Introduction

If you could live on any planet (besides earth) which one would it be?

Is it even possible to have life on other planets?

What does a planet need in order to be livable?

There is only one way to find out and that is to learn all about the planets in an attempt to make an educated guess about the possibility of life somewhere other than earth!

About the Solar System

The Solar System is made of planets that orbit the sun, as well as moons, comets, asteroids, minor planets, and dust and gas. Everything in the Solar System orbits or revolves around the Sun. The orbits are not round, they are elliptical which is more of an egg-shaped.


The first four planets (the four closest to the sun) are known as the inner planets. These planets include Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. These planets are made mostly of rock. The next five planets (the five further away from the sun) are known as the outer planets.



These planets include Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune are known as the gas giants because they are made mostly of gases. Pluto is coated with ice. Pluto is recently been classified as a dwarf planet and not a real planet.

Off We Go

First you have to choose what facts you want to gather (remember you are trying to decided whether or not life could survive on the planet or not).

Here are five facts that everyone should look for.
1. How long does it take for the planet to complete one rotation? (Remember this is 1 day for earth)
2. How long does it take for the planet to orbit the sun once? (Remember this is 1 year for earth)
3. What is the atmosphere made up of?
4. What is the distance from the planet to the sun?
5. Does the planet have a water source?

Along with these five facts, you and you should choose five more facts that you think are important and/or interesting. I recommend facts that go along with the ones that have provided, for instance the size of the planet would help you figure out if it has room to build on. However, you do not have to use that, for you are being asked to choose five facts that you find important. Ones that would allow you to consider aspects of human life. If this part seems confusing feel free to discuss with your classmates what they believe would be important facts to know before beginning life on a new planet. But in the end its up to you to decide what you need to know. The only rule is that you collect the same 10 facts about every planet. This will make comparing them a lot easier. I also recommend organizing the facts into a chart format. Some ideas to organize your information are: a grid format (where you list the names of the planets across the top and the questions your researched down the side and fill the information in), or a concept map that starts with the questions and has the different plants branching off, or even just list format where each question is looked at separately. Whatever way makes sense to you and it doesn't have to be one of the suggested ones, however you choose to record your information is up to you.

*One way to compare the different planets to decide if they are capable of life is to compare them to Earth. It is recommended that you gather data for Earth as well as the other plants for this purpose. However, it is ultimately up to you.

Kids Astronomy . Com

One of the Websites you will be using to complete your quest is Kids Astronomy . Com, you will be able to choose the link to each of the planets you want to look at and begin your research.

Mercury:

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/mercury.htm

Venus:

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/venus.htm

Earth:

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/earth.htm

Mars:

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/mars.htm

Jupiter:

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/jupiter.htm


Saturn:

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/saturn.htm

Uranus:

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/uranus.htm

Neptune:

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/neptune.htm

Pluto:

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/pluto.htm

Windows to the Universe . Com

Another website that can be used to research the planets is Window to the Universe. This website can be used to gather an information that Kids Astronomy could not seem to provide. Also, it can be used to check your data and find more interesting facts. The quest recommends 10 facts, however the more facts the better your comparison of the planets will be.

Mercury:

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mercury/mercury.html

Venus:

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/venus/venus.html

Earth:

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/earth.html

Mars:

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mars/mars.html


Jupiter:

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/jupiter/jupiter.html

Saturn:

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/saturn/saturn.html

Uranus:

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/uranus/uranus.html


Neptune:

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/neptune/neptune.html

Pluto:

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/pluto/pluto.html

It's up to you

Now that you have gathered all of your information about the planets, it is up to you to decide if any of them are capable of supporting life. If you believe that one or more of the planets is capable of this task then it is up to you to prove your case. There is no right or wrong answer to this question, only hard evidence.

Share with Us

Now that you have reached a conclusion, it's time to share it with the group. For this you need to create some sort of visual aid that represents your planet of choice. The visual aide should also include some of the evidence you used to draw your conclusion. You then need to prepare a 1-2 minute speech/ presentation to present your findings. After your 1-2 minutes your classmates will have 1 minute to ask questions. Make sure you are strong in your decision and that you know the facts so that when presenting you would feel comfortable defending your decision if need be.

Teacher Guide

1. This was made intended for 5th and 6th grade students.

2. The learning goals for the students is to learn about the different planets in the solar system. The information the students collect will provide them with information about the individual planets as well as the ability to compare them. With this I want the students to learn how to collect and gather data. How to organize that data and use it to help them make educated guesses. This quest is designed with a right or wrong answer it is designed to the children investing and drawing conclusions.

3. The skills in which the children need to have are to be able to maneuver around websites and to collect data. The links to the individual planets are provided so it is more of a point and click for those who don't feel comfortable maneuvering around the website. Also, they need to have the ability to make chart or some way to organize the the gathered information. Lastly, critical thinking skills in order to make conclusions from there data.

4. I would say that the computer portion of this quest could be completed within an hour or so.

5. When it comes to grading a few or the things I would look for are:
Did they collect at least 10 (the five provided plus the five they generated) relevant comparable facts for each of the planets? Did they organize their gathered information in a well thought out and easily understood manner?
Did they use the facts they collected to make an educated guess/ decision about whether or not life could exist on other planets (As I said before this was not set up with a right or wrong answer, the point is for the students to learn to make educated guesses, so as long as they came to conclusion and have evidence to back it up then they did well).
Does the evidence they are using accurately support their decision?
Did they complete a visual aid?
Did they present their decision/argument in a clear and informative way?
How did they respond to questions and concerns posed by their classmates?

The defining lines for ok, good, and great should fall within your judgement for your students and the twist that you put on the quest. For me if they generated solid/ relevant questions, organized them in an understandable manner, drew a conclusion that they could support with evidence, created an appropriate visual aid and presented their decision with confidence they they did great. If they had the general idea but struggled though parts then they did good and if they completed the assignment but their information seemed irrelevant and their decision didn't have a whole lot of supportive evidence then they did ok.