Home: Earth from an Astronomical Perspective

The Earth is our home. How many of us can live here? How unique is the Earth in all the solar system? Investigate what the universe looks like from the surface of the Earth and why we divided our planet up into hemispheres, time zones, longitude and latitude. Find out how we took our first steps into orbit around this big blue marble we call the Earth and what it taught us about our own planet – Home.

This Course Includes Great Bonus Lesson: What on Earth is Astronomy?

Home

1. Objective

2. Warm-up activity

3. Humanity’s unique place on Earth

4. The Earth and water

5. The Earth and the human population

6. Discussion of how many people the Earth can sustain

7. The future of humans on Earth

8. Satellites and their functions in orbit around the Earth

9. Types of orbits, including what an orbit is

10. GPS satellites

11. How an orbit is achieved

12. Low-Earth orbit

13. Medium-Earth orbit

14. High-Earth orbit

15. The Earth’s atmosphere

16. Humanity’s first astronauts

17. Life in orbit

18. Pictures of Earth from other planets in the Solar System

19. The International Space Station

20. Areas of Earth that are habitable and uninhabitable

21. The hostility of space to life as we know it

22. Earth’s signals to the galaxy

23. The Earth and Moon’s interaction

24. The concept of a barycenter

25. Explanation for the Earth’s seasons

26. The Earth’s Hemispheres

27. The Equator, Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn

28. The prime meridian and time on Earth

29. Longitude and latitude

30. The Earth’s axis and precession

31. What the heck is an Analemma?

32. Compare and contrast Earth’s size with other planets in the Solar System

33. The Earth’s composition and core

34. The Earth’s magnetic field and its function

35. Solar wind, ionized gasses and the aurora

36. Test questions

37. Cross-curricular activities