Overview

Basics

The aim of this presentation is to give primary school pupils some idea of the size scale of the Universe, starting with planet Earth and moving out to the furthest galaxies. We also aim to develop pupils' knowledge of the planets of the solar system.

The presentation lasts approximatel 45 minutes, and uses the following resources:

a PowerPoint presentation;
a demonstration of the relative sizes of the Sun and planets;
a demonstration of the relative sizes of the planetary orbits.

See the Props and Downloads pages for details of how to make and/or download these resources.

Target audience

This presentation has been used successfully with children of all ages from Y1 to Y6, and would probably also work for slightly older children. It is probably most successful with children at Key Stage 2, because they have the basic familiarity with number concepts needed to understand the idea of a scale model.

Relevance to the National Curriculum

This presentation represents an enhancement of Key Stage 2 Unit 5E "Earth, Sun and Moon". It also has relevance to Unit 6E "Forces in Action". However, its main purpose is to address the general aims of KS1 and 2 Science, namely that children should "be curious about things they observe", should "begin to think about models to represent things they cannot directly experience", and should start to develop number skills.