Space Garden Designs

In this unit, our objectives were to construct models that demonstrate the relationship of the Sun, Earth, and Moon, including orbits and positions; and identify the planets in Earth’s solar system and their position in relation to the Sun.

The students were asked to create a garden plan that models our solar system, which would be an extension off of our current learning garden. They needed to represent the planets using a variety of garden items, while keeping in mind the sizes and relative locations. Afterwards, they shared their blueprints of their designs with other classmates.

After exploring with some solar system activities and completing some research with the students, the students began planning their designs for their space gardens. At this time, I wanted to begin creating a model with the students that would be beneficial in creating their new gardens. I also wanted to use this interactive model to clear up any common third grade misconceptions about the solar system. Some of these misconceptions are that the planets are the same size and that they all are perfectly aligned with each other. Another requirement was to clearly distinguish a rotation versus revolution in the model.

From the start, I created the orbital paths and brought in the sun (exercise ball).  I asked my students to come up with other objects or models that could represent the planets and earth’s moon. They listed other objects and then assigned each of those objects to a planet, using appropriate size comparisons. Then, some of the students brought in the objects to hang above each orbital path. However, the strings were scattered around the room above the orbital paths, and not aligned in a straight line. The students followed each orbital path and decided where each model needed to be placed. The model was designed so that each object could be easily taken off when it needed to be. The taped orbital paths allowed students to demonstrate what a revolution and rotation looked like, which was perfect for my kinesthetic learners.

Afterwards, the students were given opportunities to compare the models with the real objects and identify similarities and differences. The model was also used to represent the Moon orbiting the Earth and the Earth orbiting the Sun.