< Water in Extreme Environments

How to Teach These Units

Take a little time to prepare and get ready to teach. The pages linked below give you an easy-to-follow checklist and resources that get you prepared for facilitating PLANETS activities.

At Home Activity: Water in the Solar System Investigation

This Water in the Solar System game was created by PLANETS, a partnership between learning experts and planetary scientists to create fun educational activities using NASA science. PLANETS is funded by NASA and stands for Planetary Learning that Advances the Nexus of Engineering, Technology, and Science.

Age Range:

This game is intended for kids ages 11-14 years to play independently or with family members. The bonus engineering activity is intended as a family activity.

Time needed:

About 30 minutes for each activity

Gather/print

Optional:

Get excited!

Is Earth the only place that has water in our Solar System? No!

These games are about where else to find water in the solar system.

First, get to know the cards!

(HINT: some objects have multiple cards so look closely!)

Front of Card

Back of Card

Water in the Solar System Solitaire
1 Player Card Game

Set up

Make 6 piles of 5 cards. The rest of the cards form a draw pile.

Game play

(Similar to the card game Solitaire)

  • Goal: Build the solar system in order from the Sun.
  • To play: Move cards from the 6 piles to the blank spaces and flip the next card in that pile over.
  • Move planets first. Moons and repeat planets go under (in no particular order) their respective planet.
  • If 1 of the 6 piles runs out, you can place cards you can’t play there to uncover more cards.
  • If you can’t play any of the top cards in the 6 piles or draw pile, start over and try again.
  • When you run out of cards, you’ve won!

Where’s the water?
1 Player Card Game

  • Spread out each pile so you can see all cards in each planetary system.
  • Flip all the cards to the back so you can add up the amount of water. This can be found in the water droplet. 💧
  • Which planetary system has the most water?

Planetary bodies of the Solar System
2-5 player card games

Accretion (like the card game War)

  • Goal: Win all the cards
  • Shuffle the cards while keeping the planet sides up
  • Deal cards evenly among players
  • Each player flips over their top card

  • The card with the highest gravity number takes all cards played and adds them to their hand
  • If the gravity is the same, there is a battle
    • Each player in the battle places 1 card planet-side down and 1 card planet-side up
    • Whoever has the highest gravity number wins all cards played

Crazy Earths (like Crazy 8’s)

  • Goal: Get rid of all the cards
  • Mix up the cards
  • Deal 6 cards to each player, leaving a draw pile
  • The top draw pile card starts the game
  • Players play cards that match one of the “suits”
  • You can play a crazy Earth anytime, and declare the next suit
  • If you don’t have a card you can play, then draw a card and either play it or end your turn.

Level up!

Engineer a way to reuse water with your family!

It seems like all this water in the solar system is either frozen or dirty…

If we melted it, could we clean it like we do here on Earth?

Let’s try to engineer a way to filter dirty water!

But first…

We need to get some dirty water. It can be used water from washing dishes or other gently used sources.

What your design needs to do:

  • Filter out particles in water you can see
  • Make water usable for watering plants
  • Not waste clean water

Engineer it

  • Draw your plan on the back of this page
  • Find materials around your house & build your filter

Test it

  • Try your filter with half your dirty water
  • Compare before and after
  • Does one have less visible particles?
    • If not, try drying out your filter to see what it caught.
  • Do you think it’s clean enough to water plants?

Improve it

  • If your water didn’t look cleaner, that’s okay!
  • Failure teaches engineers how to improve their designs.
  • Talk to your family about how to improve your filter.