Eyes on Earth
View Sequence overviewStudents will:
- use secondary data to find out about the eight planets in our solar system, and other objects that are around Earth.
Students will represent their understanding as they:
- describe the characteristics of a neighbourhood.
- identify Earth’s neighbours.
- consider why we use secondary data to conduct some science investigations.
In this lesson, assessment is formative.
Feedback might focus on:
- students’ recognition of other objects that exist around Earth.
- students’ descriptions of why it is necessary to use secondary data to support investigations in space, and about Earth from space.
Whole class
Class science journal (digital or hard-copy)
NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System simulation
- Before teaching this lesson, prepare Eyes on the Solar System so that its settings are configured in a suitable way for students at this stage of development:
- Use the ‘Toggle layers’ menu at the bottom right (in the Settings menu) to ensure that only planets and names can be seen. Planets, labels and icons should remain checked. Ensure asteroids, dwarf planets, constellations, spacecraft, and trails are unchecked.
- Zoom in on Earth by clicking on it or searching for it. You may also need to click and drag the view so that no other planets are visible in the background, and only planet Earth is visible. This is what students should see when they initially view the screen.
Lesson
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkRe-orient
Review the celestial objects that students have learned about so far—the Sun, the Moon and stars—and how the data students have collected has shown that these objects change position in the sky, and that this typically occurs in a repeated pattern.
Ask students what else they might find in the sky and record their ideas.
You might also review any relevant questions students posed about planets, satellites etc.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkIdentifying and constructing questions is the creative driver of the inquiry process. It allows students to explore what they know and how they know it. During the Inquire phase of the LIA Framework, the Question routine allows for past activities to be reviewed and to set the scene for the investigation that students will undertake. The use of effective questioning techniques can influence students’ view and interpretation of upcoming content, open them to exploration and link to their current interests and science capital.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to spend some time considering the mindset of students at the start of each Inquire phase. What do you want students to be thinking about, what do they already know and what is the best way for them to approach the task? What might tap into their curiosity?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkIn the neighbourhood
Ask students: What do you think a neighbourhood is? What are ‘neighbours’?
If required, define a neighbourhood: the area around your home, or a specific place, and the places, people, things, and services that exist in this area.
Identify what is in students’ neighbourhoods, using either the school or students’ homes/suburbs as a reference point.
Remind students that in Lessons 1 and 2, they identified planet Earth as our shared home.
Pose the questions: What’s in Earth’s neighbourhood? What things are around Earth?
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkThe Investigate routine provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, and to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. Students are encouraged to process data to identify trends and patterns and link them to the real-world context of the teaching sequence.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment (Launch phase) that identified the alternative conceptions that students held. Are there activities that challenge these ideas and provide openings for discussion? What content knowledge and skills do students need to be able to complete the final (Act phase) task? How could you systematically build these through the investigation routines? Are there opportunities to build students’ understanding and skills in the science inquiry processes through the successive investigations?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkSpace neighbours
Before beginning this lesson, prepare Eyes on the Solar System following the directions in the List of Materials so that its settings are configured in a suitable way for students.
Review and discuss with students what a ‘zoom’ tool does (magnifying or reducing a view in order to see more detail, or a wider perspective).
Optional: You might provide each student with a frame or ask them to form a frame with their hands and fingers. Students use the frame to focus on a specific object. This allows them to describe what they can see in the frame, before moving closer, and then further away, taking notice of the differences between how much can be seen of the object from those different perspectives.
Using Eyes on the Solar System, show students a ‘from space’ view of Earth. Identify the features of Earth that can be seen in the image (land and ocean will be clearly visible).
Begin to zoom out, asking students to carefully observe what is happening and take note of when the first feature, besides Earth, becomes visible (this will most likely be the Moon but may be a planet, depending on the date).
Discuss how, by zooming out, we are moving the view further and further away from the Earth, which is why Earth is getting smaller and smaller.
Optional: Discuss the vast size and distances that are being covered with each outward 'zoom'. It may be useful to reference the size of Earth, and Australia, to the size of students themselves. It is not necessary or appropriate for students to have a true understanding of sizes and distances this vast, but an understanding that they are vast may be helpful.
Continue zooming outwards until the next objects, besides Earth and the Moon, become visible. It may take a while. The label denoting the Moon will disappear, and the Earth will only be visible because of its label. If suitable for your students, you might pause during this time and ask why they think that is, and explain that because space is so big, the further away the view gets, the objects (like the Moon) become so small that we can't see them anymore.
The celestial objects, and the order in which they appear during this investigation, will depend on where they are in their orbit around the Sun on the date selected on the viewer. Although typically the planets are most often represented in order to their proximity to the Sun (and these are the representations students are most likely to be familiar with), they may not be revealed on screen in this order. At this stage, simply identifying the planets that are close to Earth is fine. Students do not need to understand their proximity to Earth or the Sun.
Continue to zoom outwards until all of the planets in our Solar System become visible on the screen (Pluto will not appear as it is classified as a dwarf planet, and the dwarf planet layer has been hidden).
Highlight for students that as you zoom out, Earth and its closest neighbours become so small in the vastness of space that they are no longer visible.
Return to the layers menu and turn the 'constellations' feature back on. Discuss with students what appears on the screen. Zoom out to see more stars and constellations appear. Refer back to the previous lesson and the constellations that were discussed (Scorpius, Orion, and the Southern Cross). Note for students that the Emu in the sky is NOT a constellation, but is rather the dark space that is observed between stars.
Optional: Turn on other layers' features, such as asteroids or dwarf planets, to explore what else is around Earth.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkFollowing an investigation, the Integrate routine provides time and space for data to be evaluated and insights to be synthesized. It reveals new insights, consolidates and refines representations, generalises context and broadens students’ perspectives. It allows student thinking to become visible and opens formative feedback opportunities. It may also lead to further questions being asked, allowing the Inquire phase to start again.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment that was undertaken during the Launch phase. Consider if alternative conceptions could be used as a jumping off point to discussions. How could students represent their learning in a way that would support formative feedback opportunities? Could small summative assessment occur at different stages in the teaching sequence?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkWhat else is out there?
In this Integrate step, guide students to link their experiences in the investigation to the science concept being explored—in this instance, that there are other objects, including planets, that are near to Earth. Through questioning and discussion, students should come to a consensus that:
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Review and discuss the original questions posed: What’s in Earth’s neighbourhood? What things are around Earth?
- What other planets are close to Earth?
- Is there anything else near Earth?
- Can we see the planets, or other things, from Earth?
- You might like to return to Stellarium Web’s Online Star Map and note that sometimes planets can become visible in the sky from Earth.
Explain the difference between planets, stars and moons in a simple way:
- Stars, like the Sun, make their own light.
- Planets reflect the light of the Sun and move around stars.
- Moons reflect light too, but they move around planets.
Ask students where they think the information comes from that helps make the images they have used when using various digital tools, including maps, and the sky and space viewers.
Return to the Eyes on the Solar System and zoom back in so that Earth is again the only thing visible. Turn on the Spacecraft layer (turning off constellations if they are still selected) to show the various satellites that are around Earth. Remind students what they have previously read about the International Space Station (ISS), and the scientist/astronaut who helped build it, Andy Thomas.
Find the ISS using the search function and note its location. Discuss its proximity to Earth, along with other satellites that can be seen, and support the students to determine that these are all much closer to Earth than the Moon (continue using the zoom feature here until both can be seen in the background).
Explain that satellites like the ISS capture information about the Earth by taking images of Earth and what’s around, then send signals back towards Earth. Space missions, like the one Paul Scully-Power was on, also collect information. This information has been and is used by scientists/astronauts like Katherine Bennell-Pegg to learn about what is happening on and around our shared home, planet Earth.
Reflect on the lesson
You might:
- add words and images to the class word wall.
- re-examine the intended learning goals for the lesson and consider how they were achieved.
- discuss how students were thinking and working like scientists during the lesson.
- Focus on how students were using digital tools and information recorded by to others support their observations of what other planets etc. are around Earth. Discuss why these tools were used.