What are asteroids? Broken planets, moons, space debris? Take your young astronomers to the dividing line between our inner and outer planets with an engaging video. The narrator describes both early and current ideas regarding the origin of asteroids, as well as their composition, orbits, and interactions with planets.

Concepts

the solar system, asteroids, jupiter, mars, space exploration, orbiting, gravity

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Show the video as a part of a solar system unit or as an example of current space exploration projects
• Have the class create a timeline of asteroid discovery to illustrate the amount of time it took for the Main Belt to be fully realized

Classroom Considerations

• Learners should have some prior knowledge of the planets near the asteroid belt, including their orbiting patterns around the sun

• This video is hosted on YouTube

Pros

• Video contains animations that show different methods of orbiting, which helps pupils understand some of the more technical terms
• Presents content in such a way that students of a variety of ages can benefit from viewing the resource

Cons

• None