Science Education Standards:

NSES: UNIFYING CONCEPTS & PROCESSES:

• K-12: (A2) Evidence, models, and explanations

NSES (D): EARTH & SPACE SCIENCES:

• Earth in the Solar System
• Grades 5-8: E3a

Short Description: Curiosity about our place in space and whether we can travel to distant worlds beyond our own depends upon understanding the size, distance and other characteristics of moons and planets in our solar system. For this activity, students will construct a balloon scale model to understand the relative sizes of the Earth, Earth's Moon and Mars in relation to each other and their relative distance to each other at this scale. They will use this model to predict distances and reflect on how scientists use models to construct explanations through the scientific process. In this collection, this activity introduces the concept of models, which will be built upon in subsequent lessons, as well as the first set of Earth/Mars comparisons.