It's true…these fourth graders have been lost in space these last two days! Tuesday we started our planet research. The 'astronauts' have been working in groups of three researching a planet (we also included the sun and pluto in our research). Each group is making a travel brochure for other students in the school…in case they want to vacation there someday! They have included: the temperature, distance from the sun, what the planet is made of, items you may need to bring, and why you should take a trip there!
As the research took off, it was hard to understand how long a planet may take to orbit the sun. That afternoon, every student found out how old they would be on each planet! This was very exciting!! "I'd be 16 on Venus! I would be driving a pink rocket if I lived there!" Some students would have celebrated their birthday on Tuesday if they lived on another planet!
We also figured out, visually, how far away each planet is from the sun. How do you do this? You use a toilet paper squares! The astronauts had to lay out the distance of each planet using squares of toilet paper. Once it was all out, they found out how many miles each square was and then did the math for each planet. "The calculator does not even go that high!!"
Moon phases was another activity! A hard concept for many people. The students were able to see each phase through a flashlight demonstration. Who says an old Christmas bulb can't represent a moon!?
Today, we looked into the Fibonacci spiral. This sparked a lot of interest for the students. Figuring out the sequence was not a problem. Finding graph paper that expanded past the 55 became the issue! Asteroid tag, the life cycle of a star, and more research wrapped up another day in space!
We have one more day in our home galaxies before we fly off to learn about Hubble! What a week!! Here are some more pictures to view!
Building Shuttles
Making a sandwich with zero gravity.
These astronauts had to work as a team as they prepared their shuttle meal. Anything that was set on the table would float up into the air!
The Rookery 
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