• Question: If you had too teach us a lesson on the solar system how would you make it an interesting and fun lesson for us??

    Asked by debbiiedebz to Laura, Lily, Mark, Paul, Sarah on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by tara97, dekhanxxx.
    • Photo: Mark Roberts

      Mark Roberts answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Hmmmm that’s a tough one as my expertise is really in biochemistry – so I know a lot about cells and how they work but not so much the universe

      I guess what I’d do is try and take you to a planetarium as they are really cool places and look around the sky in one of them

      Now if you asked me to teach you stuff on biochemistry then I’d probably make a jelly baby expolode so you can see how much energy there is in the sugar

    • Photo: Lily Asquith

      Lily Asquith answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      First I would tell you about how the solar system came to be, because I think that is one of the most amazing things I learnt at college.

      Almost alll of the atoms in our bodies and in the earth and moon and other planets were made inside a star that is now dead and gone.

      Our solar system is the result of a supernova explosion far out in distant space. A giant star exploded and all the atoms in it flew out into space. Some of it mixed with interstellar dust and eventually gathered together under gravity and formed our solar syatem.

      The actual atoms inside your body now were once part of a giant star that existed billions of years ago.

    • Photo: Laura Maliszewski

      Laura Maliszewski answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      We could talk about what a solar system is, what defines a planet and then have a discussion about Pluto and its panetary/exoplanetary status.

    • Photo: Paul Roche

      Paul Roche answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I do this sort of thing several times a year – it’s a bit easier for me, as I can bring in real space rocks (meteorites), and even a piece of the Moon and mars that i have, plus telescopes and rockets so we can find out more about how humans learn about the planets. I can show you what we know about the 300 or so planets that we’ve discovered around other stars, and look at the evidence for life in the universe (I have a talk on UFOs which is quite good fun I think). I can make comets out of dry ice (solid carbon dioxide), and I have special telescopes for looking at the Sun.

      Does that sound more interesting than what you normally do?

    • Photo: Sarah Bardsley

      Sarah Bardsley answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Have you dress up as the planets – taking their characteristics into account.

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