Educational resources in astronomy
Welcome on a trip to our neighbourhood, the Solar System! How far away are the other planets from Earth? And how small is our home planet compared to the other objects that orbit our Sun?
Keywords: Solar system, planets, scale
In this activity, students will study the principal features of Mercurian geology are craters, faults and areas covered by volcanic lava. They will apply this to the Rembrandt Crater on Mercury, answering a series of questions concerning the geological features visible in the image.
Age Range: 12-16
Prep. Time: 5 minutes
Lesson Time: 30 minutes
Cost per activity: Low (printing costs)
Includes the use of: Printouts and a pen/pencil
In this activity, students will first learn the correct terms for geological features. Then they identify these same features found on Earth on other planets, grouping the images from other planets into categories, labelling them and noting the similarities.
Students will then complete an activity to understand how water carves channels into their surfaces.
Age Range: 8-13
Prep. Time: 15 minutes
Lesson Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
Cost per activity: High
Includes the use of: Sand, Craft Sand, Water, Trays and rocks/pebbles
Exoplanets are too small and far away to see directly, even with the most powerful telescopes. So how can astronomers detect them? When an exoplanet passes in front of its star it blocks some of the star’s light. For a short time, the star’s brightness decreases. So, if astronomers detect that a star’s brightness decreases and then increases again, they can deduce that there is a planet orbiting the star.
In this activity students will investigate how scientists use a transit to detect exoplanets.
Age Range: 11-13 years old
Prep. Time: 15 minutes
Lesson Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Cost per activity: Low
Includes the use of: Laptop with webcam and light grapher software
This activity makes use of a simulator to help visualise the concepts for each of Kepler’s Laws of planetary motion and Newtonian features. It could either be used as an introduction to Kepler’s Laws, or as a revision task to check understanding.
Age Range: 16-17
Prep. Time: 0
Lesson Time: 40 minutes – 1 hour
Cost per activity: Low (print costs)
Includes the use of: Internet Access
How to Jupiter’s moons compare?
Using reference images, students will compare the surface of Ganymede and Europa, two of Jupiter’s moons. They will explore aspects such as the moons’ geologies and the age of features. A peer review process can be used to mark the work.
Age Range: 12-16
Prep. Time: 0 minutes
Lesson Time: 40-50 minutes
Cost per activity: Low (printing costs)
Includes the use of: Printout, pens/pencils
What is a ‘Goldilocks Zone’? Can you plot the orbits of planets in our own and distant solar systems?
In this activity, students will become galactic astronomers, using mathematical skills and key facts to plot the orbits of Earth and planets in our solar system before plotting the orbits of exoplanets around their stars. By plotting the orbits of Earth and other planets in our solar system, they can then learn about and calculate the position of the Goldilocks Zone and discover which of these exoplanets are potentially habitable.
Age Range: 9-11
Prep. Time: 20 minutes
Lesson Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Cost per activity: Medium
Includes the use of: Calculator, scissors, paper, rulers, coloured pens/pencils, star system info sheets
In this session, students will learn about exoplanets. Working together in groups to design their own planets, students will use their imagination and creativity to decide on what sort of conditions would be present. This session also has opportunities for groups to present to the rest of the class. This session also covers themes of adaptation and evolution as they create their own unique life form to survive the conditions on one of the planets.
Age Range: 7-11
Prep. Time: 15 minutes
Lesson Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
Cost per activity: Medium
Includes the use of: Arts and crafts supplies, computer or tablets with internet access, books
What makes something a planet? Is Pluto a planet?
This set of resources introduces students to the story of Pluto and its history. Through the accompanying slide pack and activities, students will be encouraged to try and define a planet and decide which statements might apply to other space objects. They will then apply this learning to the five dwarf planets in our solar system and the Kuiper belt.
Age Range: 10-13
Prep. Time: 5 minutes
Lesson Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Cost per activity: Low
Includes the use of: Internet (optional)
In this activity, we will demonstrate and model the solar system motions with our selves as objects. In this activity, we will try to find what is the directions of motion and rotation of the the moon and inner planets. How can we “shift” our perspective of the solar system between a stationary observer and an observer standing on a rotating Earth?