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Hello Cristina, Earth and Space science is usually effectively taught by using models. Even having the children model. For example, having the students stand a certain amount of feet apart to show the distance of the planets between each other, and the sun.

Hello Cristina, I think a good way to teach earth and space science is providing visuals for the students and having hands-on activities so they are able to interact with each other. An example of an activity is the layer of the earth, basically you will count out circles in the colors red, black, yellow, orange and blue. the blue is the earth, the yellow is the inner core, the orange is the outer core, the red is the mantle, and the white is the mantle.

Hi Cristina, teaching about Earth and Space is very intresting the instent you pull up the subject, and making it fun makes it a lot more intresting then what it already is. Activities that can be used are creating planet earth surface, for example land, water, deserts grass, contents of the whole world. by simpliy providing the students with the material and then give them the chance of putting it together, before they  have been tought about the subject of course. and for space you can do the same process but include the sky, stars, all planets and also direct them so they can arrange the planets in order and at the same time learn the pattern.

Hi Cristina, I am a pre-service teacher attending Wartburg College and I have created a hands-on lesson that could be brought into a deep level of teaching earth and space science. I created a solar system model out of different-sized foam balls and acrylic paints and used simple classroom items to put the model together in order. This is something students could do as a way to get a deeper understanding of what the planets actually look like. Through my lesson, I provided the idea that students could be given groups to research a certain planet in our solar system, and then they could create the model of the assigned planet. After their model was created, all models would be placed together, in order, as the solar system. Discussions could be conducted throughout the process of this hands-on activity, and literacy could be brought in as well. There are many books for different grade levels that are aimed towards the solar system and how it's organized that could bring cross-curricular ideas and connections into this lesson. I have not yet taught this in a classroom setting, but from completing the model myself, I learned more about each planet than I had before!

Hi Cristina,

The activity that I loved implicating in the lesson is doing projects. I allow students to pick out planets they would like to model/make and as well collect information. This is a fun activity that I know my students loved and the parents loved doing it with them.

Hi, I believe that it is important to incorporate hands on activities when teaching Earth and Space Science, such as creating a group project about the solar system. 

Cristina,

This is a very great question with tons of possibilities. I would say the biggest adivce I can give you is to use a lot of models in class so students can get a visual of what it is that they are learning. If students can picture in their heads what they are working with they will learn the material better. For example, in a field expereince class I was a part of this year for 7th grade, all the students learned what solar and lunar eclipses were by forming their own models with foam balls and sticks. This was a great hands-on learning STEAM actvivty that the students enjoyed and developed a lot of their own questions about the topic. Another activity that could be used in the class is drawing out different patterns in the sky. When I was in 6th grade my teacher had us go outside and simply draw the sky and depict out different aspects that we notice about it. This could be a good activity to do with students when they are learning about earth's place in the universe. Did you have any other fun activity ideas for students you have came up with or learned? What type of activities do you beleive students get the most out of?

Luke

Hi Andrew,

After perusing all the sites and information in your post I am more than fairly impressed. Thank you,  John Noe