Session 1 · VOICE: Investigate
Shrink the Solar System
- 10 minGuess: if the Sun were a beach ball in the classroom, how far away would Neptune be? Write your guess.
- 30 minOn the field: build a toilet-paper Solar System (1 sheet = about 15 million km) or use the Science Learning Hub scale. Place a marker for each planet and walk it.
- 10 minBack inside: what surprised you? Why do posters of the Solar System look so different from real life?
Session 2 · VOICE: Investigate
Sorting the sky
- 10 minBig idea: the Sun is a star. The universe holds trillions of galaxies, each with billions of stars. Our galaxy is the Milky Way.
- 20 minCard sort: stars, planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids and comets. Sort by what they orbit, their size and shape, and what they are made of. Justify each choice.
- 15 minGravity demo: swing a soft ball on a string in a circle, then let go. What does the string stand for? Link it to planets and moons.
- 5 minKōkako asks one question about your card sort. Change one card if you need to.
Getting started
Use the picture version of the card sort with one clue on each card.
Stretch
Find out why Pluto was called a planet until 2006 and is now a dwarf planet. Use the words 'clear its orbit'.
Checkpoint
Each group can place the planets in order and explain the difference between a planet and a dwarf planet.
Activities for this week
- Toilet-paper Solar System: How far apart are the planets really?
- Gravity and orbits: What keeps the Moon going around the Earth?
Useful this week
- Mining and underground resources ↗ Coal, gold, ironsand, gravel and more: what we dig up and why.
- Shrink the Solar System ↗ A scale-model activity that makes the size of the Solar System real.
- Gravity and Orbits ↗ Change the mass and see what happens to the Moon's and Earth's orbits.
- The Matariki star cluster ↗ The science and mātauranga of Matariki, and how to find the cluster.
- The stars of Matariki ↗ The nine stars and what each is connected to.