Diagram of the Solar System. Image credit: NASA
Lesson plans are the sanity of every teacher. Without them, many teachers would get distracted by the daily questions of inquisitive minds. Developing your own lesson plans year after year can be major difficulty and it is easy to slip into a groove. The help you shake things up a little here are some lesson plans: Solar System style.
If you want to talk about Solar System education, NASA is a authority that comes to mind immediately. Here is a link to NASA’s main education page. The page has links to all of NASA’s educational opportunities. You can use the Fast Finder tool to help you narrow your search by grade, topic, and other criteria.
Discovery is another name that reassures you of educational quality. Here is a link to their page offering free lesson plans about the Solar System aimed at K-5 students.
Here is a free lesson plan geared fro students in grades 5-8 from UC-Berkeley
Not to beat the NASA horse too much, but the Center for Astronomy Education, an offshoot of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has a vast cache of educational material available.
The American Astronomical Society has enough material available that you would not have to teach the same thing at any time during your career.
Williams College recommends an interesting lesson plan about light and telescopes. It includes some of Hubble Space Telescope information.
NASA does not have a corner on the astronomical education market. The European Space Agency offers a wealth of information, as well. Here is a link to their education page.
There are many activities here on Universe Today that would qualify as lesson plans: Solar System. They are appropriate for many grade levels, from building a styrofoam model of the Solar System to building a launchable rocket. We are not trying to say that our material is comparable to that of NASA, but it is serviceable.
Lesson plans: Solar System based are all over the internet. It is our recommendation that you look the plans over carefully and try to stick to those offered by reputable institutions.
Although we can’t really compare, we’ve got a project here on Universe Today where you can build a scale model of the Solar System, and more astronomy for kids.
We have recorded a whole series of podcasts about the Solar System at Astronomy Cast. Check them out here.
References:
NASA Education
Solar System Exploration
Discovery Education: Free Lesson Plans
UC Berkeley Science Education Getaway
NASA Astronomy 101
American Astronomical Society: Education Services
Amazing Space
European Space Agency: Education
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