BIG IDEA: Gravity doesn't go DOWN, it goes IN towards its center. | Student's Responsibility:
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Mini-Lesson (10+ minutes):
PLANET 1 (made of clay, soil, and mud): Do the clay ball & hammer/nail demonstration to have students explain where gravity is pulling on planets.
PLANET 2 (made of volcanic pumice): Do the styrofoam ball and pushpin demonstration to have students explain where gravity is pulling on planets.
PLANET 3 (made of gases): Do the balloon and metal skewer demonstration to have students explain where gravity is pulling on planets.
PLANET 4 (made of liquids): Do the water balloon and metal skewer demonstration to have students explain where gravity is pulling on planets.
PLANET 2 (made of volcanic pumice): Do the styrofoam ball and pushpin demonstration to have students explain where gravity is pulling on planets.
PLANET 3 (made of gases): Do the balloon and metal skewer demonstration to have students explain where gravity is pulling on planets.
PLANET 4 (made of liquids): Do the water balloon and metal skewer demonstration to have students explain where gravity is pulling on planets.
Discussion (15+ minutes):
If a person dropped a basketball ___________, where would the basketball go? Why???????
Talk about "up" and "down" on earth and in space.
- in Illinois
- in China
- in Russia
- on the South Pole
- on the equator
Talk about "up" and "down" on earth and in space.
Read the short article below and then watch the top two videos from the selection below. Take notes as you go, so you can use the information from your notes in the video that you create to show your understanding of gravity.
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Hands-on Activity or Demonstration (10-30 minutes):
Students will use marbles to drop on flour and iced tea mixtures to make craters. They will identify the various components of a crater, learn how gravity causes objects to impact moons and planets (causing craters), and explain their process during this lab on a self-made video. | OR |
Whole-Class Discussion:
How do craters form? (Impact) craters form – as the name suggests – when rocky or icy objects strike other planets or their moons. The rocky inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) and their moons are covered in impact craters. How do the size, speed, and mass of an object affect the size of the crater? As the activity showed, the size of the object can affect the size of the crater. How are real craters different from craters formed in this activity? In reality, very large objects that hit planets at high speeds explode, throwing pieces of rock flying in all directions, sometimes many, many (dozens or hundreds of) kilometers outwards. How are craters important in the real world? Scientists use craters on other planets and moons to figure out the approximate ages of the planets (the older the surface, the more craters have accumulated). Vocabulary: See images to the right... Hypothesize what affect the size of the meteor will have on the craters that form. (Teacher demonstration.) Hypothesize what affect the angle of impact of the meteor will have on the craters that form. (Teacher demonstration.) Hypothesize what affect the height of the meteor will have on the craters that form. (Student experiment.) |
Student-Driven Task (20+ minutes):
Create a video on PhotoBooth that explains how gravity works on planets and other objects in space:
Upload your video to YouTube.
Embed your video into a blog post entitled, "Earth's Gravitational Force."
Answer the Reflection/Synthesis Questions below in your blog post.
When you are done, feel free to watch the remaining videos to learn about gravity in more complex ways! Watch the videos in order, as they build on each other.
- Use a Styrofoam ball and toothpicks as a model to show where gravity goes on a spherical object like a planet, moon, or star.
- Use a tennis ball and a rubber band as a model to show what the force of gravity feels like for objects on the earth (or other planets).
- Talk about "up" and "down" on earth and in space.
Upload your video to YouTube.
Embed your video into a blog post entitled, "Earth's Gravitational Force."
Answer the Reflection/Synthesis Questions below in your blog post.
When you are done, feel free to watch the remaining videos to learn about gravity in more complex ways! Watch the videos in order, as they build on each other.
Reflection/Synthesis Questions (10+ minutes or HW):
| Remember that some questions need at least two sentences!
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