Scaling Our Solar System is a fun and interactive lesson takes students on a journey in both size and distance between the sun and planets in our Solar System. Student teams construct the 8 planets from PlayDOH, to the same scale as the distances between them, and then take their mm size planets outside to create a linear orbital radius model.

This video journey runs us backward, tracing the linear scale of the distances between the planets, based on a 10 inch diameter balloon "sun." Students (and teachers, too!) are always astounded to see the comparison of the sizes and distances in completing this lesson.

On this scale, the relative sizes (in mm) and distances (in feet) from the sun (shown below) span a distance of over half a mile!

Mercury; 0.8 mm, 34 feet
Venus; 2.2 mm, 64 feet
Earth; 2.3 mm, 90 feet
Mars; 1.2 mm, 136 feet
Jupiter26 mm, 465 feet
Saturn; 21.2 mm, 854 feet
Uranus; 8.5 mm, 1720 feet
Neptune; 8.2 mm, 2700 feet

Educators can access the complete Scaling Our Solar System lesson and supporting materials here, https://bit.ly/3EaCY0K. Data sheets are provided in both English and metric units.

Grade 7-12 students can register for SMAP here, https://bit.ly/3oTih5d.

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