John Harsh, Gary Community Schools
Shannon Hudson, Crawfordsville Community Schools
Science teachers attending the HASTI Conference (Hoosier Association of Science Teachers, Inc) in February, 2011; Indianapolis, Indiana, 45 minutes
OR NAGC (National Association of Gifted
Children) in November 2010; Atlanta, Georgia, 1-2 hours
OR Venues closer to home such as the Carnegie
Museum, Montgomery County
To provide teachers with the tools that will help students create a model to understand our solar system’s size (objects and distances covered)
We will ask participants for prior knowledge about solar system object distances and sizes relative to the sun.
Discuss the concept of scale (what is it, how calculated, uses)
We will show and discuss different types of models, their limits and their possibilities (based on Lesson 3.1, Models). We will ask for prior knowledge about solar system object distances relative to the sun relating it to the community in which we present
We will present Lesson 3.8 as written in the guide
Depending on location of presentation, we will determine if an outdoor location is feasible or it the scale needs to be modified to accommodate an indoor situation using hallways
If necessary, we will have completed this activity with our kids and have a video from the lesson (thank you Nancy!!)
Encourage teacher participants to Develop a
“walking/biking/driving solar system” to scale in their community
Hopefully, ours will be functional by this time complete with community brochures, website, power point, etc
Discuss what concepts were learned Allow participants to vary, modify ideas presented to
them, discuss, network, ask questions, etc Decide just where they want to end their model
(Pluto, Eris, etc…) Encourage teachers to develop either this lesson or
other content into a PBL and/ or service learning opportunities
Permanent displays (Lake and Montgomery Counties Visitors Centers, Carnegie Museum in Crawfordsville, Indiana and on line that teachers can access)
Many people have many misunderstandings about how vast the solar system is. This class has been volunteered to create a scale model in our area that will help everyone understand the sizes of the objects in the solar system and how far apart they are from each other.
Your teacher wants to make Pluto, the smallest object in this solar system model, _____ cm. How will we create a solar system to scale that is based on Pluto?
