Our Solar System

TRFN Homework Help:  Planets

• Homework Help page
• Copyright 1996-98, Three Rivers Free-Net, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.
• The purpose of this site is to assist students with their Science homework.
• This page provides students with information about the solar system to assist them in their homework.  The links on this site are for various age students, from beginning reading to more advanced students.  The web site includes links to the solar system in general, to specific planets, and to extra-solar planets.  Although the site is geared to students, teachers can also use it to look up lesson plan ideas or parents can enhance their knowledge about what their child is learning.
• The TRFN Homework Help website is very comprehensive, and is a great source of information for students.  The site is made by a reliable source, The Three Rivers Free-Net, which is part of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.  This site also has some negative qualities.  It was last updated December 3, 1998, which for a website is quite out-dated.  The site doesn’t contain information about the solar system in itself but rather links to other sites.  Therefore, some of the links no longer work.  Because the sources in this site are for various grade levels, young children may need assistance finding a site that is age appropriate.

Amazing Space

• Projects On-line
• Material credited to STScI on this site was created, authored, and/or prepared for NASA under Contract NAS5-26555. No copyright date was provided.
• The pupose of this site is education students about the solar system.
• This site has been designed primarily for classroom use, but it is available to anyone who wishes to use it.  The website is made up of web-based activities that are related to the solar system.  Activities include collecting solar system trading cards while learning about objects that make up the solar system and designing one’s own comet.  This website is a useful resource for teachers to use in the classroom to enrich her/his students’ learning.  The site includes a section titled teacher page that states the standards the various activities are based on, provides lesson plans, and gives other useful information for teachers.  Students can use the activities on this site inside and outside the classroom to further their learning in an enjoyable way.
• "Amazing Space" is a very reliable resource, having been created under NASA.  The purpose of the site is to inform the viewer rather than to sell a product.  It is up-to-date, with the last update being April 4, 2001.  All of the links work appropriately, the layout of the site is easy to follow, and the site loads fairly quickly.  The information on this site is developmentally appropriate for Elementary School students, including those in the primary grades.
• This is an excellent source to use in a hands-on learning centered classroom.

Eyewitness Children’s Encyclopedia:  Science Links:  Space and Time

Reference Tools (encyclopedia)

Dorling Kindersley, 1997 Dorling Kindersley Ltd London and New York

This site's purpose is to assist students in finding good resources abou the solar system.

Although an encyclopedia, this website actually is made up of links that transport the user to other websites related to the solar system.  The links this site provides lead to websites rich in animation, pictures, and/or facts.  Students, teachers, and parents can use this website to find information, whether they are completing or creating assignments or simply researching the solar system for knowledge-sake.

This website is appropriate for both younger and older students.  The older students can read the abundant amount of information, while the students in primary grades can investigate the links that direct them to age-appropriate websites and to solar system movies.  The website is very simple, which makes it easy for younger students to navigate.  The creator of this website, Dorling Kindersley, is an international publishing company that specializes in the creation of information books, interactive software, TV programs, and online resources for children and adults.  Although Dorling Kindersley is a profit organization, the purpose of this website is not to sell but to inform.  The links given on this site contain accurate and useful information.

Solar System Hotlist

• Webliography
• Author:  Linda Mosbacker- Email linda.mosbacker@slc.k12.ut.us, (no date provided)
• The purpose of this site is to provide students, teachers, and parents with links about the solar system.
• This page simply provides many links about the solar system that students and teachers can explore.  The links are divided into resources for teachers and resources for students.  The student links include web-activities, pictures, and lots of information.  The teacher links include lesson plans, radio broadcasts, and project ideas.
• The links on this page work properly.  The sources the user is directed to provide an abundant amount of accurate information.  Another beneficial aspect of this hotlist is that it lists resources that are interesting for the student and include interactive activities.  This web page is an extension of a site created by the Utah Education Network: a nonprofit organization (as indicated by the extension ".org".) The information given does not appear to have a bias, but is simply a list of helpful links for students and teachers.

Zoom Astronomy

• Content Resources
• 1998 - 2001 EnchantedLearning.com
• The purpose of this web site is to enrich student's knowledge about the solar system.
• "Zoom Astronomy" contains a variety of information about the solar system that students can use and investigate. In addition, teachers can use the classroom activity ideas, such as quizzes, that this site provides.  Students can learn abundant information about the solar system or about individual planets in the solar system.  "Zoom Astronomy" provides a tutorial about the solar system for students who need additional clarification.  The site also includes miscellaneous space topics, such as information about dogs in space.  In addition, this website contains an illustrated astronomy dictionary and a search engine.  The website is structured to start on a basic level for the younger students, and then progress to more advanced levels as the student desires.  This is a great website for teachers to use in the classroom.  Students can enrich the knowledge they’ve gained in class with the activities this site provides.
• This is a very comprehensive website and yet it is easy to search.  The site covers a large range of subtopics under the topic of the solar system.  Information from this site is accurate and interesting.  The information is basic enough for primary grade students, but there is also advanced information provided for older students.  The page is copyrighted by a software company titled, "Enchanted Learning."  Although this is a for-profit company, the objective of this website is to educate the user and not to sell a product.

Welcome to StarChild:  A Learning Center for Young Astronomers

• Content Resource
• The StarChild site is a service of the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), Dr. Nicholas E. White (Director), within the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics (LHEA) at NASA/ GSFC.
• The purpose of this site is to provide students with valuable information and interactive learning about the solar system.
• The "StarChild" website is divided into two levels.  Level one is the appropriate level for K-2 students.  Even pre-literate students will find this website very beneficial, because the student has the option of having the site "read" the words aloud.  The website gives information to young students in ways they can understand.  More challenging words are defined for the students, so the student’s vocabulary is expanded as they learn about the solar system.  In addition to giving information, the website provides activities, such as "planet tac toe" or "Solar System Shuffle."  This site also has a glossary of terms and a search engine that searches within the StarChild website.  Teachers may find this website useful to use in the classroom as an enrichment to the information they have given their students.
• One of the best aspects of this website is that it is developmentally appropriate for young students.  Both Level One and Level Two of this site contain high-quality information.  This information comes from a reliable source, NASA, so it is accurate and up-to-date.  Another bonus to this site is that it can be viewed in a variety of languages.  The only difficulty I encountered on StarChild is that the homepage loads rather slow, although subsequent pages load quickly.  This website is easy to navigate, and quite comprehensive.  The links to other sites and to pages within this website work properly.  The site does not contain any advertisements, but rather, its sole purpose is to provide accurate and up-to-date information to students.

Solar System Exploration

• Internet Teaching Tool (TrackStar)
• Author: Barbara Davis, Copyright 2001 HPR*TEC
• The purpose of "Solar System Exploration" is to educate students about the solar system.
• The goal of this track is for students to learn basic information about the planets and the sun.  It is targeted to second graders.  The links on this track lead to a lesson plan, a website with other lesson plans, and several other websites about the solar system.  The websites include activities, pictures taken by the Hubble telescope, and a large amount of other information.  The tract’s objectives are as follow:
• TLW name the nine planets in order from the sun
• TLW demonstrate an understanding of "revolution," "rotation," and "orbit."
• TLW give three facts about each of the planets.
• TLW compare/contrast the planets.
• TLW draw a representation of the solar system.
• The student accomplishes these objectives as he/she investigates the provided websites.  Teachers could use this track in the classroom, or students could use it to direct them to find information about the solar system.
• This track is fairly recent, having been last modified February 10, 2001.  All of the links to the websites work, but the link to the rubric does not.  The links that the author provides lead to websites by reliable authors such as ERIC and NASA.  The websites are interesting and factual.  In addition, this track is easy to navigate and understand.

Planet Research

• Internet Teaching Tools (TrackStar)
• Author:  Margy Keefe, Copyright 2001 HPR*TEC
• The purpose of "Planet Research" is to educate students abou the solar system.
• The focus of this track appears to be on activities that involve second grade students in learning about the planets, although the author did not mention her objectives.  The links in this track include "The Nine Planets," "StarChild," and "Solar System Coloring Book."  One of the links leads the user to a WebQuest about the planets.  Similar to the previously mentioned track, teachers can use "Planet Research" in the classroom to enrich their student’s learning.
• Links on this track are few in number, but they all work properly and lead to reliable resources.  Most of the links lead to sites created by researching groups such as the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), The Regents of the University of Michigan, and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, and NASA.  "The Nine Planets" is frequently mentioned in other tracks or websites but is a personal web page.  This link was last modified on April 24, 2001, so it has very recently been updated.  This very likely is one of the reasons that all the links work correctly.

All Spaced Out

• Lesson Plan
• Author:  Dawn Ware, no copyright information given
• The purpose of this web site is to provide teachers with instruction ideas to use in the classroom.
• This lesson plan was created for students in first to third grades.  It covers the subject areas Language Arts and Science.  The objective of the lesson plan is for students to be able to "identify and name all planets of the solar system, create a mobile display of the solar system, and write a group report of a planet in our solar system."  The lesson plan requires students to view a particular website about the solar system.  It also has them research the Internet and other resources and use the information they acquire to write a paper.  The lesson plan suggests that teachers have the students create a slide show using a computer program such as HyperStudio.  Teachers can use this lesson plan in their classes by adapting it to fit the needs and grade level of their students.
• "All Spaced Out" lesson plan is a part of a website made by the Louisiana Challenge Grant-a program to ensure that all Louisiana students become technologically literate.  The program is funded by the National Science Foundation, BESE, Goals 2000/LEARN, and the U.S. Department of Education.  As with all the lesson plans on this website, this lesson plan was authored by a Louisiana teacher and was field-tested in Louisiana classrooms.  Therefore, the lesson plan has come from a reliable source and has been tested for its practicability.  On the downside, this web page is not extensive, and the links that the teacher provides in this lesson plan do not work properly.  The user can still find most of the links by choosing to view the new, updated link when the "Page cannot be found" screen appears.  Despite these problems, this lesson plan is a valuable resource for teachers and can easily be implemented into the teacher’s instruction.

Bringing the Solar System to Life

• Lesson Plans
• Author:  Sally Spooner; OFCN's Academy Curricular Exchange; no copyright information
• The purpose of this web site is to provide teachers with instruction ideas that they can use in their classrooms.
• This lesson plan is one among many lesson plans on the Curricular Exchange website.  "Bringing the Solar System to Life" is geared toward second and third graders.  The goal of the lesson plan is to help students understand the terms "rotation" and "revolution" in the context of the planets.  The objectives of this lesson plan, as stated by the teacher, are for students to:
• Make models to represent the planets in comparative size.
• Use their models to demonstrate revolution and rotation of the planets around the sun.
• Give definitions of "revolution", "rotation", and "orbit".
• A teacher at Sunset Elementary School in Cody, Wyoming created this lesson plan.  The organization that sponsors this website is a nonprofit organization (as indicated by ".org").  The website doesn’t set requirements for the lesson plans that it posts.  Therefore, the quality of the lesson plans may not be optimal.  This particular lesson plan, though, gives sound information and is developmentally appropriate for the target age group.  This web page/lesson plan does not integrate technology in the instruction, nor does it provide links to additional resources on the Internet.  On the other hard, the lesson plan is creative, and involves physical activity to help the children understand abstract concepts.