Unit 3, Lesson 2: Accretion
Learning Target: I can explain how accretion leads to the formation of the planets.
Class Activities:
1. Students walked in and picked up a Three Reads Handout and an article about the formation of the solar system.
2. Students copied down three definitions onto their Unit 4 vocab sheets. They are:
The Solar System: The Sun and the objects that orbit it; the area in space in which the Sun’s gravitational pull is the dominant force.
Accretion: The process by which planets form as material orbiting some stars gathers together through collisions and gravitational or electrostatic attraction, eventually forming larger and larger bodies.
Protoplanetary disk: A rotating disk of gas and dust grains surrounding a newly formed star or protostar. Over time, accretion within the disk tends to produce planets.
3. I passed out a piece of paper to each group, and then read definitions from the previous lesson. In their groups, they answered the questions. Then I passed out a sheet of paper with the six stages of the formation of the solar system, and the groups worked on that, too. There's no need to make that up, but it's attached at the bottom if you want to take a look and see how you do. The pictures make a lot of sense to me.
4. I explained how the solar system formed: You should already know how the sun formed-- gravity caused a nebula to condense gas and dust into a cloud, which becomes a star and begins to emit light/photons. However, there was still a bunch of dust and dirt that orbited around the sun, caught by its gravitational pull. The dust and dirt began to flatten out, a lot like pizza dough does when it's being tossed. As it orbited, the dust and dirt collides, eventually forming larger and larger chunks, until it becomes a planet. This is process of accretion.
5. We watched two really short video clips that explain the formation of the solar system.
6. Students got to work on their Three Reads. (The 9th grade level is below, but you can go to the Big History website and get another level if you need to.)
Papers handed in today:
Intro to Threshold 4 worksheet
Homework:
Three Reads of Article
Class Activities:
1. Students walked in and picked up a Three Reads Handout and an article about the formation of the solar system.
2. Students copied down three definitions onto their Unit 4 vocab sheets. They are:
The Solar System: The Sun and the objects that orbit it; the area in space in which the Sun’s gravitational pull is the dominant force.
Accretion: The process by which planets form as material orbiting some stars gathers together through collisions and gravitational or electrostatic attraction, eventually forming larger and larger bodies.
Protoplanetary disk: A rotating disk of gas and dust grains surrounding a newly formed star or protostar. Over time, accretion within the disk tends to produce planets.
3. I passed out a piece of paper to each group, and then read definitions from the previous lesson. In their groups, they answered the questions. Then I passed out a sheet of paper with the six stages of the formation of the solar system, and the groups worked on that, too. There's no need to make that up, but it's attached at the bottom if you want to take a look and see how you do. The pictures make a lot of sense to me.
4. I explained how the solar system formed: You should already know how the sun formed-- gravity caused a nebula to condense gas and dust into a cloud, which becomes a star and begins to emit light/photons. However, there was still a bunch of dust and dirt that orbited around the sun, caught by its gravitational pull. The dust and dirt began to flatten out, a lot like pizza dough does when it's being tossed. As it orbited, the dust and dirt collides, eventually forming larger and larger chunks, until it becomes a planet. This is process of accretion.
5. We watched two really short video clips that explain the formation of the solar system.
6. Students got to work on their Three Reads. (The 9th grade level is below, but you can go to the Big History website and get another level if you need to.)
Papers handed in today:
Intro to Threshold 4 worksheet
Homework:
Three Reads of Article
9global_three_reads_template.docx | |
File Size: | 92 kb |
File Type: | docx |
9global_accretion_three_reads_1100l.pdf | |
File Size: | 153 kb |
File Type: |
9global_accretion_intro_activity.pdf | |
File Size: | 682 kb |
File Type: |