Description

Space travel is an exciting adventure, but what is really out there in space? In this unit, students learn about our Solar System and compare and contrast characteristics of various planets. They explore mean, median, mode, and range and use these to further explore the characteristics of the planets. The sharing of information through expository writing, placed on the Internet as a Web page using Beacon’s SiteMaker tool, will bring outer space into cyber space.

Duration

The planned duration of this activity is 10 days.

Lesson Plans

Nine Around the Sun
Have you wondered about the planets in our solar system? Using this lesson plan as a guide, students explore and record the characteristics of the nine planets. Students learn about gravitation as it applies to orbits.

Not Your Average Planet
Using information about the planets and our solar system, students explore median, mode, mean, and range. Calculators assist students in finding the range and mean.

Taking Outer Space to Cyber Space
Students experience the joy of sharing their knowledge of the planets in our solar system by completing an expository writing and then publishing their writing on an Internet Web page. The Beacon Web authoring tool, SiteMaker will be used.