Soar Into the Solar System

A Standards-Based Unit: Grades 3-4
Stonewall Elementary
By Lynda Davis, Amy Ford and Pam Mitchell

Overview 

Throughout time man has been fascinated by the mysteries of the nighttime sky.  Let’s take a journey through space and explore the galaxy.

Organizer  

By observing the objects in the solar system, what can we learn about our earth?

Essential Questions

• What is the solar system?
• How does the movement of the objects in the solar system affect our earth?
• What is the major source of energy for the earth?
• What is gravity?

Academic Expectations and Demonstrators

1.1   Students use reference tools such as dictionaries, almanacs, encyclopedias, and computer reference programs and research tools.

• Manipulate objects to obtain information.
• Use research tools to access and synthesize information.

2.3   Students identify and analyze systems and the ways their components work together or affect each other.

• Identify components of a system.
• Analyze how the properties of the components of a system affect their function within the system.

Secondary Expectations 

1.2   Students make sense of the variety of materials they read.

1.3   Students make sense of the various things they observe.

1.11  Students write using appropriate forms, conventions, and styles to communicate ideas and information to different audiences for different purposes.

2.2   Students identify, analyze, and use patterns such as cycles and trends to understand past and present events and predict possible future events.

2.4  Students use the concept of scale and scientific models to explain the organization and functioning of living and nonliving things and predict other characteristics that might be observed.

2.5   Students understand that under certain conditions nature tends to remain the same or move toward a balance.

4.1   Students effectively use interpersonal skills.

5.3   Students organize information to develop or change their understanding of a concept.

6.2   Students use what they already know to acquire new knowledge, develop new skills, or interpret new experiences.

• Connect knowledge with past experiences.
• Make predictions based on information.

Culminating Performance 

Grade 3:  Students will create and present a PowerPoint project illustrating what they would need in order to survive on a different planet  

Grade 4:  Students will create and present a HyperStudio project demonstrating why the shape of the moon from earth changes during a particular phase.

Culminating Performance Scoring Guide 

Content Knowledge

• Objects in the solar system
• Gravity
• Motion, movement
• Solar energy
• Role science plays in everyday life

Skills/Abilities

• Researching
• Writing process
• Keyboarding
• Navigating the internet
• Digital camera/Graphics
• PowerPoint
• HyperStudio

Instructional/Assessment Activities 

What is a solar system?

• HyperStudio Jeopardy
• Dioramas
• Stargazing Party
• Planetarium
• Solar System WebQuest
• Puzzling Planet Activity

Movement of Objects in the Solar System

• Earth Clock
• Web-based Activities
• Use students – role play parts

Major Source of Energy

• Compare temps between planets

Gravity

• Gravity sites
• Soup Can roll experiment  (Grade 4)

Other Areas

• Art – Solar System
• Library – Research
• Computer Lab
• Site of the Week:  Homework page, assignment notebook
• Daily Fun Fact

Resources

Internet Sites:

Solar System WebQuest:  /trt1/SolarSystem/OurSolarSystem.htm

Information on Planets:  http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/

Age on Other Planets:  http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/Puzzles/Age.asp

Weight on Other Planets:  http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/Puzzles/Weight.asp

Moon and Sun Data:  http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/data/

All About Space:  http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/

Gravity:  http://www.serve.com/chunter/index/info/aweigh.html

http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/SSBRP/gravity.html

http://search.yahooligans.com/search/ligans?p=gravity

http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/ask/a11072.html

http://www.kapili.com/physics4kids/motion/gravity.html

http://www.outerorbit.com/lplans/lp041k.htm

http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/NumRel/NumRelHome.html

ftp://ftp.unr.edu/pub/archive/mailing-lists/galileo/soupcan.rac

Puzzling Planets Activity:  http://www.wnet.org/wnetschool/origlessons/planets/index.html

Planets Wordsearch:  http://www.telescope.org/rti/nuffield/planets/planet9a.html

Solar System Information:  http://www.windows.umich.edu/cgi-bin/tour.cgi?link=/windows3.html&sw=false&sn=0&d=&edu=mid&br=graphic&cd=false&tour=&fr=f

Virtual Solar System:  http://www.nationalgeographic.com/solarsystem/splash.html

Tours of the Solar System:  http://www.seds.org/galaxy/galaxy-planets.html

Views of the Solar System:  http://www.solarviews.com/eng/homepage.htm

Earth Clock:  http://www.illuminart.com/fun/earth/index.htm

Starchild:  http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/StarChild.html

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