A Visitor’s Guide

to the Solar System

Introduction

One of the editors comes running in your office screaming "WE HAVE A JOB!" Your company has been searching for work and this absolutely great opportunity is delivered to you. An intergalactic committee of travel agents has decided that their guidebook to the solar system is hopelessly out of date. Therefore, they will select the best guidebook designed and present this group with the honorary Galaxy Award. Each company will submit their brochure before the panel. The panel will consist of teachers, parents, and students. We want to be prepared for aliens needs. How will your company meet their needs? What an opportunity to be the first company to guide visitors through our solar system! Why is this so special? You will provide the means for good relations with our next visitors and hold the amazing Galaxy Award.

The Task

In order to participate in this opportunity of a lifetime, you will have to become a solar system expert.

To become a solar system expert you will have to:

  • Explore and research information about the solar system.
  • Use the internet to research the information.
  • Visit the school's library or public library to gather books and resources about the solar system.
  • Talk with solar system experts through the internet.
  • Explore software that has information on the solar system.
  • Create a resources folder on your computer to keep a copyof all the information you gather.

To impress the panel of judges:

  1. Your company will put together a brochure that will include all the information that you have learned about the solar system.
  2. Your group will present your brochure to further influence the panel.

Travel Guide:
To help you begin your research for designing your brochure follow these steps.

  1. Check out the resources.
  2. Write your facts, explanations, examples, and ideas into your daily research log. Be sure to date yourlog. For help and information you must go to these links and find answers to the questions in designing your travel guide.
  3. Begin to write up your section in the travel guide.
  4. Design an illustration for your section of the travel guide.
  5. Present your travel guide to an audience.

Resources:

  1. Starchild - a site about space for children sponsored by NASA.
  2. Zoom Astronomy - a site to find some great research.
  3. Amazing Space - site full of information and activities for children about space.
  4. The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Space– website with a story to read.
  5. NASA for Kids - Site developed by National Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA) great research information for Children.

Some Ideas:

Our visiting friends have to navigate into the solar system and find Earth without bumping into things.

  1. In this section of your guidebook. Tell the aliens about any significant natural objects or bodies in the solar system, their relationship to each other, and their locations. Make sure you cover the major elements of the solar system (the sun, planets, and their moons). What else can you include in this section? What is it like out there?
  2. Write a title for this section of the guide. Illustrate it with at least one picture.

Earth is a big tourist attraction in the solar system, so spend more time describing how to find Earth. (Apparently, it moves--what does it move around?)

  1. In this section of the guide, explain how this movement of Earth produces day and night, the seasons, and the length of the year. You could also point out some significant attractions such as a solar eclipse, lunar eclipse, and comets.
  2. Our visitors think that having the temperature change all the time is rather strange, sobe sure to explain to them why that happens.
  3. Write a title for this section of the guide. Illustrate it with at least one picture.

You wouldn't want our alien friends hitting anything made by humans on their trip through the solar system, so you should advise them about any "traffic" among the planets that humans have created.

  1. In this section of the guide, write about any objects man made sent out into space. Are there any space exploration projects going on now? Are there any satellites in space that they need to avoid?
  2. Make sure to find out about any of our current space exploration projects and include these in your travel guide section.
  3. Write a title for this section of the guide. Illustrate it with at least one picture.

Our visitors have never been on a planet with this type of atmosphere. They don't understand this day/night thing and why it changes what you can see in the sky.

  1. In your section of the guide, write what you can see from Earth looking at the sky both during the day and at night. Describe what you see that moves. Make sure you describe the contents of the daytime (sun, moon, some planets) and the nighttime sky (moon, planets, stars, constellations). Explain why these celestial bodies move.
  2. Write a title for this section of the guide. Illustrate it with at least one picture.