During this activity, your youth:
• Experience the vastness of the solar system and the size differences among the Sun, our home planet
Earth, and this unit's theme - Saturn.
• Walk a playground or other large area to create a scale model for size and distance in our solar system. A
variation for an indoor model is included.
• Participate in the creation of an orbital ("radial") scale model of the solar system.
• Compare their early thoughts about the solar system to their new experience and questions once they
have participated in the scale and distance exercises.
• Reflect on what it would be like to travel to Saturn.Time/number of sessions: Session 1:
30 minutes Sessions 2 and 3:
40 minutes each Activity type:
Kinesthetic and artSpace needed: Sessions 1 and 3:
Classroom, cafeteria or other space with
tables, chairs and extra floor space
Session 2: School campus (that can accommodate at least 247 yard-long
walking paces)Download the Activity
Full-resolution PDF (for full-resolution color printing)