• Teach students about basic relationships within our solar system, general characteristics of the Sun and what happens during a solar eclipse.
• Build problem-solving, inquiry, and engineering skills.

In this bundle, students become amateur astronomers who learn how to use a Sunspotter to collect data on sunspots and about the apparent motion of the Sun across the sky using the solar motion model.  Students apply this knowledge in a STEAM activity by building their own version of a pinhole projector to study the properties of the Sun.  Students will use laboratory tools to perform calculations using data for a “fictional” planet along with calculations related to the elliptical orbit of planets around the Sun.

Bundled materials include the Sunspotter, Solar Motion Model, Compass, Clinometer, and Eclipse Viewing Glasses. Add a planetarium model and/or Starry Night interactive software at a discounted cost.
 
NGSS:
HS-ESS1-1 Develop a model based on evidence to illustrate the life span of the sun and the role of nuclear fusion in the sun’s core to release energy that eventually reaches Earth in the form of radiation.
HS-ESS1-4 Use mathematical or computational representations to predict the motion of orbiting objects in the solar system.