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Interactive
American Association of Physics Teachers

Com Padre Digital Library: Open Source Physics: Schwarzschild Particle Program

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Visualization using the Schwarzschild metric, showing the behavior of an object as it orbits about a black hole.
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Interactive
American Association of Physics Teachers

Com Padre Digital Library: Open Source Physics: General Relativity Classical

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Visual simulation of the Newtonian orbit of an object around a mass includes a graph of the effective potential.
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Website
Enchanted Learning

Enchanted Learning: Zoom Astronomy

For Students 3rd - 5th
Where is our Solar System? How far away is the sun? What makes up the sun? Find out all you want to know about our solar system. This is a comprehensive on-line site about space and astronomy. Check out all of the excitement!
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Unit Plan
Sophia Learning

Sophia: The Sun and Moon: Lesson 3

For Students 7th - 8th
This lesson will analyze the role of the sun and moon relative to the earth's orbit. It is 3 of 4 in the series titled "The Sun and Moon."
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Unit Plan
Sophia Learning

Sophia: The Sun and Moon: Lesson 4

For Students 7th - 8th
This lesson will analyze the role of the sun and moon relative to the earth's orbit. It is 4 of 4 in the series titled "The Sun and Moon."
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Website
Physics4kids

Physics 4 Kids: General Physics

For Students 3rd - 8th
This website will teach you about heliosphere, heliopause, stars, the moon and orbits.
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Interactive
Physics Classroom

The Physics Classroom: Kepler's Second Law

For Students 9th - 10th
Kepler's second law of planetary motion is stated and explained. An animation of the orbit of a planet and an accompanying graphic assists in explaining the meaning of the law of equal areas.
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Website
University of St. Andrews (UK)

University of St. Andrews: Orbits and Gravitation

For Students 9th - 10th
A page describing the physics, mathematics, and historical figures associated with planetary motion, satellite motion, and universal gravitation.
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Website
NASA

Nasa Star Child: Mercury

For Students 3rd - 8th
Provides good information about Mercury and is a good starting point for information about the planet along with pictures and audio. Links to a simple fact table, puzzle, glossary, and more detailed information.
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Handout
Georgia State University

Georgia State University: Hyper Physics: Global Positioning Satellites

For Students 9th - 10th
The physics associated with global positioning satellites is discussed. The mechanism by which they triangulate the location of an object is described.
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Handout
Georgia State University

Georgia State University: Hyper Physics: Circular Orbit

For Students 9th - 10th
The necessity of gravitation to a circular orbit is discussed and equations for the orbital speed are derived from the law of universal gravitation. Binary systems in which two objects orbit about a center of mass are explained and...
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Website
Ducksters

Ducksters: Astronomy for Kids: The Planet Earth

For Students 1st - 9th
This site is astronomy for kids and teachers! Here students can learn about the planet Earth of the Solar System including fun facts, mass, day, year, and distance from the Sun.
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Lesson Plan
Other

Sandburg Center for Sky Awareness: What Are the Shapes of the Planets' Orbits?

For Teachers 6th - 8th
In this lesson plan investigation students learn about the shapes of the planetary orbits by experimenting with ellipses of different proportions.
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Graphic
Curated OER

Hyper Physics: Global Positioning Satellites

For Students 9th - 10th
The physics associated with global positioning satellites is discussed. The mechanism by which they triangulate the location of an object is described.