Solar System Activities
The lessons below are teacher-favorite lessons focused on our solar system. For more search options or to search by other science target, missions and other criteria, visit our Fast Lesson Finder. You can also search by curriculum standards on our popular Curriculum Standards Quilts.
Our Solar System Lessons:
Voyage: A Journey Through Our Solar System -- Lesson 6: Where to Look For Life?
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Our Solar System, Sun, Earth
Short Description: It is the most exciting question one can ask of the solar system: is life unique to Earth, or are there abodes of life on other planets -- even moons? A starting point is concluding that life as we know it requires liquid water. Given this constraint, in the first activity students explore a mathematical model for how temperature varies with distance from the sun. It allows them to find the "happy place" for possible life -- the range in distance from the sun within which a planet might contain liquid water. At first glance, it appears only Earth exists within this range. Students then plot the actual observed temperatures for planets and moons, which demonstrates that more than just distance from the sun accounts for planetary temperature, leading to potentially many abodes of life in the solar system. In the second activity students research the broader requirements for an abode of life, and whether these requirements are found on other worlds.
What Are We Made Of? The Sun, the Earth and You (Student Activity Sheet)
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Our Solar System
Mission: Genesis (Our Solar System)
Short Description: Students learn that elements are the basic building blocks of all things found on Earth and in space including water, the human body, the Earth, the sun, and the planets. By counting elements extracted from a simulated sample, students explore how the extraction of atoms from the Genesis samples help scientists have a better understanding of the abundances of elements from the solar wind. This hands-on experience helps students discover that the elemental abundances from the sun can be used as a baseline to compare with the diverse bodies of our solar system. For the teacher's guide click here.
What is a Planet?
Grade Level: 9-12
Body: Our Solar System, Asteroids, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud
Mission: New Horizons (Dwarf Planets)
Short Description: Students learn about the characteristics of planets, comets, asteroids, and trans-Neptunian objects through a classification activity. Students can then apply what they have learned by participating in a formal debate about a solar system object discovered by the New Horizons spacecraft and by defining the term "planet."
What Makes Day and Night? The Earth's Rotation
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: K-4
Body: Our Solar System
Short Description: In this demonstration of day and night, students learn kinesthetically as they take on the role of the Earth orbiting the rotating sun.
What's the Difference?
Grade Level: 9-12
Body: Our Solar System
Short Description: This is a free multimedia software application that facilitates scientific analysis by allowing virtually any pictures, graphics, animations, and movies to be compared side by side. The solar system dataset contains comparisons of the planets and major moons within our solar system. Users can upload graphical, animated, interactive, textual, and audio-formatted content into the categories and attributes grid and then supplement their data with customized multiple choice and summary assessment tests.
Who Can Live Here: Life in Extreme Environments
Topic: Life
Grade Level: 5-8, 9-12
Body: Our Solar System, Earth
Short Description: Students explore the limits of life on Earth to extend their beliefs about life to include its possibility on other worlds.
