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I am starting a unit on gravity and orbit and I am using the SciPack information and SciGuide lessons. The interactive activities are okay but I would like to have either a hands-on activity or more interactive (changeable parameters) web-based activities to better explain how gravity affects objects in the solar system. I want the students to be able to access the activity at home, as to improve their understanding.
I am using the concept of gravity as an overarching topic to teach motions of objects in space. Can anyone in scienceland direct me to a web-based activity site(s) that I could use? Thank you in advance.
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Hi Harvey,
Have you tried a keyword search on the Learning Center and then limiting that search by appropriate age level? I searched for gravity and then limited the search by adding a middle school filter. I found an external link to a NASA interactive. You can find it here. You might also try the Gravity Assist Simulator. It is intended for high school age students, but could be modified for middle school students.
You can also do an advanced search for user created collections and NSTA collections. You just hit advanced search, then choose your keyword, and select user created collections or NSTA collections in the drop down menus. When I searched user collections, I found this which might be helpful. When I searched NSTA collections, I found this which might be helpful. There are also Gravity and Orbits collections for both elementary school and high school.
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This is a good resource for investigating the relationship between mass and weight, i.e., gravity.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/weight/index.html
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Here is another link exploring the relationship between orbital velocity, stellar mass, and distance from star.
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/olcweb/cgi/pluginpop.cgi?it=swf::800::600::/sites/dl/free/007299181x/78778/Orbital_Nav.swf::Orbital%20Velocity%20Interactive
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Look up Brain Pop. They have great lessons for kids.
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Hi Sharon,
Thank you for the link to the interactive. Gravity is a concept that is difficult for students to truly understand in the abstract. The site looks great, I'm excited to explore it more and bring it to our students.
Thank you,
Barbara
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My students recently went to STAR BASE, MN. Those lessons on gravity and mass/weight, were amazing. the kids did hands on experiments, dropping an object of a certain mass, while trying to keep an "astronaut" "buckled in" when it made impact at the bottom (gravity, inertia) The students are still talking about what they learned, 3 weeks later. If you have STAR BASE where you live you should look into it to see if you can get involved.
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Hello Tina,
I know the colorado.edu website but not that specific link. I'll check it out.
Joachim, the Star Base sounds like a wonderful resources. I'll look for it too.
Thanks.
Sharon
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Good luck. I think you can find out about Star Base by just googling it. Also I think it is supported by NASA.
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Thank you for your timely responses. I was able to use the interactive activities on various lessons. I used the NASA "Gravity Assist" activity as an extension for my lesson on rockets and space exploration. It was very helpful when I was explaining to the students about deep space exploration like the Voyager Twins Spacecraft. The McGrawHill and the Colorado activities were identical with the Colorado interactive having more options. I will definitely use the colorado.edu website to further explain how gravity is used for space exploration. Although they are identical, what I like about the McGrawHill activity is that it shows the correlation of star size to planet and the distance from the star. I'm planning on using that for an inquiry on the relationship of orbital speed vs. orbit distance, I may even use these activities to illustrate how astronomer determine exo-planet size and orbit... if that is even possible. Thank you for all your help.
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I have also used the http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/energy-skate-park simulation. If you check out this site, they have many good simulations. Prior to getting into orbits, you might have students check out the website above and experiment with different forces - like gravity and friction - on different planets. They can then see the effects gravity and friction have on Potential and Kinetic Energy on Earth and different planets in our Solar System. Students always enjoy this site and I'm sure you might even find other resources that may be of help! Good luck.
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Hello Harvey, Glad to hear you found the interactives website useful for your students. It is a very rich resource with numerous simulations for concepts in astronomy. Another fun activity when teaching about mass, distance and orbital velocity is a NASA activity "Distance to the Moon." This is an exercise in scale construction which can then be used to analyze mass and distance in the solar system. Here's the link to the lesson.
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/180561main_ETM.Distance.Moon.pdf
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Here's something that may be of interest to thread readers:
nineplanets.org
It's from NASA's nine planets site and focuses on:
NASA Spacecraft Orbits the Moon on New Year's Eve
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
Date: 31 December 2011 Time: 04:22 PM ET
and a blurb about it - although it is a past event it is still a current event with video and great moon shots
The first of two gravity-mapping NASA spacecraft entered into orbit around the moon today (Dec. 31), marking a New Year's arrival in a mission that will study Earth's nearest neighbor from crust to core.
and here are the photos from the moon gravity mission:
http://www.space.com/12802-photos-nasa-moon-gravity-grail-mission.html
It is fun to incorporate these into teaching about the moon and gravity - real-time science that students will love, too.
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Thanks, Patricia,
It's great to find any sites that make learning about the moon more real to kids. I do have kids observe the moon in their science notebook every night for the first month of school. I find that some kids continue even after it's not an assignment any more. They sure love having an assignment where they have to go outside at night.
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Everyone has great posts and I think teaching gravity and outer space is a hard topic because the students can't see or touch it like other science concepts. One activity I did with my students related to gravity is having them find the gravitational pull of the other planets. Then they had to calculate what their weight would be on each planet. This was great activity because the students got to see the different gravitational on their body on each planet and having to use their math skills.
Thanks, Helen
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HI!
I am collaborating with the language arts teacher to integrate 8th grade science standards into their reading and writing. We both chose the book, Ender's Game, since it also tackles the genre of science fiction. The battle room and training modules in the novel describe the impact of gravity as the students attack a UFO population, the buggers. Although fictional, our students explore the effects of gravity on orientation and force. I will also use some of these resources listed and shared in this forum, thanks!
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Enders Game is a great book. I never thought of analyzing the science in it. What grade do you teach?
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Hi Joachim,
I teach seventh grade. I was even able to discuss asteroids today when talking about Eros.
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Thanks, Erin. I bet they loved that.
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