Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Investigating Ordering Planets: Math Connections & Number Sense in Science
In this Solar System Investigate, students will determine ways to order the planets. Teacher directed inquiry will suggest that they first order the planets according to their distance from the sun. Students will then work on their own...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Larger Distances
Using the size of the planets, 2nd graders are able to work with numbers to 1,000. This lesson introduces larger numbers (even beyond 1,000) to extend student understanding of the patterns in numbers.
PBS
Pbs News Hour Extra: Lesson Plan: Planets in Proportion
Students learn about the distance and relative size of the rest of the planets compared to the Earth and Sun. The lesson plan includes an assessment and extension activities.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Solar System Scale Model
Teach the concept of scale models and the size of the solar system through this extensive lesson plan. Students will learn about scale models, estimate which objects to use to create a scale model of Earth and Sun, and figure out how far...
Other
Chicago Academy of Sciences: Notebaert Nature Museum
Online lesson plans are available on such subjects as constructing models that visualize the distance between planets and the sun. Teachers can also learn of workshops to enhance science instruction.
Discovery Education
Discovery Education: Classroom Planetarium
Create a classroom model of the solar system while teaching about relative size of all the planets, and each planet's distance from the sun.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Beyond the Milky Way
When we look at the night sky, we see stars and the nearby planets of our own solar system. Many of those stars are actually distant galaxies and glowing clouds of dust and gases called nebulae. The universe is an immense space with...
Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement (SMILE)
Smile: Paper Mache Solar System
This site from the Illinois Institute of Technology provides a set of directions for the creation of a solar system model out of paper mache. Includes orbital distances and planet diameters for the nine planets. Great idea for a student...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: A Puzzling Parallax
Did you know that ancient astronomers could measure the distance to other stars? They could also distinguish between stars and planets. How could they do that without modern technology of telescopes? See if you can discover the link...