Were student guesses close? Did they follow the same pattern? Compare actual answers to guesses and determine how they differ.Have students work individually or in small groups to perform the calculations and record their answers on their worksheets.Answer: Divide the distance by the rate of travel. Ask students how we should determine actual travel times by each mode of transportation to a given planet.Ask students to guess how long it would take them to travel to the planets using the various modes of transportation.Fill in the class chart together as students fill in the charts on their worksheets. Have the class work together to compute the distance from Earth to each of the planets and Pluto.Have students represent the problems to be solved using equations with a letter standing for the unknown quantity.Answer: Subtract the appropriate distances. Ask the class how the distance from Earth to each of the planets and Pluto should be computed.Have a volunteer read the instructions from the student worksheet.Provide students with student worksheets, pencils, scratch paper and, if desired, calculators.Note that the rate of travel used for the rocket is the top speed of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, the fastest spacecraft in existence. Of course, most of these modes of transportation are impossible for space travel, but because they are most tangible to young students, they can help students gain a conceptual understanding of the vast distances in our solar system. Removing those factors allows young students to estimate the length of time it would take them to get to the planets by walking, riding their bikes, driving a car, riding on a rocket or traveling at the speed of light. A destination planet might be on the same side of the Sun as Earth when a spacecraft launches, but on the complete opposite side by the time it arrives. Additionally, the planets are always moving, which can affect the time it takes to travel to them. When we send a spacecraft to another planet, it follows a curved path, or trajectory, because of the gravitational pull of the Sun and the other solar system objects it passes near. While this approach is effective for aiding student understanding, it’s not practical for real space travel because straight-line distances to the planets vary every day and spacecraft don’t travel in a straight line. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | Watch on YouTubeįor this lesson, we take a simplified approach to having students compute straight-line distances to the planets from Earth. How big are the planets and how far away are they compared to each other? See how the sizes of planets and the distances between them compare in this video. Take their understanding a step further with this lesson, which has them determine how long it would take to travel to each of the major planets and the dwarf planet Pluto. ![]() Making a scale model of the solar system can help students understand the vast distances between planets.
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