The Planets’ Order

When I student taught in a 3rd grade classroom, we studied the planets. The big culminating task was, yep:

Create a 3D model showing the planets in the correct order.

The Problem

Yes, it has the word create, but students’ actual thinking is stuck the bottom of Bloom’s. My most astounding astronomer will just restate the order of the planets. I didn’t ask any interesting questions at all.

Nowadays, I’d reach for “Not Like The Others.”

The Update

By asking the following question, I push students up to Analyze, where they’ll be comparing, contrasting, and categorizing:

Which of these planets is not like the others: Mercury, Neptune, Saturn, or Mars?

Of course, the beauty is that any of the choices could be not like the others. And for multiple reasons.

  • Mercury – only one of these planets without a moon
  • Neptune – only one of these planets not visible to the naked eye
  • Saturn – only one with a moon that has an atmosphere, the only planet less dense than water (thus it could float in the ocean!)
  • Mars – only one with human-made objects currently on its surface, has the largest volcano in the solar system

Your sharpest thinker will come up with even more specific reasons. And it’s quite easy to switch a new planet in if you don’t like this grouping.

If I wanted to continue, I might ask students to partner planets up based on similarities. The planets could talk to each other about their similarities and differences. This could turn into all sorts of products: a skit, a comic book, a video, or a narrative. But these products will show off a higher level of thinking than my original “put the planets in order” task.

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