2. Gravity
Tiffany loved
looking up at the
sky at night to see
the stars. She
wanted more than
anything to go up
there and explore.
However, gravity
was a force that
just kept pulling
her to the ground.
Wile Coyote learned the hard way that gravity is force that
pulls you down and does not allow you to walk on air.
Scientists have found that rocket ships are
one way to defy gravity. For your first activity,
lets divide into two groups and create a
model rocket to defy gravity and help Tiffany
get off the ground.
3. Defying Gravity
Group One Rocket Design Group Two Rocket Design
Tiffany will be using group ones design
because it went two feet higher in the
air than group two’s.
4. Atmosphere
Gravity not only keeps us
held to the ground, but it
also causes planets to orbit
the Sun and the Moon to
orbit Earth. Just getting off
the ground is not enough.
Now that Tiffany has a
rocket that she can blast
off in, what next? Well for
starters, she has to go
through the Earth’s
atmosphere before she can
get into outer space. This is
a visible layer of gas that
surrounds the earth.
Can you see the layer of gas in this
picture? For our next activity, we will be
doing an experiment to demonstrate how
an atmosphere is created.
5. Atmosphere Experiment
This experiment requires several
pillows, ideally the same in size, shape
and thickness. Set one pillow on a flat
surface and measure its height. Stack
another pillow on top of it and
measure the two together. Repeat this
for several pillows, recording each
combined height. Once you finish
stacking, measure the height of the
bottom pillow and note how much it
has compressed. An atmosphere
works in a similar way. Think of the
atmosphere as the pillow on the
bottom and the core of the earth as
the pillow on the top. Just like the
pillow on the top, the earth’s core has
a stronger gravity to it pulling it.
Gravity has reduced
the size of the
bottom pillows, but
the pillows on top
have not changed
The earth’s
atmosphere is not
as effected by
gravity as the
earth’s core is
6. Orbit
• Once Tiffany got through
the earth’s atmosphere, she
was able to orbit around the
sun by following the same
path that the earth takes.
That is, she did a circle
around the sun.
For our next project, let’s figure out how
long it took Tiffany to orbit the sun.
7. This picture shows
the Earth going
around the sun in
March, June,
September and
December. How
long do you think it
took Tiffany to orbit
the sun one time.
8. Planets
• After orbiting the sun for one full
year, Tiffany ventured out to see
the rest of the planets. Did you
know that each planets orbit
around a star the same way that
earth orbits our sun? What star
does the other planets around us
orbit? Let’s watch a short video to
find out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=z8aBZZnv6y8&feature=player_
detailpage. As a class, let’s create
a model of our planets orbiting
the sun. Divide into nine groups,
determine what your planet looks
like and how long it takes to orbit
the sun. We will make the model
in class together.
9. Planets Orbiting the Sun
Mercury- 88 days
Venus- 224.7 days
Earth- 365.256366 days
Mars - 686.971 days
Jupiter - 4,331.572 days
Saturn -10,832.327 days
Uranus-30,799.095 days
Neptune-60,190 days
10. Outer Space
Once Tiffany discovered that it
would take 30,799.095days to
orbit Uranus alone, she decided
the trip around the sun in one
earth year of 365 was enough.
She began venturing out to see
what else in outer space. She
discovered that some planets had
moons. Unlike the sun, each
planet does not share the same
moons. There are also asteroids
and stars out there. Can each of
you figure out which is which in
this picture?
11. Solar System
Tiffany has been on a very long
travel. She has found ways to defy
gravity, get past earth’s
atmosphere, travel an earth’s
orbit around the sun, discover
information about planets, see
stars asteroids and moons. At the
end of all of this, she floated
above the milky way galaxy. That
is the galaxy that we live in. All of
the traveling Tiffany has done is a
part of our galaxy. It has been a
long journey for her, and she is
ready to return home to earth.
Can you create in your journal the
steps that she needs to take to
get back home?
12. Traveling Home
1) Travel back through the asteroids, moons, and
stars
2) Go back past each of the outer planets
towards the inner planets
3) She can probably skip the earth’s orbit around
the sun if she is in hurry to get home
4) Make it through earth’s atmosphere
5) Let gravity do its job to pull her back to earth
