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The Galaxy and Light: Science for Grade 6
Session Design by Colin Anderson and Cameron A. Mumford
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Content Standards
 Utah Science: Standard 4: Objective 1A
o Use the speed of light as a measuring standard to describe the relative distances to objects in the
universe. (e.g., 4.4 light years to star Alpha Centauri; 0.00002 light years to the sun).
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Utah Science: Standard 4: Objective 1B
o Compare distances between objects in the solar system
Utah Fine Arts-Drama: Standard 2: Objective 1A
o Use the quality of movement to reveal a character.
Enduring Understandings
 Students will understand that astronomers use light years to measure distances in space because the speed of
light provides a constant, convenient standard for recording vast distances.
Key Knowledge
 Students will know that the speed of light can be used in measuring large distances. (e.g. light years or light
minutes)
 Students will know that a light year is the distance that light can travel in one year. (i.e. 5,878,499,810,000 miles)
Skills
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Students will be able to use the speed of light to measure and convert distances in space between different
forms (i.e. miles, light years, light minutes)
Students will be able to use movement to portray aspects of a character.
ASSESSMENT
Performance Tasks
 Students will develop a character, representing one of the eight planets in our solar system, and move through
space embodying that specific character to demonstrate that they can portray aspects of a character through
movement.
Other Assessments
 Students, in pairs, will complete the Miles across the Galaxy worksheet to demonstrate their ability to describe
distances in space using the speed of light. (i.e. light years)
 Students will present to the class something they learned from the scale model the class created of our solar
system to demonstrate that they understand the immense distances that exist within our solar system and the
universe.
MATERIALS NEEDED
Teacher Materials
 Puppets for Utah, Italy, Sun, Moon, all eight planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune), and Proxima Centauri (Attached)
 Character slip attached to the eight planets, including distance from the Sun in miles and basic information
about the planets (Attached)
 Stopwatch.
 Miles Across the Galaxy Worksheet (Attached)
Student Materials

Calculator
LEARNING PLAN
Day 1
Framing / Hook
1. The Relay Race
a. Address the class and announce that a big relay race is today.
i. Take the class out to a field and split them into teams of three.
ii. Conduct a relay race with the three teams.
b. Congratulate all teams on how fast they travelled.
i. Explain that you are very intelligent and you can tell how fast each of the teams was travelling in
miles per hour. (e.g. 10 miles per hour is the average human’s running speed).
c. Explain that there is a contestant in the race that is running alone, and his name is “light.”
i. Invite the fastest team to race “light.”
ii. As soon as you say, “Go” clap and explain that light was faster.
d. Explain that light is the fastest thing in the Universe.
e. Take everyone inside where up on screen are the numbers 10 and 670,616,629.
i. Explain that the first number on the screen is the average human running speed.
ii. Explain that the second number on the screen is the speed of light.
Process
2. Tell students that one of your favorite places is Italy.
a. Pull out Utah and Italy puppets.
b. Point out that Rome is about 5,747 miles from Salt Lake City.
i. If you ran at 10 mph, how long would it take to reach Rome?
ii. Answer: almost 24 days of constant running.
c. Ask students if they think this is a very long time.
i. Light travels so fast that it will travel from Salt Lake to Rome in less than a second (0.031 s).
3. Point out that Italy is much closer than the Moon.
a. Use Earth and Moon puppets.
b. The Moon is 238,900 miles away.
i. It would take the person running at 10 mph almost 5 months to complete the journey.
ii. Light can still do the trip in a little over one second (1.282 s).
4. But the moon is still much closer than the Sun.
a. Use Earth and Sun puppets.
b. The Earth is about 92,955,807 miles from the Sun.
c. Our runner would never cover that distance. They would be dead long before the 1061 years needed to
complete the journey.
d. Light can almost do it in 8 minutes (8.317 min).
5. Discuss the astronomical distances with students.
a. Ask if they can comprehend such an incredibly large number as the Earth-Sun distance.
b. Give them even larger examples using the appropriate puppets.
i. Distance from the Sun to Jupiter is around 483,370,196 miles.
ii. Distance to Neptune is 2,798,000,000 miles.
iii. Distance to nearest star (Proxima Centauri) is 24,924,839,194,400 miles.
1. Even light takes about 4 ¼ years to cover that distance (4.24 light years).
c. Have students contemplate how immense these number are.
i. Point out that these number are almost too big to understand, and they are very difficult for
astronomers to work with.
ii. Ask students if they can think of an easier way to write these numbers.
1. If miles and kilometers are too small, is there some really big distance that we can use as
a unit of measure?
2. What about light?
a. Light travels 5,878,499,810,000 miles in one year, that’s a big number, just as
big as some of these other numbers.
b. Can we use that number to describe astronomical distances?
c. Yes! We can describe distances using the speed of light.
i. If it takes light 4.24 years to travel the distance between the Sun and
Proxima Centauri, we can say that Proxima Centauri is 4.24 light years
away.
ii. Additional demonstration:
1. Randomly select a student in the class and bring them to the
front of the room.
2. Have the student run from one side of the classroom to the
other. Time the student as he/she does so.
3. Explain that since (student) took ___ seconds to cross the room,
we can describe the distance across the room as being __
(student) seconds long.
6. Tell the students that as far away as Proxima Centauri is, it is still only the closest star to our Sun.
a. Announce that we are going to practice converting miles into light years by using the distances to
various objects outside the solar system.
b. Group the students into pairs and give each pair a Miles Across the Galaxy worksheet and a calculator.
c. As a class, walk through the first problem – Sirius.
i. If the number of miles in a light year is not on the board yet, add it now.
ii. Ask students how they would use this number to convert from miles to light years.
iii. Divide the distance to Sirius (in miles) by the number of miles in a light year; calculator
recommended.
iv. Now everyone should have that Sirius is 8.6 light years from the Sun.
d. Have the student pairs complete the other six problems, giving assistance where necessary and verifying
that they are arriving at the correct answers.
e. When done, ask students if they would rather work with these distances when written out in miles or in
light years.
f. Segway into Day 1 Reflection
i. General discussion/recap of using the speed of light to measure distance.
1. Why do scientists use light years?
2. How does measuring a distance with time work? Have students demonstrate the
concept.
ii. Why is it important to understand that just how big space is?
1. Tie-in to space travel and exploration
a. Difficulty traversing vast distances
i. Providing power for a long journey
ii. The time that it takes (e.g. most NASA missions take over 15 years to
reach their destination)
b. Uncertainty in monitoring other parts of the galaxy
i. Polaris 434 light years away; we’re seeing what it looked like 434 years
ago
ii. The Eagle Nebula is 7,000 light years away; we’re seeing it as it was
7,000 years ago
c. Difficulty in communication
i. Nothing can travel faster than light
ii. If our astronauts or space probes are in just the outer solar system, it
can take hours for a message to travel between them and Earth
iii. Inform the class that tomorrow they will be working with the speed of light and distances within
our own solar system.
Day 2
7. Announce to the students that we are now going to focus on space a bit closer to home.
a. Tell them that their class is now going to be the solar system.
b. What do we need in our solar system?
i. The Sun – instructor
ii. The planets – students
1. Secretly assign each student to be one of the planets, giving each student the
corresponding puppet.
a. Emphasize the need to keep which planet they have received secret.
2. Have students review the information about each planet on the back of their puppet
(some of these facts will be review from earlier units, some will be new).
a. Using that information, they need to determine how best to represent that
planet through their own gestures, body language, and expressions.
i. Demonstrate creating a character.
1. Explain that we could create a model solar system using a bunch
of beach balls, but that would be boring, right?
2. Instead, we are going to pretend that the sun and planets are
people.
a. Explain that this is an example of creating a character.
b. Using the Sun as an example, have the class brainstorm
ways the instructor can act to indicate to an audience
that he is the Sun.
i. Make sure to remind students that the
characters in our solar system are too far away
to hear each other. Instead, they have to
identify themselves through movement.
ii. Have the class come up with a variety of
nonverbal ways the instructor can indicate he is
the Sun – gesture, movement, expression.
iii. Also remind students that the Sun and planets
are traveling through space. In what unique
ways could they walk?
c. The instructor should act out the students’ suggestions
until the class agrees he/she could conceivably be
portraying the Sun.
ii. Give students 5 minutes to develop their planetary character, providing
assistance as needed (e.g. What’s a defining feature of Mars? If it’s red
and dusty, how could you show that? Could you act as if all the dust
made you cough and sneeze?).
iii. Have students demonstrate their “planetary motion” to the class.
1. The rest of the class should guess which planet the student is
portraying, explaining which actions indicate their identity.
2. Performing students should also explain any choices they made
that the class did not call attention to.
a. Note: Make sure that all students are rotating and
revolving in a counterclockwise direction
i. If necessary point out that all the planets rotate
and orbit the Sun in the same direction –
counterclockwise
ii. The sole exception is Venus, this student must
rotate clockwise
c. Now that each student has developed their character they will have to work out their character’s
distance from the Sun (the instructor’s character)
i. Students will have to convert distance from miles to light minutes.
1. Call on students to have them restate what they have previously learned about
measuring distance with the speed of light.
2. Point out that if a light year is simply the distance light travels in a year, can also
measure distances based on how far light travels over other periods of time? Ask
students to explain how we might measure smaller distances.
3. Aim for moving into a discussion of light days.
a. There are 365 days in a year. How do we find the distance light travels in a day?
b. Divide the number of miles in a light year by 365 to find the number of miles in a
light day. (approximately 16,105,478,932 miles)
c. Verify students understand the concept before moving on.
4. Continue to introduce smaller measurements of light distance.
a. Ask students how we would convert from a light day to a light hour.
i. Divide the number of miles in a light day by 24 to find the number of
miles in a light hour. (approximately 671,061,622 miles)
b. Repeat the process, now converting from light hours to light minutes by dividing
by 60. (approximately 11,184,360 miles)
5. Remark on the fact that as vast as the distances between the planets are, light still
travels between most of them in a matter of minutes.
a. Since students will need the distance of their planet in light minutes, have them
think back to Miles Across the Galaxy.
i. The students have the distance light travels in one minute. How do they
find the number of minutes it takes light to travel a given distance?
b. The procedure is the same as Miles Across the Galaxy, only instead of dividing
their distance by the number of miles in a light year, they divide by the number
of miles in a light minute (11,184,360).
c. The results should roughly be as follows:
i. Mercury – 3 light minutes
ii. Venus – 6 light minutes
iii. Earth – 8 light minutes
iv. Mars – 13 light minutes
v. Jupiter – 43 light minutes
vi. Saturn – 80 light minutes
vii. Uranus – 160 light minutes
viii. Neptune – 250 light minutes
ii. Students will then have to scale their light minutes for the purposes of the class model.
1. Explain that for our model, ¼ft on a tape measure is going to be the equivalent of 3 light
minutes.
a. Make sure students understand scale.
b. As an example have the class determine how many light minutes one foot
represents (12).
2. Each student will determine their scaled distance from the Sun/instructor.
a. Results, in feet, should be roughly be as follows:
i. Mercury – 0.25ft
ii. Venus – 0.5 ft
iii. Earth – 0.66 ft
iv. Mars – 1.08 ft
v. Jupiter – 3.58 ft
vi. Saturn – 6.66 ft
vii. Uranus – 13.33 ft
viii. Neptune – 20.83 ft
d. Go outside to create model.
i. Instructor stands in center of a roughly 25 ft2 space.
ii. Have students measure out their own distance along a straight line from the instructor.
iii. When everyone is in the proper position, give a signal for students to perform as their planetary
characters
1. Each student should utilize all the actions and expressions they have developed
2. Students also need to revolve around the instructor/Sun (space permitting).
Reflection
8. Return to classroom and reflect on solar system model.
a. Discuss how far the students were from each other, even on such a small scale
i. Specifically draw attention to Neptune, and how far that student had to travel, even while using
the quarter foot scale.
ii. Also point out that as the planets move through their orbits, sometimes they draw closer
together or further apart from one another.
1. Although the distance from the Sun stays relatively the same, the planets distance
relative to each other changes more dramatically.
b. Have each student present to the class something they learned during the past two days. Make sure to
reflect upon:
i. The utility of light minutes and scale. How did they illustrate the effectiveness of measuring
distance using the speed of light?
1. Why would we use light to measure these vast distances?
2. Discuss the use of light years and light minutes and when to use each of them.
ii. The difficulties presented by the vastness of space.
iii. The ways that character can be conveyed nonverbally.
Attatchments
 Puppet Templates (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Sun, Moon, Utah, Italy)
 Planet Information labels (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune)
 Miles Across the Galaxy worksheet and answer key
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Sun
Moon
Proxima Centauri
Utah
Utah
Italy
Mercury:
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35,983,007 miles from Sun
Smallest planet in solar system; mostly made out of metals
Mercury has no atmosphere and is heavily covered in craters
Temperature on the day side is 800° F; on the night side it is -280° F
Mercury revolves about its axis only 3 times while circling the Sun twice: i.e. 3 days and 2 years on Mercury are
the same
Venus:
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67,237,398 miles from Sun
Very heavy, thick atmosphere makes it the hottest planet in the solar system 863° F
Brightest planet in the night sky, appears around dawn and dusk as the “Morning Star” or “Evening Star”
Venus has a rotation that is retrograde (i.e. it rotates in the opposite direction than it circles the Sun). This
makes the Sun rise in the west and set in the east.
A day and a year on Venus are almost the same
Earth:
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92,955,807 miles from the Sun
Only planet known to possess oceans of liquid water (cover ¾ of the planet)
Only place in the universe known to possess life
Features a wide variety of surface environments, weather, and geology
Possesses a single moon, very large in comparison to the planet it orbits
Mars:
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141,634,811 miles from the Sun
Possesses a very thin atmosphere with an average temperature of – 65° F
Surface is covered in a layer of red dust; large dust storms common
Home to the largest volcano (Olympus Mons) and the largest canyon (Valles Marineris) in the solar system
Has two small moons – Phobos and Deimos – that are probably captured asteroids
Jupiter:
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483,766,792 miles from the Sun
Gas giant; largest planet in Solar System
In a constant state of storms (i.e. bands of clouds and the Great Red Spot)
Is 2 ½ times more massive than all the other planets combined
Orbited by at least 67 moons. The four Galilean Moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto – are among the
largest moons in the Solar System, with Ganymede being even larger than Mercury
Saturn:
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890,704,141 miles from the Sun
Gas giant, second largest planet in Solar System
Possesses the largest ring system of any planet in the Solar System
Its density is so low that Saturn could float on water
Orbited by at least 62 moons. The largest moon – Titan – is larger than Mercury and is the only known moon to
possess a substantial atmosphere
Uranus:
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1,787,485,505 miles from the Sun
Gas giant – sometimes called an “ice giant” since the atmosphere is composed of frozen gasses
Coldest planet in the solar system with an average temperature of – 372° F
The axis of rotation is tilted towards the Sun (i.e. Uranus’s north pole faces the Sun). The planet is essentially
sideways.
Orbited by at least 27 moons, mostly named after characters from Shakespeare’s plays (Titania, Oberon,
Miranda, Ariel)
Neptune:
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2,798,310,149 miles from the Sun
Gas giant – sometimes called an “ice giant” since the atmosphere is composed of frozen gasses
Possesses the fastest winds in the Solar System. Moving at 1,340 mph the wind almost moves at supersonic
speeds
Features several large storm systems known as “Dark Spots” that regularly come and go
Orbited by at least 14 small moons. Triton is the only one to be of any size.
Miles Across the Galaxy
Sirius – 50,555,098,366,000 miles
Polaris (North Star) – 2,551,268,917,540,000 miles
Betelgeuse – 3,779,875,377,830,000
Orion Nebula – 7,900,703,744,640,000 miles
Eagle Nebula – 41,149,498,670,000,000 miles
Sagittarius A* (Black Hole at center of Milky Way) – 152,253,145,079,000,000 miles
Andromeda Galaxy – 14,931,389,517,400,000,000
Answer Key:
Sirius – 8.6 light years
Polaris – 434 light years
Betelgeuse – 643 light years
Orion Nebula – 1,344 light years
Eagle Nebula – 7,000 light years
Sagittarius A* – 25,900 light years
Andromeda Galaxy – 2.54 million light years