Forums

What would be a good approach in introducing space science to children without confusing them?

Dear Jose,

Start with what your students already know, and expand outward. Make sure they know that they (we all) live on Earth, and that Earth is a planet that orbits the Sun, and the Sun is a star. The moon orbits the Earth. Those are things they can see, and have daily experience with. Then expand outward, talking about Earth being one of many planets that orbit the Sun, and show them pictures of the other planets. Talk a little bit about each planet and what makes it special:

Mercury is closest to the Sun, and orbits the Sun quickly.

Venus is the hottest planet even though it isn't the closest to the Sun, because its thick atmosphere traps the Sun's heat like a blanket.

Earth has land and oceans. Water makes life on Earth possible.

Mars is red, rusty, dusty, and cold. It's the only planet inhabited entirely by robots. (We sent them there to explore Mars for us.)

The asteroid belt is between Mars and Jupiter, and it's made of rocky and metallic asteroids.

Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar System. It has 92 moons that have been discovered so far, and it's a big ball of gas.

Saturn has beautiful rings, and its density is so low that it would float in a bathtub.

Uranus is tilted on its side and it's a blue-green color.

Neptune is blue, and has the fastest winds in the solar system.

Pluto is a dwarf planet. There are other dward planets in our solar system, too.

When you look out at the night sky, every star might be the center of its own planetary system, and over 5,000 exoplanets have been found so far, orbiting stars beyond our solar system, and more are being discovered all the time by astronomers who use telescopes.

Show as many pictures as possible.

Ask questions, engage the students in discussion, and clear up any misconceptions they might have.

When in doubt, feel free to reach out to get your students' questions answered.

A great resource for information about the solar system is https://solarsystem.nasa.gov You can click on the orbiting planets at the top of the page to see computer simulations of each planet up close.

I hope this helps!

Best wishes,
Rachel

Rachel Zimmerman Brachman

Solar System, Exoplanets, and Technology Public Engagement Specialist

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

[email protected]

A lot of people assume we can't teach about astronomy during the day since you can't look up in the sky and see space objects.  But, you could take the kids outside and view the Moon.  Take the kids on a fieldtrip to look at the sky.  You could set up to indirectly look at the sun. There are a couple of recorded webinars that NSTA did. One of the more recent ones covered the double hitter solar eclipses in October 2023 and April 8, 2024.  They show indirect methods to safely view the sun.  (ie projection method, etc.). 

NSTA has some published books on how to do this as well. 

Here is one link that could get you started: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/static/img/k-12-formal-education/Science_&_Children_Mar2017_Preparing_for_the_Eclipse.pdf