SNC1W Unit 5: Space Exploration

How big is space, and why do we explore it? Students build a toilet-paper scale model of the solar system, code a scale-model calculator in Python, view the Sun safely with pinhole projectors, model seasons, Moon phases and eclipses with a lamp and a ball, and weigh the evidence for how the universe began. They learn from diverse ways of knowing the sky, including Cree star knowledge shared by Wilfred Buck, and study satellites, space spin-offs and the impacts of exploration, with Artemis II and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen as a case study.

Assessment of learning: a Canadian Space Mission Proposal with a rubric, plus a unit test with a worked answer key.

Lessons

1. Our Place in Space
2. How Far Is Far?
3. Code the Cosmos
4. Our Star
5. Sun Power
6. Seasons and Days
7. Moon Phases and Eclipses
8. Where Did It All Come From?
9. Many Ways of Knowing the Sky
10. Eyes in the Sky
11. Space Spin-offs
12. Is Space Worth It?
13. Mission Workshop

What you get

• A teacher lesson plan for every lesson: curriculum expectations, learning goals and success criteria, a timed sequence, differentiation, safety notes, look-fors and answer keys
• Detailed slideshows (15 to 17 slides per lesson) with speaker notes on every slide: what to say, what to ask, what to look for and how long to spend, plus warm-ups, worked examples, model answers and answer-key slides
• Student handouts, lab sheets and exit tickets
• Editable Word and PowerPoint files, plus PDFs
• A unit overview, the summative task and rubric, and a unit test with a worked answer key

Built for the 2022 Ontario Grade 9 Science curriculum (SNC1W, de-streamed), and easy to adapt for any Grade 9 science class.