1. Do Now  Why do you think the planets orbit the sun? (Like what causes them to travel in a circle around the sun?)

2. Learning Target  Today I will work toward modeling the solar system.

3. Guiding Questions for your Mini Planet Research Project  Does your planet have an atmosphere?  What is the temperature range on your planet? (Why?)  Could your planet support life? Why or why not?  Does your planet have moons? What is the definition of a moon?  Does your planet have “seasons”? Why or why not?  Compare your planet with Earth.

4. Do Now  Why do you think the planets are so diverse?

5. Learning Target  Today I will continue working towards modeling the solar system.

6. Scientific Models  Why do we use them?  What are they?

7. Background Information: Notes  Our solar system is made of the sun, nine planets, and about 56 moons.  Most of the mass of the solar system is in the sun which is a medium sized star.  Jupiter, the largest planet, has a mass just 1/100 of the Sun.  Most of our solar system is empty space – planet orbit at very large distances away from the sun.  We will model the solar system since it is too large to visualize in “real size”.

8. Modeling Math…  We measure planets’ distances away from the sun in astronomical units (au’s).  1 au = distance of Earth from Sun = 93,000,000 miles  I will set the scale at 1au = 1foot  Example proportion to solve for your scaled distance:

9. Distance from Sun Data Write your distance on your card.

10. Learning Target  Today I will finish modeling the solar system.

11. Share Information…

12. Do Now  How do you think a planet get’s it’s atmosphere?

13. Learning Target  Today I will really model the solar system.

14. In your notebook: Planetary Distances  What did you notice?  What was the pattern?

15. Analysis Questions:  Using the mass data shown, draw relative sizes of the planets and the sun.

16. Exit ticket  Using out model, why does Pluto have a longer year than Earth?

17. We need 9 groups…  I will count off by 9 so you will be with at least one other person.  Each group will get some background information on one planet and summarize it to the class.  You will need to take notes on each planet.  You will also calculate the model distance your planet is away from the sun.