The Human-Powered Orrery is a kinesthetic model of planetary motion in the inner solar system. Most solar system models made in classrooms are simple line-ups of the planets in a straight line with no indication of how the planets move. The Human Powered Orrery is a 3-dimensional model where the planets are laid out first in two dimensions spatially along orbit lines, then set in motion to show how the planets closer to the Sun orbit faster than the outer planets. So the 3rd dimension in this model is time. Students take turns acting out the planet movements taking 2-week long steps. Human-Powered Orrery Teacher Guides:
The 2015 version has a major improvement in materials preparation over previous versions. In early versions, students measure out the radius of each planet's orbit using a 2.5 meter piece of thin rope or string with knots tied along the rope to measure the scale distance to each planet: 58cm (Mercury), 108cm (Venus), 150cm (Earth) and 228cm (Mars). The rope was used to trace out radius distance to orbit lines along which students use masking or painter’s tape indoors or chalk (outdoors) to put marks at 2-week intervals.
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