Lesson video

- Hi everyone, my name is Miss Hummel, and together, we'll be answering the question, "How do planets in the solar system vary?" Now, you may be wondering why is it that Miss Hummel is wearing such a cool jacket? Well, there is a reason behind it.

Now, the reason is that I love planets and I decided to paint them in my very own jacket.

So there you go.

Don't need this anymore, I'll get hot.

Right.

In this lesson, we will learn about the eight different planets in our solar system.

We will have detailed discussions about Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

We will also have a chance to complete some application questions.

Our lesson will follow this structure.

First, we will discuss how we can remember the names of our planets.

Then we will discuss four planets which we consider the inner rocky planets, followed by the next four planets, which we consider the outer gas planets.

And finally, we will complete some application questions.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or a paper, a pencil or a pen, a coloured pencil or pen, and a ruler.

Pause the video now if you haven't got those things and you can go and get them.

Here are our star words, which are the most important words of our lesson.

I'm going to say them and ask you to repeat them after me.

When I point at myself, it will be my turn, and when I point at you, it will be your turn.

Solar system.

Planet.

Mercury.

Neptune.

Saturn.

Uranus.

Jupiter.

Venus.

Earth.

Mars.

And that's it.

Now, we will begin by discussing how we can remember the names of our planets.

We've said them as part of our star words but how do we remember them in the right order? Let's begin by looking at a photograph of our planet.

So here's a large photograph of the planets we'll be looking at.

We can see Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, and we can see them in the order that we would find them from closest to the Sun on the left to furthest to the Sun on the right.

This lesson is going to require you to take notes.

So to begin with, you're going to create a table that's going to allow you to take these notes.

You need a column to begin with that says "Planet" and has the name of our eight planets, which are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Then you're going to have a column for a pneumonic, which we're going to learn, which is going to help us remember the order of the planets.

Then I would like you to have a column for a picture.

Now, this is the section where you can sketch what the planet looks like.

If you have colouring pencils or markers, then you can use it to colour them in.

If you don't, that's completely fine, maybe just write the colour that you can see inside the planet so you'll remember what it looks like.

Then I would like you to have a column for size description, a column for temperature, and a column for other descriptions, so that's going to be general kind of facts.

Those last three columns need to be the largest ones because you're going to be writing whole sentences in those, whereas for example, in the picture, it doesn't need to be that big.

I suggest that if you have a notebook or paper, that you turn it horizontally like this rather than this, so that you have enough space to include everything on this table.

So make sure to use a ruler for your lines.

And I would now like you to pause the video to prepare for this lesson by completing this table.

You can resume the video once you've finished with your table.

Now let's complete the mnemonic on your table.

A mnemonic is something that's going to help us remember some words or facts or whatever it is that we're trying to remember.

So when we're going to think about the first letters of the words that we're trying to remember, in this case we're trying to remember the planets, and then we try to come up with a sentence where each of the words matches one of the letters that we're trying to remember.

So in this case, we have M, V, E, M, J, S, U, N.

We're going to come up with a pneumonic together that we can use.

However, you could come up with your own that's going to help you remember the order of the planets.

This is the one we can remember.

The one I like to use is "My Very Easy Method Just Summed Up Now." So "My" stands for Mercury, "Very" stands for Venus, "Easy," Earth, "Method," Mars, "Just," Jupiter, "Summed," Saturn and "Up," Uranus and "Now," Neptune.

So the first letter of each of those words in my sentence is going to help me remember the order that the planets come in.

The hardest one to remember is going to be Mercury and Mars because they both start with the letter M so that's one of those that you're just going to have to maybe try and practise until you get it right.

So if I was you, I would now pause the video.

Maybe hide away from the video, try to say the sentence, "My Very Easy Method Just Summed Up Now," and see if you can try and remember without looking at the planets in the order that they are from closest to the Sun, to furthest away from the Sun.

Now that you should know all of those names in order, we're now going to begin by discussing the inner rocky planets, which are our first four planets.

The inner rocky planets include Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

These planets are largely formed of solid rock on their surfaces and they're warmer because they're closer to the Sun.

They're formed of solid, and they're mm, because they're closest to the Sun, they are warmer because they're closest to the Sun.

It's like when you're around a campfire, the closer you are, the warmer you feel, and the further away you are, you might not even feel the warmth of the campfire.

It's the same with the Sun.

We will now begin going through the individual planets, so make sure to take your notes by pausing the video throughout.

I have colour coded the information so that it may be easier for you to find.

Sentences relating to the size of the planets are in dark blue and sentences relating to the temperature are in pink.

Other descriptions is not in any particular colours, it's just in black.

We're going to begin with Mercury.

Mercury is the smallest planet.

It's only a bit larger than the Moon.

So our Moon is quite small, considered, comparing it to lots of different planets.

So it's only a little bit bigger than our moon.

It takes 88 Earth days to orbit the Sun.

So we orbit the Sun in 365 days, Mercury does it in 88 days.

Can you have a think, when we've orbited the Sun one time, how many times has Mercury done it? Gonna be using your times, maybe eight or nine times table to help you with that.

Another thing we know about Mercury is that it has no atmosphere.

And finally, temperature.

So the side that's closest to the Sun can reach up to 430 degrees Celsius.

To give you an idea, when it's above 25 degrees Celsius, we already think it's hot.

And the side that's away from the Sun can reach negative 180 degrees Celsius.

There's a really large discrepancy in temperature depending on which side is facing the Sun.

You're now going to pause the video to complete this thinking question.

How long did it take Mercury to orbit the Sun? Let's see if you can remember.

You can resume the video once you're finished.

Our next planet is Venus.

Remember that you should be taking notes.

Now, it's the next closest planet to the Sun and it's about the same size as the Earth.

Venus has a very thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide which traps in a large amount of heat.

You've probably heard of carbon dioxide before.

Carbon dioxide is what gets released by, for example the exhaust pipes of cars, carbon dioxide is what we breathe out.

We breathe in oxygen and we breathe out carbon dioxide.

So Venus has an atmosphere which is just carbon dioxide.

And it traps, like I said, a large amount of heat.

Its surface is covered in volcanoes.

Now, we have a few volcanoes, but their surface is covered it.

And it has a temperature of about 465 degrees Celsius, which, although it's further away than Mercury, is hotter than Mercury.

Earth is our next planet and probably the one we know the most about.

So for Earth, if Earth were the size of a pound, the Moon would roughly be size of a coffee bean.

I wonder if you've ever seen a coffee bean before, they're not very big, I would say they're smaller than maybe your pinky nail.

Earth spins at a thousand miles per hour and it takes 24 hours to complete a full rotation.

So Earth is kind of spinning on itself constantly and it takes 24 hours to do one whole spin.

But remember that it's also orbiting around the Sun and that the Moon is orbiting around the Earth while this is all happening.

The Earth takes a year to travel around the Sun, and the average temperature is about 15 degrees.

The final inner a rocky planet is Mars.

Mars is about two thirds the size of the Earth and does not have an atmosphere.

That means that a human could only be on the surface of Mars with a space suit to help them breathe.

It has a temperature of about negative 63 degrees Celsius, which is very cold compared to our Earth.

But it's red because of, sorry, not but, it is red because of the iron minerals in its surface.

So it makes it that reddish colour.

You're now going to pause the video to think about these questions.

Why does Venus's atmosphere trap up in a large amount of heat? And why is the surface of Mars red? Next, we will look at our outer gas planets.

As we saw in the video, the outer gas planets include Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

They're much larger than the inner rocky planets and they're almost entirely made from the gases hydrogen and helium.

Can you remember of something else that we know that is made mostly of hydrogen and helium? It's the Sun, the Sun is mostly made from hydrogen and helium.

As they're much further away from the Sun, they are all much colder than the rocky inner planets.

They also all have rings of rock and dust around them, although this isn't always easy to see.

But is there a planet that you can think of that does have some prominent rings around it? You can see it in our picture.

Now let's get ready to start taking those notes again.

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and it is the largest planet.

You could fit the Earth inside of Jupiter 11 times.

It's very stormy, as the whole planet rotates once every 10 hours.

That means it's rotating every 10 hours, that's very quick.

And so because of that, it's very stormy inside.

There's a giant storm known as the Big Red Spot, which is so big, the Earth could fit inside of it.

Can you see the red spot in our picture? I even drew the red spot when I was drawing it in my denim jacket.

So that little red spot, Earth could fit inside of that spot.

And the average temperature is negative 145 degrees.

So it's getting colder and colder, that's what it seems like.

You're now going to pause the video to about this question.

What is the Big Red Spot? Saturn is next, remember to take your notes.

Saturn is another very large planet, Earth could fit into it nine times.

It's also made from large amounts of gas that moves quickly as it rotates once every 11 hours or so.

Saturn is famous for its very large and beautiful rings of dust and gas.

This is the planet we were thinking of that has the beautiful rings that we usually hear of.

And the average temperature is negative 178 degrees Celsius.

You're now going to pause the video to think about this question.

What is Satan famous for? Finally, we're going to look at Uranus and Neptune, but rather than have a separate information slide for them, I've merged them together into one because they're actually very similar and there are some similarities that we need to know about.

So they are similar in many ways.

Both are almost four times the size of the Earth.

Both are made almost entirely from gas and very cold liquid around a small, solid core.

One key difference is that Uranus rotates on its side.

So as it's rotating, it's kind of sideways.

The other difference is that it takes Uranus about 84 Earth years to orbit the Sun, whereas it takes Neptune about 165 Earth years.

So we were saying that for us, it takes 365 days, which is one year.

Now, imagine doing that 84 times just for one rotation, an orbit around the Sun, and for Neptune, 165 years.

So 165 times that our Earth has gone by.

I definitely won't be alive by the next time Neptune goes all the way around.

And the average temperature of Uranus is negative 214 degrees.

However, Neptune has an average temperature of negative 236 degrees.

So they are very similar even for the temperature as well.

Here are two images of the planets for you to look at.

They're both kind of blueish.

You're now going to pause the video to answer this question.

Write down one difference between Uranus and Neptune.

We went through quite a few, so you just have to think of one.

You can resume once you're finished with the question.

For the final part of our lesson, we will complete a few application questions.

First, I will ask you to sort these descriptions into inner rocky planets or outer gas planets.

You can do this in a table like it's shown on your screen.

These are the statements that you need to separate.

Closer to the Sun, further away from the Sun, mostly made from gas, mostly solid rock, the colder planets, the warmer planets, and often have rings of dust and rock around them.

So pause the video now and separate them into inner rocky planets and outer gas planets.

You can resume once you're finished.

Now, let's have a go at marking those.

So closer to the Sun, you should have put the inner rocky planets, further away from the Sun, you should have put the outer gas planets.

Mostly made from gas are the outer gas planets, mostly made from solid rock are the inner rocky planets.

Oh, wouldn't have gas that based on the name.

The colder planets are the outer gas planets.

The warmer planets are the inner rocky planets.

And the ones that often have rings of dust and rock around them are the outer gas planets.

Now I would like you to read the clues and work out which planet is which below.

You may have to look back at your notes to help you.

First, which planet is the hottest planet? Two, which is the largest planet? Three, which planet spins on its side? Four, which planet is closest to the Sun? Five, which planet is red due to the iron minerals in its surface? Six, which planet is the furthest away from the sun? And seven, which planet is known for its seven rings that are easy to see? Pause the video to complete the task.

You can resume it once you finish so we can mark our work.

The hottest planet was Venus.

The largest planet was Jupiter.

The planet that spins on its side was Uranus.

The planet that's closest to the Sun is Mercury.

The planet that's red due to the iron minerals in its surface is Mars.

The planet that's furthest away from the Sun is Neptune.

And the planet that's known for its seven rings that are easy to see is Saturn.

For our final task, I would like you to think about this question.

Why might it be difficult to study planets in detail? And do you think that some planets are easier to study than others, why? If you're stuck with your thinking task, have a think about how do we study those planets? What kind of things do we use? Are there any limitations that would make it harder to study some of those? We have now finished our lesson and it's time for you to complete your exit quiz.

You need to exit the video and complete the quiz to test your knowledge and understanding of this lesson.

I hope you enjoyed the lesson, bye.