To Activity PagePLANETS REVOLVE AROUND THE SUN
Science Standard 3.1
Recognize that the Earth and other planets in the solar system revolve around the sun.
Objectives/Learning Outcomes
Students will recognize that planets revolve (make complete turns) around the sun.
Planets' orbital paths are almost circular, but because planets are not perfectly round, they are considered to be ellipses (curved shapes made by unbroken lines).
Materials
1. Ten signs, each labeled with one of the following words: sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto
2. A watch with a second hand.
Procedures
1. Find a large field or area to use outside for this activity. Choose one student to wear the sun sign and represent the sun. Choose nine students to wear a planet sign and represent a planet.
2. Ask Mercury to walk around the sun slowly in a counterclockwise circle.
3. Ask Venus to walk in a larger circle, also in a counterclockwise direction, around the sun.
4. Continue adding planets until all nine planets are orbiting the sun.
5. When students are adjusted to walking in their orbital paths, have them line up, about an arm's length apart from one another, in a line extending away from the sun, while staying in their orbital paths.
6. Instruct students to take a regular-sized step when the teacher says, "Walk." Ask students to keep track of the number of times that they circle the sun. The teacher will time this activity for two minutes.
7. At the end of two minutes, ask students to share how many times they circled the sun. Explain that walking one time around the sun is a revolution (the motion of one object around another; one revolution around the sun equals a planet's year). Ask each student how many years passed on their planet.
8. Other discussion questions: Why did it take some planets longer to travel around the sun than others? Which planet has the shortest year? Which planet has the longest year? Is a year the same amount of time on Venus as on Neptune?
Assignment
Upon completion of this activity, ask students to complete the linked science journal page, Planets Revolve Around the Sun.
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Last Updated 05/03/03
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