SEEING THE SOLAR SYSTEM THROUGH TWO PERSPECTIVES

Supporting elementary student understandings of ideas related to Earth's Place in the Universe can be challenging, especially given the large time and distance scales involved with many of the concepts. However, with effective use of crosscutting concepts and science and engineering practices, important concepts within this content domain are accessible to grade students. Here, Tretter et al share a sequence of instructional tasks for upper elementary students exploring and making sense of patterns of objects seen in space from Earth, relying heavily on the science practice of modeling from two different perspectives--Earth-based and space-based.