Solar Plasma Collage Activity
| Levels |
|
|---|---|
| Material Type |
|
| Heliophysics Big Ideas |
|
| NGSS |
|
| Heliophysics Topics |
|
| Material Cost per Learner | 1 cent – $1 |
| Language | English |
This creative hands-on project invites students to artistically represent the Sun's plasma properties using colored craft paper. Through this engaging activity, students will visualize temperature variations within the Sun by selecting different colors and illustrate plasma density through the arrangement and layering of paper elements. Students have full creative freedom to develop their own visual interpretation of solar plasma, expressing their understanding of solar physics through artistic choices of size, shape, color, and texture. This activity combines scientific concepts with artistic expression, allowing students to demonstrate their understanding of the Sun's properties in a personalized, colorful format.
Educators can adapt the activity for different ages; for example, younger children can work together to create a collaborative collage; older children can outline the layers of the Sun, from the core to the corona, on the black construction paper using a pencil, white chalk, or a compass. As an applied math activity, they can also calculate and draw a scale model, based on the distances provided on the poster. Background knowledge about the Sun is provided by this NASA poster: Mind Melting Facts about the Sun, which can also be accessed at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4668.