Yesterday I talked a little bit about how my kids avoid summer learning loss. Kitty has been reading and working on these awesome Star Wars Printables.
Those are too young for Nate, though he has be helping his sister with them. He earns his video game time by working through the Brain Quest Grade 4 Workbook. For every three pages he finishes he is allowed an hour of video games. This works our well and is helped by the fact that the Brain Quest workbooks are colorful, engaging and cover subjects ranging from Social Studies to Reading Comprehension. It’s the best workbook that I’ve found, and the only one Nate didn’t just immediately scoff at.
Today he was working on some pages about the phases of the moon. He was having trouble figuring out exactly how the moon rotated around the earth, and SD Googled “3d solar system” and the first link that popped up was so cool and helpful that I had to share it with you.
The Interactive Solar System Scope is a movable 3D model of the solar system.From their website:
SOLAR SYSTEM SCOPE
SSS is Flash based 3D model of Planets of Solar System and the Night Sky.
The Model consists of 3 main Views (Heliocentric, Geocentric and Panaromatic), including:
• Precise Positions of all Celestial Objects according to NASA Calculations
• Schematic Distances and Sizes for better understanding of Planet Surfaces and Motions
• a unique feature to Drag Planets through their Orbits
• a lot of interesting Settings which allow you to Observe particular Motions and Events
• Distance Calculator to measure distances between Planets even while in motion
• Earth Observatory set-up with which you can watch Celestial Happenings on your Night SkySSS mean Astronomy for EverybodyKids play with Planets while Discovering Universe. Our youngest regular visitors are only 7-8 years old. Many Teachers use our model as a practical Source of Education and with SSS they are able to show and simply explain happenings in our Solar System. But anyone can benefit from SSS: it brings Knowledge, Fun and Visual Experience.
The model was developed by a Slovakian company called Sunaeon. They created the model so that they could combine their skills in Flash development with their passion for astronomy. They even allow you to embed it on your site, so you can check it out below without leaving!
