eCosmology

I need help! My child needs to make a miniature solar system in 2 days any ideas-send directions/pictures!!?

Public Comments

1. u can go to a craft store and buy different sized styrofoam balls then paint them to look like the planets....then connects them with some sticks in the order that they go in....thats what i did for my astronomy project...probably wasnt a good idea for a high school class
2. how old is your child? in my opinion, they should be the ones doing the project and probably have many creative ideas. libraries and schools usually have an area where you can cut pictures out of old magazines and such.
3. Is it you project or the kids. Teachers love to give parents home work
4. you can go to stores and buy the kits these days.Then all you do is put it together and paint it or go to your public library and check out a book and buy the stuff.
5. I used styroform balls, markers, string, and kabob sticks
6. Here's a picture! http://www.scienceproject.com/projects/intro/elementary/EX037.asp It includes a list of materials which includes white foam balls, painted to look like planets. You can purchase all this stuff at a craft store! Once you collect the stuff, you should be able to do this one in minutes!
7. 2 days?!?! Your kid sounds like mine! The fastest way to do it would be stirophome balls, some paint and metal coat hangers. There is a picture and helpful hits on the website listed. Good Luck! I (my son) have a diorama due this week
8. All the solar system models you can buy are not to scale, which is OK if all you want to do is show the planets in the right order. But I much prefer a scale model. Only trouble is, it is WAY to big to make indoors. Jupiter is 10 times bigger than Earth and the Sun is 10 times bigger than Jupiter, so if Earth is a 1 inch ball, you need a 10 inch ball to be Jupiter (a basketball is 10 inches) and a 100 inch ball (8 feet 4 inch) for the Sun. Maybe a weather balloon would do. What I did instead was say that the basketball was the Sun, a one inch ball was Jupiter and a 1/10 inch pinhead was Earth. The other planet sizes can be calculated with the first link in the sources below. If the Sun is 10 inches, then Mercury is 34 feet away, Earth is 89 feet away and Pluto is about 2/3 of a mile away. What I did was take the class for a walk outside. We walked 2/3 of a mile from the school, setting up planets as we went. Or you could just set them in a row on the table and have the correct distances written on an information sheet. The whole point is that the planets are really small and really far apart. The models where the sun is only twice as big as Earth just are not convincing.