Ball-oon Moon
Students use balloons to approximate the relative sizes of the Earth and the Moon and estimate the relative distance between them using the scale of the inflated balloons.
Standards
Idea Sheets are cross-referenced to subjects listed in the Common Core, Next Generation Science Standards, and California Content Standards.
Mathematical Practices: 1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. 2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. 3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. 4. Model with mathematics. 5. Use appropriate tools strategically. 6. Attend to precision. 7. Look for and make use of structure. 8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. ||Common Core Mathematics||Grade 3||Mathematical Practices|||Mathematical Practices: 1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. 2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. 3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. 4. Model with mathematics. 5. Use appropriate tools strategically. 6. Attend to precision. 7. Look for and make use of structure. 8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. ||Common Core Mathematics||Grade 4||Mathematical Practices|||Mathematical Practices: 1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. 2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. 3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. 4. Model with mathematics. 5. Use appropriate tools strategically. 6. Attend to precision. 7. Look for and make use of structure. 8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. ||Common Core Mathematics||Grade 5||Mathematical Practices|||Analyze and interpret data to determine scale properties of objects in the solar system. [Examples of scale properties include the sizes of an object’s layers (such as crust and atmosphere), surface features (such as volcanoes), and orbital radius.] ||Next Generation Science Standards||Middle School||Earth and Space Science||Earth’s Place in the Universe|||Mathematical Practices: 1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. 2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. 3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. 4. Model with mathematics. 5. Use appropriate tools strategically. 6. Attend to precision. 7. Look for and make use of structure. 8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. ||Common Core Mathematics||Grade 6||Mathematical Practices|||6.RP.1. Understand the concept of a ratio and use ratio language to describe a ratio relationship between two quantities. For example, “”The ratio of wings to beaks in the bird house at the zoo was 2:1, because for every 2 wings there was 1 beak.”” “”For every vote candidate A received, candidate C received nearly three votes.””||Common Core Mathematics||Grade 6||Ratios And Proportional Relationships||Understand Ratio Concepts And Use Ratio Reasoning To Solve Problems|||6.RP.3. Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems, e.g., by reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number line diagrams, or equations.||Common Core Mathematics||Grade 6||Ratios And Proportional Relationships||Understand Ratio Concepts And Use Ratio Reasoning To Solve Problems|||Mathematical Practices: 1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. 2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. 3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. 4. Model with mathematics. 5. Use appropriate tools strategically. 6. Attend to precision. 7. Look for and make use of structure. 8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. ||Common Core Mathematics||Grade 7||Mathematical Practices|||7.RP.1. Compute unit rates associated with ratios of fractions, including ratios of lengths, areas and other quantities measured in like or different units. For example, if a person walks 1/2 mile in each 1/4 hour, compute the unit rate as the complex fraction 1/2/1/4 miles per hour, equivalently 2 miles per hour.||Common Core Mathematics||Grade 7||Ratios And Proportional Relationships||Analyze Proportional Relationships And Use Them To Solve Real-World And Mathematical Problems|||7.RP.2. Recognize and represent proportional relationships between quantities.||Common Core Mathematics||Grade 7||Ratios And Proportional Relationships||Analyze Proportional Relationships And Use Them To Solve Real-World And Mathematical Problems|||Mathematical Practices: 1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. 2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. 3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. 4. Model with mathematics. 5. Use appropriate tools strategically. 6. Attend to precision. 7. Look for and make use of structure. 8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. ||Common Core Mathematics||Grade 8||Mathematical Practices
4.d. The Earth is one of several planets that orbit the sun, and the moon orbits the Earth.||CA Science||Grade 3||03. Earth Sciences||4. Objects in the sky move in regular and predictable patterns.|||5.b. The solar system includes the Earth, moon, sun, eight other planets and their satellites, and smaller objects such as asteroids and comets.||CA Science||Grade 5||03. Earth Sciences||5. The solar system consists of planets and other bodies that orbit the sun in predictable paths.|||1.0 Students choose appropriate units of measure and use ratios to convert within and between measurement systems to solve problems.||CA Mathematics||Grade 7||03. Measurement and Geometry|||4.e. The appearance, general composition, relative position and size, and motion of objects in the solar system, including planets, planetary satellites, comets, and asteroids.||Grade 8||01. Physical Sciences||4. Earth in the Solar System||4. The structure and composition of the universe can be learned from the study of stars and galaxies, and their evolution.
- Earth and Space Science
- Grades 3-5
- Grades 6-8
- Science
- Math