Students research suitable criteria for defining the presence of life. They then analyze soil samples in tests similar to the experiments on the Mars Viking Lander.

Students use NASA photographs and hands-on activities to compare the amounts of land and water on our planet. They discover that the world has five oceans, and that they cover 70% of Earth's surface. Students learn how this affects the entire Earth system.

Students conduct research on the planets, with emphasis on patterns and cycles, and gain an appreciation for the variation in length of year, length of day, and seasonal variation across the solar system. To explore whether the patterns and cycles on the planets are related to planetary positions in the solar systems, students create posters that can be used to mark the locations of the planets within a model of the solar system.

Students make daily observations of the moon over many weeks to allow the phase cycle to be observed and characterized. Students also construct a working model of the Earth-Moon-Sun system and determine if they can recreate the observed phase cycle.

Students determine the actual distance to the Sun and the Moon without ever leaving Earth, and in doing so will gain a better understanding of the huge distances in the Earth-Sun-Moon system. In order to determine these distances, students will apply their understanding of mathematical models in two different ways, using a single mathematical principle.

Students tour the Solar System. They examine and define its various components"”the Sun, planets, moons, comets, asteroids, dwarf planets, and Kuiper Belt Objects. They recognize that the Solar System is the family of the Sun, an average star, and other stars have families of their own. Taking a close look at the planets they find that characteristics like size, location, composition, and presence of rings and moons, reveal two major categories of planets"”terrestrial (Earth-like) and Jovian (Jupiter-like).

Students first explore the geometric nature of ellipses, and the circle as a special case. These newly developed mathematical skills are then used to plot an accurate model of the outer Solar System, which contains the size, eccentricity, and orientation in space of the orbits for different classes of objects. Students are then able to understand how orbits can be used to help categorize objects in the Solar System.

In this lesson, students find out that there is radiation other than visible light arriving from the Sun by reproducing a version of William Herschel"™s experiment of 1800 that discovered the existence of infrared radiation. Students discuss current uses of infrared radiation and learn that it is both very beneficial and a major concern for planetary explorations such as the MESSENGER mission to Mercury.

Students use solar system models to realize that cycles of night and day are caused by the rotation of the Earth.

Students build the Voyage scale model of the Solar System on a play-ground and "travel" to each planet. This exercise allows students to recognize that the Sun and planets are tiny worlds in a vast space. Students also explore the similarities and differences in the patterns and cycles observable on the planets. The students come to realize that while seasonal variation (except for the length of seasons) seems independent of planet location, both the length of the day and length of the year do reflect planetary position. Students then explore why this occurs, with length of year dependent on the distance from the Sun, and length of day dependent on whether the planet is an inner Earth-like planet, an outer Jupiter-like planet, or a Pluto-like object further out in the Solar System. This experience gives students a new perspective on the Solar System, and allows them to gain a new sense of home.

Students use data and satellite images to examine how human actions can degrade, improve, or maintain the quality of each resource. Then they will analyze and interpret graphc data to make recommendations for improving future use of these resources.

Students explore how temperature varies with distance from the Sun and dtermine the range in distance from the Sun within which a planet might contain liquid water. Students then plot the actual and 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 a second activity, students research the broader requirements for an abode of life, and whether these requirements are found on other worlds.