Santa 2025
Topic: The solar system and beyond [QCA 7L]
Santa is planning ahead for when humans colonise the rest of the Solar
System - he may decide to move to another planet! In this fun activity pupils
analyse planetary data to find which planet best satisfies Santa's future
requirements. They then e-mail Santa to advise him of their decision, and - if
you wish - design a Christmas card to show why this planet is such a great
place to spend Christmas.
Curriculum link 11-14 (KS3)
The solar system and beyond QCA 7L: explain phenomena like day and night
and the cause of a year. Know that planets orbit the sun in similar ways to
Earth. Speculate on possible conditions on other planets.
Running the activity
In this activity pupils imagine they are advising Santa which planet he should
move to. Having studied Santa's requirements, they use a table of data to
extract information about planets' sizes, distances from the sun, average
surface temperatures, day lengths and year lengths. To keep the activity as a
short starter, pupils pick out the best 3 planets to satisfy each of Santa's
criteria for an ideal base. They then compose an e-mail telling Santa which
planet to move to, and why. If running the activity as a longer main task,
pupils can produce Christmas cards showing why their choice of planet is an
ideal place to spend Christmas.
Page 1 shows how the 9 planets orbit the Sun and sets the task.
Page 2 has a table of data for each of the planets.
The most suitable planets
The 3 planets with the longest days are: Venus, Mercury and Pluto
The 3 planets with the longest years are: Pluto, Neptune and Uranus
The smallest 3 planets are: Pluto, Mercury and Mars
The 5 inner planets are all within 650 million Km of Earth. The closest (apart
from Earth itself) are: Venus, Mars and Mercury.
The rocky planets are Pluto, Mercury and Mars, Earth and Venus
The only 2 planets that will always keep ice frozen without averaging less than
-150oC are Mars and Jupiter. Parts of Earth fulfil this criterion, too.
Web links
A transcript of Santa's recent interview with Science@NASA.
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast24dec98_1.htm
A Multimedia Tour of the Solar System
http://mercury.nineplanets.org:8011
Pictures of the planets
http://planetscapes.com/