For our Earth and Space topic, we have been learning about the planets within our solar system. To begin with, we looked at how the sun was born billions of years ago and how we managed to shift our understanding of the Earth being flat to the Earth being spherical, beginning with Ancient Greek philosophers (for example, it was noted that depending on where you are in the world, the star constellations are different but they would be the same if the Earth was flat).
We now know that the solar system is a heliocentric system (the sun being the centre of the system) rather than a geocentric system (the Earth being the centre of the system) and that there are eight planets orbiting the sun. Working in pairs to create our models of the solar system, we needed to know how far each planet is from the sun and how long it takes each planet to orbit. We decided to use the following objects found around the school to represent each planet according to their size:
Mercury: tiny ball of fabric
Venus: small object used for sewing
Earth: marble
Mars: small dice
Jupiter: football
Saturn: sponge ball
Uranus: tennis ball
Neptune: small plastic ball
Using the following measurements, we created a model that demonstrated how far away from the sun each planet was: 1) Mercury 3.5cm from the sun 2) Venus 3cm from Mercury 3) Earth 2.5cm from Venus 4) Mars 5cm from Earth 5) Jupiter 34cm from Mars 6) Saturn 40cm from Jupiter 7) Uranus 90cm from Saturn 8) Neptune 280cm from Uranus.
We were able to show how big the solar system must be in relation to Earth. We could also understand from the model why Earth is the only planet in this solar system likely to support life (all other planets are either too close or too far away from the sun!)
After creating our models, we created diagrams in our Science books which included each planet’s distance from the sun, time taken to orbit the sun and average temperature. There;s lots to look forward to because in our next Science lesson, we’ll be looking at the moon’s orbit of planet Earth and how that affects they way we see the moon on a daily basis!
I really enjoyed this activity!
I hope we do something like this again❤️
I really liked re-creating the solar system and I find space a really interesting topic.
I have one question:
Where does the universe end?
This was such a fun activity. I loved seeing the solar system in smaller version.
This activity was amazing! I really enjoyed making the solar system with a basketball, softball and much more. Year 5 have amazing science lessons. I hope the other year 5 pupils loved the lesson as much as I did.
I enjoyed making the models of the solar system and it was very interesting learning about the different planets !
I really loved doing the solar system!!!!
Gabrielle, I am going to answer your question
The universe is constantly expanding, and there is no true edge to it. However, there is an end to what humans can see of the universe, which is called the edge of the observable universe. In a closed universe, gravity eventually stops the expansion of the universe, after which it starts to contract until all matter in the universe collapses to a point, a final singularity termed the “Big Crunch”.
I loved doing this it was so fun! I loved drawing our own versions of the solar system and learning new facts about it 😁
I enjoyed learning so much about the solar systems and recreating it
I have one question :
Are there more planets that we still haven’t found?
I enjoyed learning so much about the solar systems and recreating it.
I was so shocked when i saw that Neptune was so far away from the sun but its temperature is only about -200 degrees
I loved this activity!
I learned so many interesting things about planets.
It looks very fun !!!
This was a really fun activity! I hope we do it again soon.
I am going to answer your question Gabrielle.
The universe doesn’t end.
It goes on forever and ever.
I loved this activity.
Especially when we had to create our own solar system.
although it was sad that me and Louise’s solar system was soooooooo big that Mr. Aitken couldn’t take a picture of it.
I really enjoyed making solar systems with lots of items. I am so happy that we got to learn about how it works. It was one of the best science lessons ever!!!
It was really interesting to learn about space for my telescope.