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Thought I'd share. Here's a NPR article about some folks who built a slick video demonstrating the solar system to scale. The video is embedded, and really is well done. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/09/18/441400933/planets-transit-the-desert-in-7-mile-scale-model-of-the-solar-system

Thank you for sharing this video! I have always thought that learning about space, and even teaching space is a very hard concept because you can't actually "see" the distance between the planets. Also, to show just how small Earth really is. This video did a great job at showing how far apart the planets would be on a much smaller scale. I love how they even showed the rings around the planets and then a distance. This was a very visually appealing video, and I feel like there are multiple different ways to incorporate this into the classroom. Thanks again!

Dennis, Thank you for sharing your resources. Here is a link to a playlist of video demonstrations on FunScienceDemos about the solar system. These are some demonstration that will also help with the depiction of the size of the planets. These come from the YouTube channel FunScienceDemos that has hundreds of video demonstrations that all align with the Next Generation Science Standards. These can easily be incorporated into the classroom or used to further clarify an idea. Check it out and subscribe as we regularly release new videos! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLat8Jejmdx1sbNMdZh1LIiyl8VqPHDOzo Best,  Dr. George Mehler Ed.D., Temple University

I absolutely love this video. I am currently a student teacher in NC (high school biology) and this would be an excellent addition to my lesson plan on the history of life. We are currently learning about evolution and studying Carl Sagan’s’ idea of compacting the history of the universe into one calendar year. This video would fit nicely into the general concept of compacting large-scale ideas into a more comprehensible scale, and it will be a an excellent technological addition to the lesson after describing what happened billions of years after the big bang. This video also shows students how creative and hands on science can be if you apply yourself. Thank you!

Thank you for the video! I am a student teacher and we were actually talking about teaching the scale of the solar system in class a few weeks ago.  This will definitely be a helpful resource to use in my future classroom! :) 

How to teach the solar system to PreK?

Thank you for sharing the video! It was extremely helpful! I recently just taught a lesson on the distance Earth is from the Sun to scale and I think this would be a great video to show a scale model of the solar system. I've never thought about how misleading the pictures can be on websites and I think this video will clarify any misconceptions students may have about how big the planets are and how far away they are from one another. 

Hi Brianna, I need ideas on a group activity on measuring the planets for an 8th grade class.  Do you have any ideas.   Darlene

This is timely (teaching it now) and my kids will love it.