Developing Size & Distance Relationships between

With the NRC’s recently released framework, “the Earth’s place in the universe” is listed as a core idea, calling for middle school students to have mastery of this concept. To help teach th... See More

With the NRC’s recently released framework, “the Earth’s place in the universe” is listed as a core idea, calling for middle school students to have mastery of this concept. To help teach this difficult concept, this article provides a clear sequence of events to aid teachers. It begins by offering several websites for the student’s to use to gather actual data and images. Using middle school math and comparing second century CE astronomer Ptolemy’s observations, the distance between the Earth and the moon is explored (using telescopic investigations (get from website), classroom explorations, and outdoor observations). Next comes the relationship of size and distance relating to the Sun and planets. (This section was not as well developed as the Earth and moon relationship). The final step was to explore the galaxy, again not as well developed as the first section. This would definitely be a way for the teacher to teach this core concept. Although, the sequencing of events and activities is clear, the implementation and time frame issues were not addressed and may pose problems for the individual classroom teacher, .