Pluto

This week in Science, I am teaching the benchmark 4a: names the nine planets. Oops! There are only eight planets. For those of you not up on your science, Pluto has been kicked out of the planet club.

Last year, around this same time, it was announced that a tenth planet, Xena, and its' moon, Gabrielle, had been discovered. My students had a fabulous time making up a new verse to our planet poem and smiling knowingly when worksheets referred to the "nine planets." I guess this year they'll smile knowingly for a new reason. I'm planning to teach the eight planets and discuss both Pluto and Xena.

I think that this is very exciting. I want it to give my students the early understanding that science is still evolving, and hopefully open their minds to the idea that they, too, could one day discover something that expands, refines, or explains part of our current body of scientific knowledge.

I'm sure teachers are capitalizing on this all over the country. What a great research topic for an informational report: "What makes a planet a planet." Or an interesting and relevant timeline project: "Pluto, from unknown to planet to dwarf planet." Or a fantastic topic for debate "Pluto, Planet vs. Just Another Space Rock?" The list goes on. If my kids were a few grades up, we'd be doing all of those (time pending and Curriculum Overseer vanquished.)