Unit 5 – The Solar System (Total 10 days, 194 pages):$30

In this unit students will learn about a variety of individual characteristics of the solar system’s objects through an individual report and summary table.  Patterns in the solar system which were the beginnings of modeling are presented, in particular Bode’s Law.  An observation lab is provided which can be used in the next unit to determine the mass of Jupiter.

Motivation: A brief demonstration of the retrograde loop should be sufficient to pique students’ curiosity about this lesson.  When they see it in simulation, the first thing they say is “how does that happen?” It is important, however, that you limit this lesson to merely observing the large number of strange phenomena the planets exhibit and leave the explanations to the next unit. If you decide to do the retrograde loop as a lab activity (see below in the procedure section) then an alternate introduction to the activity is to demonstrate everything else in simulation or in a planetarium.  If you can go on a field trip, you can add the items in the lab to your requests if the local planetarium operator can demonstrate these things.

 Topics include Is Pluto a Planet?, Planet Characteristics, Stellarium Simulation: The Ecliptic, Looking for Patterns, Bode’s law, Jupiter’s Moons.