Planet X

This week in class we were asked to find some articles that have to do with science, and the atmosphere. I chose articles that had to do with the new Planet that they may have discovered. Within this project we worked with a group of people to come up with a time line to teach our science in the news to the class. I found it interesting that a lot of the class picked the same couple of articles. Some of the class thought out side of the box and picked articles that had to do with early science or with future science and I thought that was an interesting approach. Although all of my articles had to do with Planet X my co-teachers picked articles that had to do more with space and the discovery of the other planets so that is the direction we went with.
The science issue involved in my articles was firs the question of what makes up a planet and does this so call planet meet that criteria. We at one point agreed that Pluto was a planet until we decided to change the criteria for what a planet is and now poor Pluto is just a dwarf planet. A lot of the articles had to do with the issue surrounding what a planet is and if this planet meets that list of criteria. I those these articles because I wanted to choose something new and exciting. This is happening in our lifetime a planet may become deemed as such, and since I was taught that Pluto was a planet and it wasn't until I was out of high school that they deemed it wasn't I thought it would be cool to watch this planet become a planet. I believe that by the time I become a teacher this issue will be almost solved and it will have to be taught in classes that planet x is a planet and I want to have that leg up on the material. I think that it would be cool to see it happen as well. I would use this news article to show my class that the world and everything we know about it is always changing and that applies to outer space as well as everything else that is science. Science is not a yes or no and it is rarely clear cut and is always changing and evolving and I could show the students that by introducing the new "Planet X" and tie it in with Pluto. Explain to the class that Pluto use to be a planet and it is not any more because science changed and so did the criteria for a planet. The students could research Pluto and we could go through the check list of things that make a plane ta planet and discover together why it is not a planet. The class could then break up into groups and explore the new planet and decide if it fits or doesn't fit the criteria for a planet.

(Pluto)

( Planet X)

Criteria for being a planet

The link is there if you would like to use this idea for a lesson plan:)