Friday, July 28, 2006
Solar System Lessons
This is a picture of the planets and the Sun. As you can see, Jupiter and Saturn are huge! This is always a problem when trying to create models in the classroom. Especially with Pluto. Can you find the little speck at the end of the line? And, the planets are NEVER lined up like this. Not to mention them being so close to each other. Problems, problems, problems. No wonder students and adults are so confused by space science! Photo was compiled by NASA.Today was a great day of work on our solar system lessons. I meet Blanche at the Space Science Lab where we worked on lesson two in our unit. This lesson is about the spherical shape of the planets and has nice math connections. Just one problem. Jupiter and Saturn are just too big! How are we expected to make models of these objects with material available to teachers and affordable for each student in the class to make? Forget the Sun which is gigantic. The planets are outrageous. If Jupiter is 2 inches in diameter, Pluto would be less than a grain of sand. Now, how can we duplicate that in the classroom? If we make Jupiter larger, we need too much play dough or other material. It becomes to much for a classroom teacher to provide for 20 kids.
We did make a nice math connection using the planets to cement the commutative property and the ever popular less than, greater than, and equal signs. It is just too bad that Jupiter and Saturn have to be so big.
Thanks Katie, for making the graphic design on this page. You are fabulous. It means so much to me that you would give me your time and effort to make my page look so good. You are a remarkable human being and a terrific daughter-in-law. You are also a great mother to our grandson. So, thanks for all the above.
| posted by feldmom at 9:10 PM
