Comets
Teacher Page: National Standards

The Online Exploration Comets includes three separate activities:
“Mix a Comet,” “Comet Tails,” and “Comet Facts, Myths & Legends.”

“Mix a Comet” and “Comet Tails” Education Standards
Grade Level: 6-8 — Target Grade: 7
Learning Outcomes Project 2061 Standards
Upon completion of “Mix a Comet” and “Comet Tails” students will be able to explore the nature and composition of comets in order to create their own comets, and identify different types of tails.

4. The Physical Setting:
A. The Universe.
By the end of the 8th grade, students should know that:

  • Large numbers of chunks of rock orbit the sun. Some of those that the earth meets in its yearly orbit around the sun glow and disintegrate from friction as they plunge through the atmosphere and sometimes impact the ground. Other chunks of rocks mixed with ice have long, off- center orbits that carry them close to the sun, where the sun's radiation (of light and particles) boils off frozen material from their surfaces and pushes it into a long, illuminated tail.

Learning Outcome Project 2061 Standards
“Comet Tails” Education Standards
Grade level: 6-8 — Target grade: 7
After using teacher-provided materials to learn about comet composition and tails, students will identify different types of comet tails.

4. The Physical Setting:
A: The Universe.
By the end of the 8th grade, students should know that:

  • Large numbers of chunks of rock orbit the sun. Some of those that the earth meets in its yearly orbit around the sun glow and disintegrate from friction as they plunge through the atmosphere and sometimes impact the ground. Other chunks of rocks mixed with ice have long, off- center orbits that carry them close to the sun, where the sun's radiation (of light and particles) boils off frozen material from their surfaces and pushes it into a long, illuminated tail.

Learning Outcomes McREL Standards & Benchmarks
“Comet Facts, Myths & Legends” Education Standards
Grade level: 6-8 — Target grade: 7
Students will read to learn about comet facts, history, and discoveries.

Language Arts Standard 7.
Level II (Grades 3-5) Benchmark 1:
Uses reading skills and strategies to understand a variety of informational texts (e.g., textbooks, biographical sketches, letters, diaries, directions, procedures, magazines).

Language Arts Standard 7.
Level III (Grades 6-8) Benchmark 1:
Uses reading skills and strategies to understand a variety of informational texts (e.g., electronic texts; textbooks; biographical sketches; directions; essays; primary source historical documents, including letters and diaries; print media, including editorials, news stories, periodicals, and magazines; consumer, workplace, and public documents, including catalogs, technical directions, procedures, and bus routes).