SOLAR SYSTEM WORKSHOP – Planetarium
1 hour 45 minutes – $6.50/ student
Curriculum Target Grade: 6
This program includes a planetarium show and a hands-on workshop. Each planet is explored up close, with a focus on how humans have explored many worlds using probes and satellites – many of them with technology developed in Canada. In the workshop, students map out a portion of an imaginary planet using hands-on “remote sensing” techniques. Like a jigsaw puzzle, each map portion comes together on a board to form a large region of the imaginary planet. Designed specifically to support the Grade 6 “Exploring the Solar System” cluster of the Manitoba Science Curriculum.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
6-4-01 Use appropriate vocabulary related to their investigations of Earth and space.
Include: astronauts, communication and remote sensing satellites, solar system, inner and outer planets, asteroid belt, mass, weight, points of reference, apparent movement, celestial objects, astrology, astronomy, rotation, revolution, axis, moon phases, eclipses
6-4-04 Investigate past and present space research programs involving astronauts, and explain the contributions to scientific knowledge.
6-4-06 Identify technological devices placed in space that help humans learn more about the Earth and communicate more efficiently.
6-4-08 Recognize that the Sun is the centre of the solar system and it is the source of energy for life on Earth.
6-4-09 Identify the planets in the solar system and describe their size relative to the Earth and their position relative to the Sun.
6-4-10 Classify planets as inner or outer planets, based on their position relative to the asteroid belt, and describe characteristics of each type.
6-4-12 Explain, using models and simulations, how the Earth’s rotation causes the cycle of day and night, and how the Earth’s tilt of axis and revolution cause the yearly cycle of seasons.
6-4-14 Explain how the relative positions of the Earth, moon, and Sun are responsible for moon phases and eclipses.
6-4-15 Identify points of reference in the night sky and recognize that the apparent movement of celestial objects is regular, predictable, and related to the Earth’s rotation and revolution.
