Jim Cornish of Gander Academy gives us another one of his exceptional Destinations articles, this time all about our solar system. Full of great site reviews, there are also ready-to-use activities for instant use in your classroom. This is a great companion piece to Linda Conrad's "Teaching About Space" article.

What do these things have in common: music by Bach, a greeting in Arabic, and a picture of fallen leaves? They are three of the many media clips of earth and its inhabitants placed aboard the Voyager series of spacecraft. Launched in the early 1980s, their mission was to explore our solar system and, ultimately, to point the way back to our planet, should they be found on their journey through interstellar space. But you and your students don't have to wait for the return of the Voyager spacecraft to learn about our solar system and beyond. You can begin your quest with these valuable Web sites.

Windows to the Universe

This Web site is a "user-friendly learning system on the Earth and the Space sciences." Its purpose is "to provide a rich array of documents, images, movies, animations, and data sets to help children explore the solar system and the historical and cultural ties between science, exploration, and the human experience." The resources, available in beginner, intermediate, and advanced reading levels, include lists of planetary facts, descriptions of internal and external planetary features, and interesting accounts of the planets' importance in mythology. All pages are beautifully illustrated and include many links to other planetary resources. http://www.windows.ucar.edu/

StarChild

StarChild was developed by teachers from Lakeside Middle School in Evans, Georgia, together with space educators at Sonoma State University in California. This award-winning site, available in English, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, is divided into two reading levels, both of which provide simple introductions to the sun, planets, comets, meteorites, and asteroids. Level one, suitable for primary-aged readers, contains a link to an audio file of the text. Scientific terms are written in hypertext and linked to a glossary. http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/StarChild.html

Solar System Exploration (SSE)

SSE is one of four space science exploration themes from NASA. This comprehensive site explains why we explore space, describes the technology used, profiles the participants, and elaborates on the discoveries made. Updated resources include recent telescope images, upcoming exploration missions, and breaking news in space exploration. A link for educators serves as a gateway to many other NASA resources for teachers (lesson plans, workshops, grants, and summer job opportunities) and for students (reference material for papers and projects). http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/

CosmicKids: The Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

While humankind has only traveled a very short distance beyond our planet, our telescopes, especially the HST, have enabled us to peer into the depths of space. Cosmic Kids: The Hubble Telescope, yet another NASA site for teachers and students, is a great Web site for children to do their own exploring of this extraordinary piece of technology. This site covers everything children might like to know about the space telescope. Resources include the HST's structure, deployment, orbital history, image gallery, and fun facts. http://sm3a.gsfc.nasa.gov/classrm.html

Zoom Astronomy: Our Solar System

It is difficult to find a theme that EnchantedLearning.com hasn't covered for young children on its Web site. The Solar System page, like all others, is simply written and includes hypertext links embedded in the text to enable children to explore their interest in the solar system in a nonlinear fashion. Each topic (the sun, planets, asteroids, comets, and meteoroids) is adequately described and well illustrated. An interactive quiz and scavenger hunt worksheet complete this site. http://www.zoomwhales.com/subjects/astronomy/solarsystem/

Additional Solar System Resources

Imagine the Universe
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/homepage.html
Space Encyclopedia: The Solar System
http://spaceboy.nasda.go.jp/Db/Kensaku_html/Type27_e.html Astronomy for Kids
http://www.dustbunny.com/afk/planets/planets.htm
Views of the Solar System
http://www.solarviews.com/eng/homepage.htm
Explore the Sky
http://www.seasky.org/sky.html

Destinations: Our Solar System
Web-Based Activities for Elementary Students

Thanks to NASA and its agencies and to many space enthusiasts around the world, today there are many space-related sites designed for children on the Web. But searching for and sorting through them can be very time consuming and an unproductive use of precious instructional time for teachers and students. The six lesson plans in this month's Destinations will solve these problems. Teachers can use the selected Web sites and the skill- and content-oriented student worksheets to provide meaningful online experiences in the study of our solar system. The full collection of resources is available at Our Solar System Theme Page at:
http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/solar_system.htm

________________________________________________________________________________ Lesson One: The History of Planetary Exploration

FOCUS

• What unmanned spacecraft have been launched to explore our solar system?

• Identify the reasons we explore space.
• Explore a timeline of an unmanned exploration spacecraft.
• Describe the objectives of missions.
• Discover what was learned on the missions.

FOCUS

• What theories explain the formation of the solar system?

ONLINE RESOURCES
Solar System Formation
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/cgi-bin/tour_def/our_solar_system/formation.html
Formation of the Solar System
http://school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/worldbook/atozscience/s/518960.html#HEAD2
Planet Formation
http://stardate.utexas.edu/resources/ssguide/planet_form.html
Formation of the Solar System
http://www.bbc.co.uk/planets/solarguide2.shtml
The Origin of the Solar System
http://www.seds.org/billa/tnp/origin.html
________________________________________________________________________________ Lesson Three: The Sun
FOCUS

• What is the Sun and what role has it played in the history of humans?

• Identify the chemical composition of the Sun.
• Describe the structure of the Sun.
• Determine why life on this planet depends on the Sun.
• Explore the Sun's role in mythology.

• How do the planets and their moons differ from one another?

• List the nine planets of our solar system.
• Categorize the planets into the inner and outer groups.
• Identify the planets, based on images.
• Research the basic facts on each of the nine planets and the moons.

• Why should we study the other objects in our solar system?

• Define and describe comets, asteroids, and meteoroids.
• Identify what we can learn from the study of these objects.

• Why do we need a telescope in space?

• Describe the HST and its launch into space?
• What problems did the HST have and how were they fixed?
• How has HST helped our understanding of the solar system and the universe?

by Jim Cornish, fifth grade teacher in Newfoundland, Canada
jcornish@stemnet.nf.ca

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