OpenSciEd Physics + Earth & Space Unit 4: Meteors, Orbits & Gravity Student Edition

OpenSciEd High School addresses all high school NGSS standards. This comprehensive science curriculum empowers students to question, design, investigate, and solve the world around them. 

• Phenomenon Based - Centered around exploring phenomena or solving problems
• Driven by Student Questions - Storyline based on students’ questions and ideas 
• Grounded in Evidence - Incremental building and revision of ideas based on evidence 
• Collaborative - class and teacher figure out ideas together
• Equitable - Builds a classroom culture that values ideas and learning of all

The OpenSciEd model uses a storyline approach, introducing phenomena that anchors storylines developing disciplinary core ideas, concepts, and science/engineering practices. Students are encouraged to dive deep into key points and solve problems through five activities. 

P.4 Meteors, Orbits & Gravity: How have collisions with objects from space changed Earth in the past, and how could they affect our future?

This unit is designed to introduce students to the motion of objects in our solar system through the perspectives of matter, force, and energy. The learning is anchored by the appearance of a large fireball in the sky over Siberia in 2013 (the Chelyabinsk meteor). This phenomenon provides the context in which to investigate how and why objects from space sometimes collide with Earth. To figure this out, students apply the concepts of Newton’s universal law of gravitation, orbital motion, energy transfer with gravitational fields, and the history of Earth.