

I would like more information on how the different planets are similar or different from each other. From the pressbook, we know about the different categories or planets, but what else can we compare? Do any of the planets have similar structures? Is there anything else that is important for us to know about planets?

What questions, concerns, and/or comments do you have?

What are others ways we can use to have students made diagrams of our solar system? What we did was very helpful, but I could see it being tricky for students with how small some of the planets needed to be. Is there another way we could make a model with bigger planets without needing a crazy amount of room?