A Journey in to the Solar System By Jessica Swan Hear: Bell Rings Hallway Noise & Settling Teacher: Let's get settled class, Everyone in their seats Please. Teacher: Good Morning Class Class: Good Morning Miss _____ Teacher: Is everyone ready for our Field Trip into the Solar System Class: YAY!! Teacher: OK! Teacher: Now let’s take our seats in the space ship, everyone buckled in? Class: Yay! Student 1: I can’t wait to see the moon!! Student 2: I want to see Saturn!! Teacher: Don't worry we will see it all! Is everyone ready? Let’s go Teacher: Ok, we are now out of the earths atmosphere! Class: YAY!! Teacher: Let's start our journey.. Solar System Slide Script: It’s on detail sheet: Too long to fit in this space Teacher: The first Planet closest to the Sun is... Class: Mercury! Teacher: That's right! Mercury is a small rocky planet that looks a lot like our moon, it is covered with craters. It is the smallest out of the 8 planets. Scientists think it may have volcanic activity on it. Class: Owwww! Teacher: Mercury also does not have any moons, much like we do.

Teacher: Next up is Venus, it is a small, rocky planet as well. Student 3: Why is it so yellow? Teacher: That thick layer is yellowish clouds. The clouds on Venus are not full of water like the clouds we have, these clouds are full of a form of poison called sulfuric acid. The surface of Venus is very hot. Like Mercury, Venus does not have any moons. Earth Slide Script: It’s on detail sheet: Too long to fit in this space Student 1: It has a moon! Teacher: It does!! The earth is orbited by one moon. The moon is covered with regolith, that's a mixture of fine dust and rocky debris produced by meteor impacts Teacher: Now, who do we have here? Any one know? Student 3: Is it Mars? Teacher: Yes, it is! It's our 4th small, rocky planet. It is cold and lifeless with permanent ice caps at both it's north and south poles. It's very strong winds and vast dust storms sometimes blow through the entire planet for months. Students 2: MONTHS? Teacher: Yes, can you imagine? Students 3: That's like one seriously bad hair day for 30 days!! Teacher: It sure is ha ha ha! Mars also has 2 moons that orbit it's surface very closely. Teacher: Uh Oh, here comes the Asteroid Belt, what does that mean? Student 1: It means that we are in between the Inner solar system and the outer solar system Teacher: Great job!! That's right. Jupiter Slide Script: It’s on detail sheet: Too long to fit in this space Teacher: Next stop Saturn Student 2: Wow beautiful rings!! Teacher: I know, those rings are mostly made of water, ice and also include rocky particles. Saturn is also a giant gas planet. It is made up of materials which are lighter than water. Actually if you placed Saturn in a great big pond it would float Student 1: Like an ice cube Teacher: That is exactly it, just like an ice cube in water. Saturn is also unique it that it has 18 moons. That’s the most out of all the planets

Teacher: Here comes Uranus. It too is a giant gas planet made up of mostly rock and various ices. What is very interesting about this planet is, it spins differently then the rest. It seems to be tilted sideways instead of right side up. This is because it's south pole is pointed directly at the sun. Uranus also has 15 moons. Student 2: Miss ________, how did it get to be blue Teacher: That's a great question! It's blue color is the result of a gas called “methane”, found in the planets upper atmosphere. Students 2: Oh Teacher: Do you know who we have here? Student 3: Uranus again Teacher: No, but you are right these two planets look similar, anyone else? What planet is left? Student 3: Neptune! Teacher: You guessed it, Neptune is the farthest from the sun, it is a giant gas planet like Uranus and is mostly made up of ices and rock. What else do you think it's made up of, that is similar to the last planet we saw? Student 1: Meth-ane? Teacher: That's correct and what effect does that gas have on Neptune's atmosphere? Student 1: It makes it blue Teacher: Great job! Student 2: Wait, what's that? Teacher: Oh that little small and icy guy is Pluto, he is considered a “dwarf planet”. Because of it's size it is no longer considered a planet. Student 3: Is it a Moon? Teacher: Scientists are not sure what it is, while it is small like a moon, it has it's own. But you are right, it is actually quite smaller then many of the moons in the solar system. Pluto too is like Uranus in which it seems to be lying on it's side. It's equator points straight up with one pole directly towards the sun. Teacher: Lets back up and take a look here, see where the inner and outer solar system split? What's that called splitting it? Student 1: The Asteroid Belt Teacher: Correct and what planets are in the inner solar system? Student 2: Mercury, Venus Student 3: Earth and Mars Teacher: And in the Outer? Student 1: Jupitar, Saturn Student 2: Uranus and Neptune Student 3: and used to be Pluto Teacher: Ha ha ha that's right Student 1: Miss __________, what about the Sun? Teacher: I'm glad you asked, that's our next stop. Teacher: We live in a heliocentric solar system... Student 2: Helio- cent-ric Teacher: Yes, that's it. That means our solar system is centered around the sun. Remember how we talked about how each of the planets orbit around the sun. Some do faster then others. Student 3: Is the Sun a planet? Student 1: Ha ha ha NO! Teacher: That is a great question, it actually is not, it's believe it or not, a star. It's just like the stars we see in the night sky. The Sun however is the only star we see in the day. Student 2: It's so big! Teacher: It is, Its actually so big you could fit more then 1 million earths inside of it! It is also very hot. It's so hot that planets millions of kilometers away can still feel it. Teacher: That class makes up our solar system. Isn't it incredible? Student 3: Yeah, sure is! Teacher: Does anyone have any other questions? Student 1: Yeah, When's lunch?

Teacher: Ha ha ha Ok, It's soon. Let's head back to earth. Class: YAY!!Teacher: Thank you for joining us on our trip to the Solar System. We hope you had fun. So long!