Solar System Simulation Activity

This activity introduces children to simulations - modelling or acting out real-world, or maybe imaginary, situations. Linking to the teaching of space, it asks what factors need to be considered when simulating the solar system. Out of these, the children then decide what the most important things to include in...

The Transit Method

In this activity, developed by the Institute of Physics, students use a lamp and polystyrene balls to model how astronomers detect exoplanets using the transit method. After completing this activity, students should: *Understand that the transit of a planet in front of its star temporarily reduces the star’s...

Planet Density

In this activity developed by the Institute of Physics, students use iron and sand to model the composition of the Earth and estimate what fraction of the Earth is occupied by its iron core. After completing this activity, students should be able to: *Measure mass and volume. *Calculate density from mass and volume...

The Habitable Zone

In this activity developed by the Institute of Physics, students investigate how temperature changes with distance from a heat source and relate this to planetary temperatures. After completing this activity, students should be able to:

*Understand that the temperature of a planet depends on its distance...

Day and Night, Seasons

In this activity developed by the Institute of Physics, students model the motion of a planet around a star and investigate how day and night and seasons may be different on other planets. Working in pairs or small groups, students demonstrate night and day and seasons to each other. They can then go on to model...

Exoplanet atmospheres

In this activity developed by the Institute of Physics, students use simple diffraction gratings to observe the spectra from different sources, and deduce how scientists can work out which chemicals are present in an exoplanet’s atmosphere. When an exoplanet passes in front of its star, some of the starlight is...

Seeing Pink Elephants

This resource will let students see pink elephants.

When the human eye is exposed to one colour for a relatively long period of time, the cone cells will become saturated with that colour. Once the eye is exposed to a broad range of colours again, the brain will pick up weaker signals from that colour and...

Space Suit Science

This teaching resource is presented in four stages:

Stage One - Finding out about the problem. In stage one pupils find out more about spacesuits, how they work and why people need them to survive. They also find out more about the challenge to test a series of materials to...

Gravity

Within this lesson, students will learn about the classical force of gravity, put forward by Newton. They will learn the difference between mass and weight, the equation that relates the two and perform an investigation into the strength of gravity on Earth. Students will then use a 3D model of space to better...

Exoplanets

In this lesson, students will be introduced to the advantages of big telescopes and the use of telescopes to do astronomy across the whole electromagnetic spectrum. They will then explore the transit method of detecting exoplanets (either practically, or using real astronomical data) and use mathematics to...