Solar System Bracelet

Constructing a Solar System Bracelet is a GREAT activity for students in grades 6-9. My ninth graders loved it! Explain how to make them, and then allow 40 minutes for construction. To learn how to make the bracelets CLICK HERE - site may not open on some mobile devices.

There is no question that making the bracelet makes students much more interested in the solar system, however (like most diagrams and models of the solar system) the bracelet does not accurately depict the sizes AND distances. So, it's important to set aside time to help students understand these. Start by asking students why it is so difficult to make a model of the solar system that accurately shows BOTH sizes and distances. Next, use the following tips to help them understand.

Reality Check
If you could shrink everything in the galaxy so the Sun is 1 cm in diameter (as it is on the bracelet) . . .
1. Jupiter would have a diameter of 1 mm (.1 cm) and would be 18 feet 4 inches away!
2. Earth would be the size of a speck of dust and would be 5 feet 4 inches away!
3. Alpha Centauri would be 180 miles away!
4. Betelgeuse would be over 12 feet in diameter!
5. Go to BUILD A SOLAR SYSTEM web site and enter 10 mm for the diameter of the Sun to learn about other sizes and distances. If you could shrink everything so that the Earth is ~4 mm in diameter (as it is on the bracelet), enter 450 mm for the Sun's diameter to find out how big and far away things would be.
6. Students often want to whether or not the planets will ever line up. The answer is "no". To see the current position of the planets, go to the SOLAR SYSTEM VIEWER web site. Enter "800-1000" for the "size", and then select "update".
7. For another fun interactive, check out the SOLAR SYSTEM VISUALIZER.
This will be the last post of the school year. Have a great summer! To view a convenient list of all the resources that have been posted on this "Earth Science Guy" blog site, CLICK HERE.

Interactive Eclipse Animation

Check out this slick tool from McGraw-Hill. CLICK HERE to try it out. Be sure to check out the "Exercises".

To view NASA's Eclipse site, CLICK HERE.

Rock Cycle Tutorial

The Geological Society of London provides this simple, effective review of the rock cycle. CLICK HERE to see it.

How "The Greatest Image Ever" was made

The Hubble Deep Field (2:24)

World's Largest Erratic is Part of Foothills Erratic Train

The Okotoks Erratic (a.k.a. Big Rock) is the world's largest known glacial erratic. This huge piece(s) of quartzite sits on the Alberta prairie about 11 miles south of Calgary.

What's more interesting is that Big Rock is part of a long line of erratics strewn from Jasper National Park into northern Montana (see map below). Geologists believe the rocks were part of a rockslide that fell onto a glacier in the Tonquin Valley of Jasper Park and were carried by ice southward along the mountains. Apparently glaciers flowing from the Canadian Rockies out onto the prairie were turned southward as they converged with the Laurentide Ice Sheet (map). The band of rocks is know as the Foothills Erratics Train. To learn more about the Okotoks Erratic and read the Blackfoot story of how it broke into two pieces, CLICK HERE.

A similar (but much smaller) line of erratics, called the Snake Butte Boulder Train (map), can be found in north-central Montana on the Ft. Belknap Reservation (photo). To view a convenient list of all the resources that have been posted on this "Earth Science Guy" blog site, CLICK HERE.

Fifty Years from Now . . . Ending Overfishing

Ending Overfishing from OCEAN2012 on Vimeo.

This video was produced by Oceans2012.

To view a convenient list of all the resources that have been posted on this "Earth Science Guy" blog site, CLICK HERE.

Rivers Like Shortcuts Too!

This Google Earth image shows several oxbow lakes near Kalispell, Montana. Watch this animation to see how a slow-moving, meandering river carves a broad valley over thousands of years. Be sure to click on the inset at the end of the animation to watch a second animation that shows how an oxbow lake forms. To learn more about the formation of oxbow lakes, CLICK HERE.