Astronomy Unit Part 1: Intro to Astronomy, Planetary Motion

This unit bundle includes 5 lessons of about 50 minutes, and 18 page work bundle that has students fill-in critical notes, conduct exciting hands-on activities, answer questions, complete diagrams, includes games, built-in quizzes, built-in video links, and much more. The work bundle chronologically follows the detailed and truly interactive slideshow for an amazing learning experience. A 20 question quiz game concludes the learning experience for a great review and assessment. Everything arrives in editable format.

Lesson #1 Introduction of the Solar System and Astronomers

The PowerPoint begins with a picture of the Hubble Deep Field and a Mother with a plate of nacho's comes flying in from deep space. Students are confused at this point. She then begins being very nice and offering nachos. Students then learn (M)y (V)ery (E)eager (M)other (J)ust (S)erved (U)s (N)achos in a step by step process. The students are then asked to see if they know the order of the planets. The students then figure out that the whole mother nachos thing was to teach them the order of the planets. The names of the planets then appear next to the learning hint. A neat "Not Smart Board" activity follows where the teacher minimized out the slideshow and student go up to the board and drag the planets into their correct order. Teacher controls the pictures movement with the mouse. This helps students get a visual of the planets. Orbits are then described and animated slide helps. Student then learn about Galileo Galilei, Kepler, and Copernicus and their contributions to Astronomy. After Kepler, students learn about and then calculate eccentricity of orbits. Students create two focus points and use a string, tape, and a pencil to create an eccentric orbit. Students learn about perihelion and aphelion. Students learn how changing the distance of the focus can change the eccentricity of the orbit.

Lesson #2 Eccentricity and Planetary Laws of Motion

This lesson focuses on Keplers planetary laws of motion. Student begin interpreting graph about eccentricity. This graph is also in the students work bundle so they follow along and answer questions with the slideshow. Student then learn to calculate eccentricity. Questions from the slideshow also correlate to the work bundle so everything is step by step learning. In the end, students are always impressed when they perform challenging calculations. After doing some more questions with Comets, students conclude the lesson learning about planetary motion. Near the end of the lesson an activity explores orbits and has students volunteers conduct various orbits in our solar system. I'll sometimes go outside or go the gym if available but it can also be done if you move some chairs in the classroom.

Lesson #3 Distances in the Solar System and Walking tour

This lesson begins with a series of vocabulary challenges with visuals to review prior lessons. The answer is provided after the question. The astronomers from the prior day and their contributions also are reviewed. Students then learn about the stellar parallax and use their pencil to conduct a quick and easy representation of this phenomenon. Students then learn about an AU Astronomical Unit and start getting familiar with some of the distances to planets in our solar system. This also serves as a review from lesson 1. A really neat Solar System walking tour is provided. The distances of the planets in steps / meters are provided and the class walks from the sun outward 39 meters (A tape measure is helpful.) The size of the planets (Rough comparison) is also provided (Sun=Kickball, Mercury is grain of sand etc,) The class returns after the walk and views a more accurate drawing of the solar system. A video link is also provided that brings the scales of the planets together that uses lights in the desert. This video is amazing.

Lesson #4 Graphing and Wrap-Up

Students begin as always with their work bundle. This lesson begins with another graph of Astronomical Unit and a series of questions to answer. You can decided to have the students work in groups or answer as a class. As always, the answers are revealed in the slides. Another graph and set of questions explores orbital speed. Some animations help show how orbital speed and distance from the sun are connected. Another graph about equatorial diameters helps show some the differences in size between the inner and outer planets. Some fun switch-a-roo questions change the order of the planets and the students need to put the solar system back together. The lesson concludes with students visit a matrix of stats from the solar system and answering questions in the work bundle. Some box games conclude this lesson and each slide reveals more of the hidden picture beneath. Students try and be the first to guess the picture. Part 4 is a really nice lesson as it works on many various graphs and this is always something that can come in handy.

Lesson#5 Review Game / Assessment

This is a 20 questions review of the unit with 5 for fun bonus questions and final question. You can choose to let the students use their work bundle, or have them study their work bundle the day before. All of the answers can be found in the work bundle and the review is a great way to assess learning. Lesson #6 is the answers to the review game. I usually have my students self-assess. The questions is presented on last time before the answer is revealed so you can call upon table groups. Also provided is a 25 clue Crossword Puzzle, Word Bank, and Solution. The teacher can remove the word bank if you want to make the puzzle more challenging.

A digital version of the work bundle is also provided for students working remote / for use with Chromebooks. An answer version of the work bundle is also provided which is a fantastic resource for your support staff to assist students.

This lesson aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards. Please see preview for more information.

This is a fantastic Unit that is sure to get your students excited about Astronomy.