Apologia Venus

Venus was a really fun planet to study! 

 It's a great excuse to experiment with volcanoes!  

Here's a walk through our study of this unit in Apologia's Astronomy book.

 

Baking Soda and Vinegar Volacano!

We found an experiment in this book for an underwater volcano!

 Underwater volcano: Put hot water and food coloring in a small container

 (I used an old inkwell).  Fill the large jar 3/4 full of very cold water.

 Use string to lower the small container into the larger.

 Watch what happens!

 The heat rises! 

 Oooooooooh...

Radar is used to take pictures of Venus because it's atmosphere is so thick.

  Bouncy ball radar activity: 

1.  Place the blindfold on the child and hand them the ball.

2. Spin the around then face them towards a wall.             

3. Have the child throw the ball at the wall in front of them.
4. By listening to when it bounces, they guess if they are near or far away from the wall.

5 . Repeat at various distances.  (He loved this activity!).  

Thick atmosphere:

• Craft: Use a plastic container from a vending machine or a clear globe.  Paint clouds inside.  When it dries, play the game below using your new "Venus sphere."

•  Place an object in the Venus sphere.  Ask someone to guess what's in it.  Discuss how radar would help determine the object's size (dimensions).

• Eye Spy container:  Place objects in an empty peanut-butter or baby-food jar and fill it with clear beads or clear poly-fill beads.  Give your child the list of items that are inside the jar.  (This makes a fun travel game, but be certain to secure the lid closed!)  

Drawing Comparisons:

• Earth and Venus are very similar in size, and they are both terrestrial planets, but the are very different.  Daytime on Venus is about as bright as a cloudy day on Earth and the Sun would look like a yellow-orange smear of light.  The ground on Venus is flat (due to the crushing weight of the atmosphere) with some dust, gravel, and flat broken rock.  Mountains are higher than any one Earth.  A valley is longer and deeper than the grand canyon.  The gravity is about the same, but there are always thunderstorms somewhere on the planet and lightning flashes about 25x per second!

• Language Arts: Familiar Sayings relating to Earth and Venus being twins: "Looks can be deceiving" so "don't judge a book by its cover."

• Rotating:  Venus spins the opposite direction of the Earth.  (More proof that the Big Bang theory doesn't make sense).  Activity: Spin 2 tops at the same time, but in different directions.

 

Art:

Line a shoebox with a piece of paper.  

 Dip a "top" in paint and spin it in the shoebox. 

 

 Dip a different color and spin the top the opposite direction.

Check it out- he did it!

Summarizing:

• Use Clothespins and glue a word or picture to them.  Then clip them onto a cardboard (or felt) cut out of Venus.    (Examples: hot, volcanic, thick atmosphere, sulfuric acid). 

 

• Planet Pancakes!  For Venus use strawberries as the volcanoes and chocolate chips for lava rock.  Cut the strawberry top off and a bit off the bottom to expose a hole.  fill it with whipped cream until it comes out the top.  Pour "lava"  (strawberry puree, jam, or syrup) over the surface of your planet (pancake). 

I hope you enjoy your study of Venus as much as we did!  

For more information about how God is calling our family to THAILAND to work with homeschooling missionary families, please visit our website by clicking here.