This exercise helps students memorize both the order and the relative distances of the nine major planets and provides some insight about other related objects as well. Attending to the Material Ask students to discuss and list the planets in order from the Sun outward, individually or at the blackboard as a group. Support the discussion by referring to a wide variety of visual representations of the planets, pointing out that the relative scale is rarely depicted accurately, and why. The activity provides a combination of physical expressiveness and cooperative learning as the students work in groups to complete the task of laying out the planets of the Solar System. The teacher's role is primarily to get things started in an expressive manner and then get out of the way, letting the students construct the Solar System layout.
Students enjoy the process and have an experience that aids memorization.
A wide variety of visual aids to help students visualize the scale of the Solar System. This means embedding content in activities that physicalize ideas and concepts in group movement activities. The key to any kinesthetic approach is to think through how a complex or abstract science concept can be communicated directly as a movement experience. With such an experience, the student remembers the content longer and more vividly than many other modes of instruction. Embedding content means that the movement idea is not just a superficial attempt to go through the motions , but that the structure of the idea, theory, concept, or information is organized to be expressed directly as a movement sequence of action that is readily accomplished by the students.