Planet years

Planet years

Auto-markingPencil and paperOnline interactive
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about reading a table to work out how far a planet is from the Sun.
The length of a year is the time it takes a planet to orbit the Sun. Because of the distances in space, the speed the planets travel can be thought of as similar.
Use the information on the length of a year for each planet to answer the questions below.
 
Planet Length of Year
A 687 days
B 225 days
C 84 years
D 165 years
E  88 days
Earth 365 days

Question

a)  What planet is the furthest from the Sun?

    • A

    • B

    • C

    • D

    • E

    • Earth

Question

b)  Which planet is the closest to the Sun? 

    • A

    • B

    • C

    • D

    • E

    • Earth

Question

c)  Which planet is the closest to the Earth?

    • A

    • B

    • C

    • D

    • E

Question Change answer

d) Put the planets in order, from closest to the Sun to furthest from the Sun.
 
  • sun.png
  • A.png
  • B.png
  • C.png
  • D.png
  • E.png
  • earth.png
Task administration: 
This task can be completed with pencil and paper or online with auto-marking.
Level:
5
Curriculum info: 
Science, Communicating in science, Planet Earth
Keywords: 
astronomical systems, planets, orbits, table interpretation, sequencing
Description of task: 
Students interpret information about unnamed planets and their length of year to answer questions about their distance from the Sun and the order of these planets from the Sun.
Curriculum Links: 
Science capabilities
The capabilities focus is brought about by the conversations you have and the questions you ask.
 
Capability: Interpret representations
This resource provides opportunities to discuss the data in a graph.
Science capabilities: 
Interpret representations
Answers/responses: 
 

Y10 (08/20001)

a)

D

difficult

b)

E

moderate

c)

B

very easy

d)

Any 1 of: 

  • E, B, Earth, A, C, D
  • If their answers to parts a) and b) are wrong remove these, and then mark the middle four responses for correct order, e.g., C, E, B, Earth, D, A is therefore a correct answer.

difficult
Diagnostic and formative information: 
 

Common errors

a)

54% of students gave A as the answer.

b)

52% of students gave C as the answer.

c)

51% of students gave the sequence C E D B Earth A as the answer.