Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Adventures in Science - 3c Build a scale solar system

Webelos/AOL Elective Adventure: Adventures in Science - 3c Build a scale solar system

The key to this experiment IMHO is enabling you to do it quickly.

One option is a 100 ft tape(100 ft tape measure best price on amazon.)

But I wanted to teach the boys some cool lessons about measuring and I didn't' have one.

So I used you existing tape measure (12')  and a piece of rope

link to image if it stops showing up

1. I measured out 50" of rope with  black sharpie marks every 10 ft.
1.  This teaches them how to make their own measuring device. I did this ahead of time but I'll talk about how I made it and a why later. 
2. Using the rope I found out I had 100 ft in my back yard from my deck to the corner.


1. I measured 100 ft, by having a boy at one end, standing next to a fixed object and myself at the 50' end. 
2. Then the boy walked past me as I rotated in space. so the boy who was at zero was now at 100  (Teaching them how to measure space larger than the tape) 
3. Then I measured out the spaces from the inner planets and put marks on the rope... 
4. The marks were too hard to see, so I added blue painter tape "flag" on the rope with the initials of the planets on them. 
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5. After I put the inner planets, I added the outer planets through Uranus.

If I'd made a 100 ft rope I could have put Neptune and Jupiter but I have a plan for using the rope and a 12' measure to do that.

We are going to use the 50' rope to mark out the nearest 10 ft, then the 12 tape measure to add Neptune, and Pluto is at 100ft so we just put it at the end.

This teaches them to use the high and low accuracy measurements to get a measure, but also allows the whole experiment to be put together quickly. (The boys only have to work through 1 measurement together)


From here on out, this is what I'm planning I'll update it later with pics and notes.

1. We'll use a basket or soccer ball (about 12") for the sun 
2. Then measure out the planets marked on the rope using Marking Flags with the planets names and 12" scale diameters on them. 
3. After they get a feel I'm going to show them the 12" sun reduced to the real scale of 1/4" so they can get an appreciation of the real scale of the objects.... but i want them to see them first, so i'm starting at the 12" sun scale in her document.. then reducing 48x to the real scale.
1. I could have gotten  get golf balls and ping pong balls and bbs to show scale, but it's not required so I'm just going to draw circles for how large the planets are onto the flags instead. Also I'm trying to spend less money than I did last year. If you want to make the planets, go to Lowes and get 12" nails for hanging gutters, then hot glue the planet sized object to the nail, then just push it into the ground to make the planet itself.
   
   Here are the flags, note the extra flag was used to create a "sun, actual size flag, that after they got a feel for the scale, was used to replace the 12" soccer ball... also on the Jupiter flag, i drew a tiny dot the scale size of Jupiter, in the bottom corner (it being the only one I could conceivably draw) and I had them go look at that.

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Photos of the parts of the document I used to set up the model...

Chart of planet sized on 12' scale

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Planet distances on 100' scale

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So in summary here are the steps

1. Mark the planets on the 50' rope, except for Neptune and Pluto
2. Put blue tape flag with the initial of each plant on the rope.
3. Mark the flags with each planet and it at it's it's 12" scale size
1. Make an extra dot, as tiny as you can draw it on the Jupiter flag
2. Make an extra "sun actual size flag" with a 1/4" circle on it.
4. Get a 12" ball, like a soccer ball
5. When you are ready to start, place the soccer ball
1. Put the sun end of the string on the soccer ball
2. Stretch it out to full length
3. Place the flags for all the inner planets 
1. This goes quickly, gave flags to each boy, after showing them how to do the first couple, they ran off and did the rest.
4. Have someone hold the far end of the rope, 
1. Rotate around them till the sun end of the rope is farthest away from the sun.
2. Place Pluto at the end that used to be the sun end of the rope 
3. Have them help you measure out Neptune location, it's halfway between Uranus and Pluto, plus 16 inches...
5. Have them walk around and get a feel for the scale of the solar system.
6. Go back to the sun and replace it with the 14/ sun actual size flag
7. Have them go look at the teeny tiny dot on the Jupiter flag, to see it in actual scale to the sun.