Solar System Science

Have science fun as a family! Complete activities with parental supervision.

Materials:

• A one-meter long, 3 inches wide strip of paper (we used wrapping paper)
• Scissors
• Markers

Procedure

1. What planets are in our solar system? Make a list from the sun out: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune! There’s also two asteroid belts – one beyond Neptune and another between Mars and Jupiter.
2. At one end of your paper, draw a very thin Sun – this is your center of the solar system. At the opposite end, put some dots representing the Kuiper Belt – the asteroid belt where we find the dwarf planet Pluto.
3. Fold the paper in half and crease firmly. Open it up – what planet would you put on this crease? Draw and label the planet Uranus.
4. Let’s look at the right side of the fold. Take the Kuiper Belt side and fold it to the Uranus line. Crease and open up. At this line, draw and label the planet Neptune.
5. Now to the left side of Uranus. Fold the Sun to the Uranus line and crease sharply. At this line, draw and label the planet Saturn.
6. Fold the Sun to the Saturn line and crease sharply. On this line, draw and label the planet Jupiter.
7. Fold the Sun to the Jupiter line – this line doesn’t represent a planet. Draw a bunch of dots on the line to represent the Asteroid Belt.
8. Look at how much space you have between the Sun and the Asteroid Belt. You have to fit four planets in that space!
9. Fold the sun to the Asteroid belt. At this line, draw and label the planet Mars.
10. Fold the sun to Mars. Then, fold the crease to Mars. This should result in three new lines.
11. On these three lines, finish out your planets – starting from the line closest to Mars, draw and label Earth, Venus and Mercury.
12. Step back and admire your solar system model! Be sure to take a picture and share your results in the Facebook comments on the Buffalo Museum of Science or Tifft Nature Preserve pages!