Lesson Plan of Natural Satellites (Asteroids, Comets, Meteors)

General Science Grade VI

Students’ Learning Out comin

· Compare the Physical Characteristics of Comets, Asteroids & Meteors.

· Describe different kinds of meteors.

· Inquire into the sight of HalleyComet, describe what would they feel if.

Information for Teacher

Comets:

· Comets are the icy bodies exist in huge clouds.

· They are composed of rock, dust a form of, ice and frozen gases.

· In space they look like a bright ball with a long tail.

· Occasionally, they can crash into planets and moons and make craters.

Asteroids:

· Asteroids are the rocky objects.

· There are thousands of asteroids between Mars & Jupiter.

· They are very small in size.

· The word of Asteroid means “like stars”

Meteorites:

· These are probably fragments of asteroids.

· These are the portion of a meteoroid or asteroid that survives its passage through the atmosphere.

Meteors:

· A meteor is a meteoroid that enters the Earth’s atmosphere making visible track.

· Meteors typically occur in the mesosphere and their range are from 75 km to 100 km.

· Millions of meteors enter in the Earth’s atmosphere every day.

Concept Map

Material / Resources

Charts, use as model to give idea of meteoroids, pictures of comet 3-d model for the concept of space

Worm up activity

· Show the chart of Asteroids, Comets and Meteors and ask some questions related to the pictures given in the chart.

v Are there some other objects present in the solar system?

(Expected response: Yes)

v Have you ever seen asteroids or comets at night?

(Expected response: Yes, these are like the fire balls)

v Do you know the exact path of asteroids in our solar system?

(Expected response: No)

· After asking these questions tell the students that today we will learn about natural satellites like Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors except moon.

· The moon is also a “Natural Satellite”.

Development

Activity 1

· Collect the reading materials for comets, meteors and asteroids a day earlier.

· Divide the class in three groups and provide them the collected material.

· Draw the following table on the board and ask them to copy and complete the table.

	Asteroids	Comets	Meteors	Comparison
Size
Shape
Composition
Location

· Each group will present his observations.

· Conclude the activity by summarizing the data.

Expected filling of the chart will as:

	Asteroids	Comets	Meteors	Comparison
Size	Up to 1000 km in diameter	Up to 20 km in diameter	From few cm to few meters in diameter
Shape	Irregular	Irregular	Irregular
Composition	Carbon, iron & other metals	Iron, rock, ammonia & other gases	Iron, rock etc.
Location	Between Mars & Jupiter	They move in elliptical orbit around the sun	These are the wandering bodies in the solar system.

Sum up / Conclusion

· Conclude the lesson by recapping the definitions of the natural satellites and give the following activity to check the students’ learning.

Extended activity:

Fill in the blanks by using given key words:-

Vapors, deflected, atmosphere, source, comets, water

Millions of small _______ strikes the earth yearly and breakup into water ______.

Some scientists believe that they are _______ of ______ in Earth’s ocean and ____ asteroids crossing the earth’s path will either be ____ or detonated.

(Answer of the extended activity: Millions of small comets strike the earth yearly and break up into water vapors. Some scientists believe that they are source of water in earth’s ocean and atmosphere. Asteroids crossing the earth’ path will either be deflected or detonated).

Assessment

· Conclude the lesson by asking the following questions:-

v What is the exact location of Asteroids?

(Expected response: lies between Mars & Jupiter).

v Describe the composition of Asteroids?

(Expected response: carbon, iron and other metals)

v Compare the sizes of asteroids and meteors?

(Expected response:

v Why the comets have tails?

(Expected response: comets’ frozen gases)

Follow up

· Draw the diagram of Asteroids on the notebooks.

· Write the difference between meteors and meteorites.

· Paste the picture of natural satellites on the scrap book.