All the activities on this page are instrumental in teaching the following National Science Education Standards:

• The earth is the third planet from the sun in a system that includes the moon, the sun, eight other planets and their moons, and smaller objects, such as asteroids and comets. [5-8]
  
• Most objects in the solar systems are in regular and predictable motion. those motions explain such phenomena as the day, the year, phases of the moon, and eclipses. [5-8]
  
• Gravity is the force that keeps planets in orbit around the sun and governs the rest of the motion in the solar system.... [5-8]

Kepler Star Wheels - One of the "Uncle Al's Starwheels" series of planispheres, inexpensive star maps, adjustable for any time of night in any month of the year. There are interchangeable star wheel disks designed to help people find constellations with a "Basic Constellations" wheel, locate objects with a "Coordinates Wheel" and, with the "Kepler Wheel" to find the location of the Kepler target field of view as well as naked eye stars known to have exoplanets visible from the northern hemisphere. These Star Wheels are based on the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) Sky Challenger star wheels that have even more star wheels: a set of 6, available at the LHS store.

Transit Tracks — Using a model of a planet transiting a star, students learn what a transit is, under what conditions a transit may be seen, and what effects a planet’s size and distance from its star have on transit behavior. They interpret graphs of brightness vs time to deduce characteristics of a star-planet system. This activity was developed for an educational poster and as an investigation for a newly revised edition of the Planetary Science course in the middle school series of Full Option Science System (FOSS).

Detecting Planet Transits (PDF-1.7 Mb 2008) This is part of the GEMS Space Science Sequence for grades 6–8 (Sessions 4.5 andf 4.6) published in 2008. Students model NASA's Kepler mission observations of planetary transits (a planet moving in front of a star) by standing in a circle with model star (light bulb) in the center, and observing, through rolled up paper viewing tubes, a marble planet orbiting the star.

Human Orrery (PDF-788 Kb 2008) This is also part of the GEMS Space Science Sequence for grades 6–8 (Session 3.10) published in 2008. Students lay out and act out a kinesthetic model of the solar system in 3 dimensions: 2 of space and one of time.

Habitable Planets (for Grades 5-8; PDF-350 Kb, Updated Dec 23, 2004)—This activity encourages a discussion about what makes a planet habitable. Students learn that for a planet to support life like we find on Earth, it must have: (a) the right temperature range for there to be liquid water, and (b) the right size range to be able to have suitable atmosphere.

Morning Star and Evening Star (for Grades 3-8; PDF; 453kb) - This activity will help your students to see why Venus appears to us sometimes as the morning "star" and sometimes as the evening"star." This is one of the classroom activities from the Lawrence Hall of Science's PASS series, Volume 11: Astronomy of the Americas.