Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes – Tune in: The process of forming planets
15 minutes – Find out: How did the Solar System and our Earth form?
30 minutes – Take action: What are planets made of?
5 minutes – Reflection

Presentation slides

We strongly encourage you to use the Presentation Slides as a guide for yourself and your students through this lesson.

Tune in: The process of forming planets

Step 1.

Explain to students that the process of accretion is responsible for the formation of planets, and that they are going to get a hands-on understanding of this process. But before you get started, ask students to ponder the question: How did gravity and elements work together to create planets?

Step 2.

Head outside to a large space, such as the oval or a basketball court.

Step 3.

Stand at the centre of the group. Explain to students that you are the newly formed sun of our solar system.

Ask students to spread themselves out around you, so that you are at the centre. Make sure that they are about two steps away from you, and anyone else.

Explain to students that they are particles of dust.

Step 4.

Ask students how planets move around the sun. They should know that planets orbit the sun on a circular route.

Dust moves the same way. Ask students to demonstrate how they would move - no running! Keep that circular route consistent.

Step 5.

Now stop students to introduce a few more rules:

You must move towards closer objects. The word object means another student or a group of students. You can speed up and slow down slightly to connect with another student, within reason. This will be the hardest part for students to regulate, so you might have to give some direction as you see students passing.
When you’re close enough to someone else that your hands can reach each other, you must link hands (or arms) and pull tightly together.
Then continue moving together as a new, larger group.
You must continue to move around the centre point (the Sun).

Step 6.

If students commit to this demonstration, you will see students who start kind of close link together and grow in size.

Just be careful that everyone in the class doesn't try to clump together into one mega group. Should be impossible with students starting on opposite sides of the sun - but you never know.

After a few minutes, you should see a number of clusters of students.

Explain that this is because the gravity of bigger clumps of matter is bigger and has more pull, thereby pulling in and absorbing even more matter.

Step 7.

Stop students and ask what they have formed, and the analogy for the formation of the solar system. The individual clumps of dust have come together to form complex planets!

Step 8.

Some students might still be on their own, and that's okay! Not all matter in our solar system managed to become part of a planet.

Find out: How did the Solar System and our Earth form?

You can also use the Presentation Slides to guide you through these steps.

Step 1.

Watch:

Threshold 4: Earth & Solar System | Big History Project (Public Embed) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkKOmGzYOkc)

Step 2.

Watch:

The Solar System's Formation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT4OO0TFLHw)

You can study this explanation in more detail by using the How did the Solar System form? poster.

Step 3.

Discuss any new vocabulary and the meaning of any unknown words that came up in these videos.

If you are keeping a word wall across the course of this unit, update it with new terms and definitions.

Step 4.

Remind students that in Lesson 6 we looked at a number of different chemical elements.

About 98% of the atomic matter in the universe consists of Hydrogen and Helium. However, that other 2% of elements can combine to form an almost infinite number of different matter. That allowed objects much more complex than stars to form - such as planets. Specifically our planet, Earth.

Step 5.

Watch:

What Was The Young Earth Like? | Unit 4: Big History Project | OER Project (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bpoes4E8Vs)

Provisions for Learning Support and Extension: The Newsela article Formation of the earth is a great way to introduce some extra literacy into this lesson.
Ensure you have joined Newsela to access lexiled reading for ‘Formation of the Earth’. Newslea provides the same article and information at a range of different lexiled reading levels so that you can differentiate this lesson for your students. You can find instructions on how to do this in our Big History PD.

Students can then read independently at a level that is appropriate for each of their abilities.

Ensure you point out to students that National Geographic is a trusted scientific authority.

Take action: What are planets made of?

Step 1.

Independently, students will investigate a planet of their choosing. They will then use this information as the basis to create their own new planet.

Step 2.

Students might find it helpful to first watch The Solar System Song (7 mins) to give them an overview of all the planets, before choosing one to study in greater depth.

Step 3.

These resources (also available in students' Big History Journals) are a good starting point for their independent research.

Encourage students to record notes using dot points.

Step 4.

Finally, students have the chance to demonstrate their understanding creatively by designing their own planet.

Ask students to imagine they are astronomers who were responsible for discovering a new planet. Recently NASA has managed to land a probe on this planet to discover more information about it.

Students could create an informative poster of their planet. It should include:

The name of the planet
The date the planet was discovered
Any moons or rings the planet might have, and what elements they are made of
A drawing of the planet
A flavourful description of the planet, including the colour
What element the planet is mostly made up of
The location of the planet compared to other planets in the solar system. For example, this new planet might be between Mercury and Venus, or it might be further out than Pluto. This will inform some of the next pieces of information.
The temperature on the planet
How time moves on this planet compared to earth
How long this planet takes to go around the sun

Students should take inspiration and information from the planet they have researched. For example, researching Neptune will give students the information they need to imagine and create a similar planet.

Reflection

Invite some students to share their planet with the class. The class can guess what planet the students have based their created planet on informed by the information they have researched. For example, a gaseous, methane-based planet with some rings is likely to be based on Neptune.

Add students' planets to your own class Solar System display, intermingled with information sheets on the real planets.

Differentiated learning

Extension activities

Students use the Venn Diagram template to compare the planet they researched to Earth. Anything that is similar between the planets goes in the middle section, while anything that is unique to earth or the other planet goes in the outside section.
Students who are interested in the wider solar system can carry out an independent investigation using these resources: Interesting facts about the solar system and/or Solar System NASA Science
Students who are really enjoying a discussion of the elements found on Earth and in the Solar System should watch The importance of elements in forming Earth

Big History - What Are Planets Made Of?

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Summary

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