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There are lots of resources out there, and you ain't got the time to go through them all. So I did. I do own some of these things, but I am also just pointing you in the direction of where some cool free things are. So here are my day-by-day plans for a unit that takes kid to the outer realms of our solar system, looking for an Earth like planet. Edit at will.
The objective here to combine what humans needs to survive, like water and atmosphere, with some engineering opportunities and gain some knowledge of the universe.
Before you start, tell the students to watch this video and try very hard not to cry. After you watch, you will realize how small the Earth is and how small you are and how frighteningly large the universe is.
(Now, if they get too upset, you can play this video to show them how large they are in comparison to atoms and molecules. )
Day One:
First thing first: Get your class some card stock and some colored pencils. We are learning some vocabulary for the first three days. Take one piece of white 8 1/2 x 11 card stock, fold it into sixths and now you got six flashcards, front and back. On the first day, have them draw pictures to represent the following vocabulary words: Inner planets & outer planets; Constellations & galaxies, astronomical units & light years. On the back side, they describe the thing. First day, just do those six words.
Day Two:
Continue this art/ vocabulary lesson but do the next six words: atmosphere, earths crust, the troposphere, the thermosphere… Even the aurora lights. There are are all that doc. Just push the art aspect. This is about getting their curiosity humming. Maybe throw out some weird facts like.... "November 2, 2020 marks the last day that all humans were on the earth together. Because since that day, there is always been at least two people in the international space station. It's an end of an era." I show the picture down below to help kids know which is which.,
If you want to extend this atmosphere conversation, try this lesson. It's about the ratios and the math of the thickness of the atmosphere...
Day Three:
On this last day of this part, start with some Kagan Strategies. Today, you can use Quiz-Quiz Trade. Pretty much, the kids start quizzing each other, showing the art they created and seeing if their partner knows the word. You know, you could probably push this too, and have them add some facts on one side. How thick is our atmosphere? How much oxygen is in the stratosphere? How much helium is in the human body? How much iron is in the human body? What is the atomic symbol for neon? What planet is 100% carbon?
For kids that finish early, you can throw in this coloring page of the Layers of Earth.
Now, if your class is like my class, they had no idea why makes a day a day... They all know 24 hours but they did not know WHY it was 24 hours. This VIDEO explains rotation and revolution.
QUIZ on the PREVIOUS INFORMATION (Via google form)
Day Four: Start Colonizing!
Step 1: Bring the kids together and ask them what we need to survive on another planet. Maybe you're gonna let them re-search on the computer for 15 minutes.
Step 2: Then, have everyone try to think of one thing that no one else thought of yet. Print these Give one Get one Activity and get them up and talking to each other. After about ten minutes, bring the students all back together and share the ideas together.
Step 3: Tell students that all those things are necessary but there is one that is infinitely more important than all the others: Liquid water. That is oxygen, hydrogen and those little tiny microorganisms that live in water. You are dead in three days with no liquid water. (Well, six minutes without air but in six minutes, you can't make your own air but you can make your own water, so we will start our colonization of another planet with some water hacks.)
Step 4: Well, unless you are a tardigrade. End the lesson with this four minute video and you will have little curious minds asking all kinds of questions you can't answer.
Day Five:
Today, we are going to discuss HOW much water we need, so let's compare that to what we use water for on earth and how much water is on Earth. Use this worksheet to help kids in their discussions.. and you know, keep them accountable to get it done! On the second page of it, it says "Man-made" water sources. I'm talking about faucets, water fountains, wells, Wal-mart bottled water. "Natural" means on God's green Earth.
If kids are struggling, give them some time to look up their own house on Google Earth and see how far away the nearest water source is... and then the nearest "Water Treatment Plant." Now, California is unique the fact that we don't have any water, at least not enough to support the people that live here. So if you click here you can learn about the California aqueduct system. That aqueduct is actually a great example for what we can do on a planet we need to colonize. If you live in Tulare County of California, here is the County Website to explore some local questions, like "How clean does the water need to be?"
When they finish as much as they can on their own, tell them that...
97% of the water on earth is salt water in the oceans.
3% of the water on earth is freshwater, however...
2% is in accessible to humans because it's in the ice caps and glaciers.
So, 1% of the water on earth is usable to us as ground water, atmospheric water, inside living things, and flowing like in rivers and streams.
If you need some extra time, have kids read this article and then this one.
The main idea is that kids need to realize that in order to do some serious space travel, we need to transport large amount of water or recycle nearly 100% of our water.
For more on the water cycle, click here to be re-directed to the water cycle stuff I got.
Day Six....
You can't really find a similar planet to Earth until you know what Earth is. Earth is very particular in the fact that we need a crust to grow food, an atmosphere to breath in... Today, we are going to learn about the layers of Earth. You can use this activity wherein students roll some clay to make a model, but I would modify it to make them roll the clay around some magnetic metal so they remember what the inner core is made of.
If you don't to buy expensive modeling clay, then let's make our own play-dough. This video shows your class how to make the play-dough. All you need is seven bowls, 7 cups of flour, 4 cups of salt, 4 cups of water, some food dye and something to stir with. I say seven because that is seven groups of four kids, which covers a class of 30. Each team gets a bowl, 1 cup flour 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup water and the teacher does the food dye! Then, we form our little Earths. I like to bring toothpicks, so they can name their plan it on a little tiny Post-it note, and stick it out the top like a flag. Every year I have a kid who named their planet "Bob."
Also, I would bring in a hard-boiled egg. Great model, too!
Science News for Kids has some great kids research. Ducksters gives some good information if you want kids to research on their own but there are some distracting ads, so I just usually take the ducksters articles and print them. But the question is, can you dig through the Earth and come out the other side? (There is a bunch of YouTube videos just on that exact thing, so the class will probably know something about it.. But, just in case.... WATCH THIS.)
This student's got a little squished but you get the idea.
Day Seven....
Now, that you got your rhythm going with the class, you have to make some teacher decisions... Do you want to get into Earth's water cycle or just gloss over it and get back into the solar system? It's like a Choose Your Own Adventure at this point...
Gloss it over
This video is a quick review of the water cycle. Give this worksheet to students to take notes on that video.
The Next Days....
So now, if you scroll down, you will get some activities and lesson ideas about solar systems, engineering things, and aliens... You got this! Plan your days your way!
International Space Station
Know what day is going to go down in history? November 1, 2000. They will be talking about this day for hundreds of years to come. It is the last day that all humans were together on Earth. Since then, there has been at least one human NOT on Earth... in the International Space Station. Click here to watch the live feed from the International Space Station.
I mention this here because when we are out exploring other planets, we cannot immediately find a planet and go live on it. We have to study that planet from a safe distance to make sure it's safe to colonize first. In the ideal situation, we would increase the speed of our traveling through the solar system and be able to bring samples back to Earth. However, that is not actually a possibility at this point in time. It is more feasible for a space station to be built, and moved closer to the planet in which we are studying. That would be our home base. If we are serious about space exploration beyond our solar system, we need to build intergalactic space stations. For now, we will just use the one we have as reference.
Find a planet to colonize
In order to colonize a planet, we have to find a planet to colonize. We will have to (1) travel there, (2) land there, (3) gather some things to study and (3) study it to make sure it is safe to colonize there, (4) Colonize away!
I love to show this video that shows what our sky would like it if the other planets were as close as the moon.
But what it Uranus collided with Earth? This video really gets kids thinking about how planets can interact... make sure before you watch this video is totally FICTIONAL! Just to explore ideas...
(1) Travel
Engineering for Space Travel Activities
As a teacher, bring maybe three of these, three blow dryers. Have a designated corner of the room for "successful" projects and one for "failed" projects... where in the butter melted.
How do you survive the heat in space travel? This is an activity that requires minimal budget but gets the whole class working together. Don't be afraid to get messy with the melted butter! It is an excellent activity for teaching those engineering principles and talking about the challenges of space travel. (Click on the title for the lesson plan.)
This is the letter that I send home to parents so they know what the expectations at home are.
This is the letter that I give to students to start their designing. I let them work in groups and alone.
This is the Google Slides I use so kids know how to set up their project board in order to present their butter projects.
Of course, they need an audience. In our case, we have the lower grades come with with this paper to view their projects.
Don't forget to bring a knife to cut the butter, and a cutting board. Otherwise it's going to get pretty messy for you, Teach'.
(2) Gather Information about the planet
Interactive Map About Renewable Energy Every kid need a computer for this one, or at least pairs of kids. Give the students about ten minutes to explore the data map...and use all the features just in chatty little pairs. You know kids learn a lot from playing around so let them. After about ten or fifteen minutes, give them the task: "Determine the best locations in the USA to convert these renewable resources into electrical energy." You know you need electrical energy sources when colonizing another planet and even traveling there. This is your chance to learn about it and explore it on Earth. Give students this worksheet from the website or use my worksheet that is a digital copy. Maybe one student does the writing and the other kid does the research and map-clicking? But, you know I want to make it into a writing assignment. Use this Google Doc to get them writing. Print it if you are old school - I don't judge.
Find a Planet to colonize: Click here for a interactive 3-d model of our solar system. If you want to use our solar system, cool. I have kids complete this worksheet to explore our solar system. If you want students exploring outside our solar system, click here to explore planets outside our solar system. Exploring that website is a great fun! It shows all different kinds of planets, types, etc. It would take a 10 minute period just checking it all out!
Explore our Solar System: Then, have students choose a planet and complete this worksheet. This also a great time to watch this video again, you know the one about how big the solar system is and how little we all are.
Connections: This is a great time to talk about the rock cycle again, and what we can learn about the history of a planet from looking at its rocks. You could also introduce fossils here, to learn the history of our planet, and apply that knowledge to a new planet. You can also work the religion angle (especially if you are teaching that as part of Social Studies and History.) You might also want to connect to math knowledge here: measuring distances, converting units from Light years to miles, etc...
(2) Gather Information about the planet
Use this moon journal as a homework assignment. Kids can record what they see the moon doing every night… And then we can talk about what they noticed every day for the next two months… Throw it in with your morning routine!
(3) View the Simulations
phet.colorado.edu has an awesome simulation for learning how mass, velocity and gravity work with the orbits of planets. Kids can estimate the mass of their new planets and predict the length of the day, the length of the year... Totally fun!
Lego Education LEGO® Education is teaming up with NASA to bring students and teachers an out-of-this-world STEAM Learning series! Build to Launch explores the technology, STEAM concepts, and careers behind the Artemis I mission to the Moon. Build to Launch is another direction you can take your class.
You scrolled all the way down... this means that you enjoyed my work. Yes, it is free. Yes, there is no obligation... besides telling me if there is a spelling error or something... But, you know, I do like coffee... and I am not going to say no if you want to buy me a cup of coffee.
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