ryan fu-sum lesson plan 2012_09_10

Sample Lesson Relative clauses and receptive skills

Ryan Fu-Sum

10/9/2012

Objective: To deliver an English language lesson covering aspects of grammar, comprehension, and writing for a young, 13 year old, native English speaker

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Tutor: Ryan Fu-Sum Date: 10/9/2012 Length of lesson: 90 min Level: 13 y/o native English speaker Materials: Article: Is it chess? Or is it boxing?, worksheet, diagram, cards with pictures and relative pronouns Article: World’s beyond the solar system, worksheet, timeline, picture with headline Aims: To improve the student’s understanding and use of relative clauses. Secondary Aims: To improve the SS competence in extracting information from and fully understanding science articles. Action points from previous lessons to work on: Anticipated problems: Concept/Meaning: The student may not grasp the difference between defining and non-defining relative clauses. Form: Phonology: Instructions: Other: The student is a 13 y/o boy and may lose interest in the context of the lesson. The student may have trouble focusing.

Solutions: Concept/Meaning: Provide the student with a diagram visualizing the logical relationships distinguishing defining and non-defining clauses. Form: Phonology: Instructions: Other: Select material suitable for his age. The articles refer to sports and space exploration. The lead-in is kinaesthetic in the first and a role-play in the second.

Time/I.P. Stage Objective Procedure Tutor Comment 5 min

3 min

7 min

15 min

10 min

10 min

5 min

Lead-in

Gist reading

Detailed comprehension

Clarification

Controlled practice

Freer practice

Lesson break

To engage the student To ensure the student understands the context To ensure the student comprehends the meaning of the text To clarify meaning and form To enable the student to improve their accuracy with the target language To allow the student to the produce the target language in real situations

Instruct student to combine two sports, describe the rules, and act out the sport. Select two pictures as an example. Instruct student to quickly read the article: Is it chess? Or is it boxing? Ask the student the gist questions. Feedback. Instruct student read and answer the detailed. Feedback. Noticing task: Instruct student to complete the gap fill sentences. Elicit meaning of the target language (relative clauses) and clarify with CCQs. Instruct the student to complete the diagram distinguishing defining from non-defining relative clauses. Elicit form and clarify with CCQs. Instruct student perform the exercise of combining two sentences using relative clauses. Instruct student to form a sentence with a relative clause from two pictures and a specific relative pronoun. One picture describes the main clause. The other picture describes the relative clause.

5 min

5 min

5 min

7 min

13 min

Total: 90

Lead-in

Gist reading

Scan reading

Detailed comprehension

Productive extension

To engage the student To ensure the student understands the context To enable to student to locate specific information To ensure the student comprehends the meaning of the text To allow the student respond to the text and produce their own language

Ask the student to role-play an astronaut and describe an encounter with an extra-terrestrial. The instructor role-plays the extra-terrestrial. Instruct student to quickly read the article, Worlds beyond the solar system. Ask the student the gist questions. Feedback. Instruct the student to scan for dates and create a timeline. Feedback. Instruct student read and answer the detailed questions. Feedback. Provide the student with a picture and headline. Instruct student to write a brief article describing the picture and the headline.

Language Analysis Form

Tutor Level Date Minutes

Ryan Fu-Sum 13 y/o native English speaker 10/9/2012 90

Lesson type Text Based

Marker sentence Meaning (eliciting method, concept check questions)

Spoken form (stress, contractions, problem sounds, phonemic transcription)

Written form (highlighting form)

Relative clauses

• Defining (identifying)

• Non-defining Relative pronouns

• Who/Whom

• Which

• That

Relative clauses describe nouns or the main clause (adjectival). Defining clauses restrict when they describe Non-defining clauses only describe These pronouns function as the subject (or object) of a relative clause. Who/whom is used for describing people. Who is the subject pronoun. Whom is used as the object pronoun. Which is used to describe objects or the entire main clause. That may be used for describing objects or people in defining relative clauses.

Non-defining clauses are separated pauses and a change in intonation.

Non-defining relative clauses are separated by commas. Relative clause: < /,> + <relative subject pronoun> + <verb> + <object> or < /,> + <relative object pronoun> + <subject> + <verb> Relative clause in a sentence: <Subject> + <verb> + <object> + < /,> + <relative clause> or <Subject> + < /,> + <relative clause>+ <verb> + <object>

That is sometimes omitted when used as an object

• Where

• When

• Whose

Where is used to describe a place When is used to describe a specified time. Whose is possessive form of the relative pronoun who.

pronoun.

Materials

Relative clauses article and worksheet

UNIT 112

Relative clauses: review Relative clauses with which Vocabulary: sports

Read and listena Which of these words refer to boxing? Which of them refer to chess?

Which of them refer to both? Write each word in the correct column.

queen gloves ring board round referee checkmate

Sport with a difference

Is it chess? Or is it boxing?Is it chess? Or is it boxing?

boxing chess both

b Read the text quickly to fi nd answers to these questions.

1 What is chessboxing?

2 What nationality is the fi rst chessboxing world champion?

c CD1 T06 Read the text again and listen. Answer the questions.

1 Why is it ‘obvious’ that the crowd wants Frank Stoldt to win?

2 What are the two ways in which a match can fi nish?

3 How can chessboxing change some people’s opinions, according to David Depto?

4 How did Stoldt win the match to become champion?

It’s fi ght night in a Berlin club. The lights go down, the door opens and out walks a salesman from San Francisco. David ‘Double D’ Depto has travelled 8,000 kilometres in search of glory. As he fi rst walks, then jogs, towards the boxing ring, the muscular, bare-chested American looks cool and confi dent. But so does his opponent. Waiting for him in the blue corner is Frank Stoldt, a tall, strong German policeman, who calls himself ‘Anti-Terror Frank’. For obvious reasons, the crowd is on his side.

The bell rings. Round one! The fi ghters come out. But then, something rather strange happens. The two players sit down at a table which has a chessboard on it and start playing chess – in the middle of the boxing ring.

‘Why?’ you may ask yourself. Well, this is chessboxing, and tonight is the fi nal of the fi rst chessboxing World Championship.

The rules of a chessboxing match are simple. There is one round of chess and then one round of boxing. Punching power alternates with brain power. (And if you’re wondering how they can move the pieces with their boxing gloves on, well, they take them off before the rounds of chess.) All in all, you have 11 rounds in which to checkmate your opponent – or knock him out.

Two sports in one means double the pain, and double the pressure. Before this big fi ght, Frank spent hours doing exercises that prepared his mind as well as his muscles. Winners in chessboxing are people whose

mental strength equals their physical strength.

But why do it in the fi rst place? Why put yourself through this physical and mental torture? For David Depto, it’s all about proving that you can be a boxer and still have a brain.

‘Everybody thinks that boxers aren’t very clever, which isn’t necessarily true,’ says David. ‘When you combine chess and boxing, it shows that fi ghters can be smart people, and that smart people can be tough.’

The sport has taken off in Germany, where they are preparing the next generation of chessboxing champions. It’s even being taught in a Berlin school. ‘My mum said I should learn boxing for self-defence,’ a ten-year-old pupil says. ‘I just love the way you can combine it with chess.’

Back in the ring, it is round seven and the players are locked in battle around the chessboard, sweat pouring from their foreheads. Suddenly, Frank Stoldt sees an opening and moves in to fi nish the match. Queen to G7... checkmate!

The referee stops the match, the crowd erupts – the local hero has won and is given the world title belt, which proves that, when it comes to mixing brains and muscle, Germany really is the Grand Master.

www.cambridge.org© in this web service Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press978-0-521-18446-5 - English in Mind Student’s Book 4, Second EditionHerbert Puchta, Jeff Stranks and Peter Lewis-JonesExcerptMore information

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UNIT 1 13

2 Grammar Relative clauses: review Relative clauses: review

a Use the text in Exercise 1 to complete these sentences.

1 He is a tall, strong German policeman, who calls himself ‘Anti-Terror Frank’.

2 They sit down at a table has a chessboard on it.

3 Frank spent hours doing exercises prepare his mind as well as his muscles.

4 Winners in chessboxing are people mental strength equals their physical strength.

5 The sport has taken off in Germany, they are preparing the next generation of champions.

b Complete the rule.

RULE: We use to refer to people.

We use or to refer to things.

We use to refer to places.

We use to refer to possession.

c Mark the sentences D or A.

D = the underlined part gives defi ning, important information about the person or thing(s).

A = the underlined part gives additional information about the person or thing(s).

1 One of the best fi ghters is David Depto, who comes from San Francisco. A

2 There are more and more people who are interested in watching chessboxing.

3 There are schools in Germany that prepare kids to become chessboxers.

4 Chessboxing, which is a mixture of chess and boxing, is growing in popularity.

5 Frank Stoldt, whose nickname is ‘Anti-Terror Frank’, comes from Germany.

3 Grammar Relative clauses with Relative clauses with whichwhich

a Look at the examples. What does which refer to in these two sentences?

1 Everybody thinks that boxers aren’t very clever, which isn’t necessarily true.

2 He won the world championship, which proves that he’s a great fi ghter.

b Complete the rule. Write which and that.

RULE: The pronoun normally refers to a noun, but it can sometimes refer to the whole of a previous clause.What, and who cannot be used in this way.

Frank won the match, which made his fans very happy.NOT Frank won the match, what made his fans very happy.

c Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the fi rst. Use which.

1 People sometimes get badly hurt in boxing. That makes it a controversial sport.

People sometimes get badly hurt in boxing,

which makes it a controversial sport.

2 You need to be mentally and physically tough. This is why you need to prepare well.

You need to be to prepare well.

3 It is terrible that some people have been killed in boxing matches.

Some people terrible.

4 Chess is quite a complicated game. This means players have to concentrate a lot.

Chess concentrate a lot.

5 It is quite strange that two men sit in a boxing ring and play chess.

Two men sit quite strange.

6 The fact that chessboxing is becoming more popular means that we might start to see it on TV soon.

Chessboxing is becoming to see it on TV soon.

Discussion boxDiscussion box Think of two other sports that could

be combined to create a new sport, and explain how it would work.






UNIT 114

4 Speak and listena Look at the pictures and say what the sports are. Then put them into three categories.

Write the numbers in the boxes.

1 = have tried 2 = have never tried but would like to try 3 = have never tried and wouldn’t like to try

b What other sports can you add to each category?

c Work in pairs. Discuss your categories and give reasons for your choices.

d You are going to hear about two sportswomen: Fabiola da Silva (inline skater) and Allison Fisher (snooker and pool player). Try to guess who says the sentences.

1 ‘Being a girl just didn’t seem to matter.’

2 ‘Back in those days, there weren’t so many girls skating, and the skaters I really admired were men.’

3 ‘There was talk about me competing against the men and that created a lot of attention.’

4 ‘I didn’t know the game of pool, but I thought: how hard can it be?’

5 ‘I keep pushing the limits, you know.’

6 ‘I have my bad days, too.’

e CD1 T07 Listen and check your answers.

f CD1 T07 Listen to the fi rst part (about Allison Fisher) again and answer the questions.

1 How old was she when she started playing snooker? And when she became the number one player?

2 Why did she move to the USA?

3 How successful was she as a pool player in the USA?

CD1 T07 Listen to the second part (about Fabiola da Silva) again and answer the questions.

1 How old was she when she started skating? And when she turned professional?

2 Why did she become famous?

3 Why does she think she does well in competitions?

Discussion boxDiscussion box1 Do you know of any women who made it or

tried to make it in a male sport?

2 Do you think women and men should be allowed to compete in the same sports? Give your reasons.






UNIT 1 15

5 Vocabulary and speakin Sports Sports

a Read the texts. What sports are the people talking about? Choose from the sports in the table in Exercise 5c.

1 ‘The sea was really rough and the waves were huge. I got knocked off my board a few times but it was great.’ surfi ng.

2 ‘I took the ball past three of their defenders and then kicked it into the back of the net. All my team-mates ran across the pitch to celebrate with me. What a goal.’

3 ‘I love going down to the local rink to watch a game. The way those men move so quickly across the ice on their skates. And the control they have of the puck with their sticks. It’s amazing.’

4 ‘His glove hit me really hard in the face. I’m glad I was wearing a helmet. They had to carry me out of the ring.’

5 ‘He hit the ball into the net. He was so angry that he threw his racket on the ground. All around the court the spectators started booing him.’

6 ‘It’s my favourite sport. All you need is a cap, a costume and some goggles. There’s a really good pool just down the road from my house. I go every day. It’s great exercise.’

b CD1 T08 Listen and check your answers.

c Read the texts again and complete the table.

equipment needed place where it is done

tennis

football

ice hockey

boxing

surfi ng

swimming

ball,

d Work in pairs. Take turns to choose a sport. Your partner has fi ve yes/no questions to guess it.Do you need a ball? Is it a team sport? Do you play it inside?

e Complete the questions with the correct form of the verbs in the box.

win score get sent off draw beat lose

1 Do you think it’s silly that people get upset when their team loses. a match?

2 Have you ever a medal or a cup in a sport?

3 How would you feel if your best friend you in a race ?

4 What do you think of footballers’ celebrations after they a goal?

5 How do you think players feel when they by the referee?

6 In some sports (like basketball and baseball), it is impossible to

– one team must win. Do you think all sports should have this rule?

f Work in groups. Discuss the questions above.

Get it ri ht! Turn to page 118.

6 Pronunciation Intonation in questions Intonation in questions

CD1 T09 Turn to page 110.






UNIT 116

Discussion boxDiscussion box1 Which of these sports would

you like to try most? Give your reasons.

2 What other unusual sports have you heard of? Have you tried any of them?

3 Invent a crazy sport for a competition organised by a big national newspaper. Discuss what the rules are and how to play it.

b CD1 T10 Read the text again and listen. Answer the questions.

1 What do the sports described here all have in common?

2 Which of the sports can’t you do on your own?

3 There are two different techniques mentioned for one sport and three for another. What are they?

4 Which of the sports mentioned here is seen by some people as a type of theatre rather than a sport?

UNIT 116

7 Read and listena Read the text quickly and fi nd out:

1 where sand boarding is popular.

2 which sport you can do in lots of different settings.

from aroundthe world

ffrom frtheWeird sports

You might be surprised at the number of rather unusual sports that exist around the world. Mostly, they are little known outside the areas where they were invented – though occasionally they have gained international recognition. Here are some examples – but, if you’re interested, have a look on the web. You may fi nd other, even crazier, ones!

Sandboarding Of course there can’t be many people who don’t know what snowboarding is, but how about sandboarding? The basic principal behind the two sports is the same; start at the top of a slope and use a board to get you to the bottom. But whereas snowboarding is practised on freezing cold snowy mountain tops, sandboarding takes place on sand dunes by sunny beaches or in the desert. It’s popular in many countries, including Australia, Namibia and South Africa.

The quickest way of getting to the bottom involves standing with both feet on a board and weaving from side to side while trying not to fall off. If this sounds a little bit adventurous you could always just get on your stomach and slide down. Either way, it’s a lot of fun! However, don’t forget to keep your mouth closed.

Extreme ironing Extreme ironing is called an extreme sport by some and a performance art by others. It’s all about taking an ironing board to a remote location, where you then proceed to iron your clothes! According to the offi cial website, extreme ironing is ‘the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt’.

Part of the attention this has attracted in the media is to do with the issue of whether it is really a sport or not, and it is often not taken so seriously. Some locations where such performances have taken place include on a mountainside, in a forest, in a canoe, on a ski slope (while skiing), underwater, in mid-air (while parachuting) and under the ice on a frozen lake!

Wife-carryingThis sport was inspired by an ancient Finnish tradition in which a man courted a woman by running to her village, picking her up and carrying her away. In the modern sporting version, the man has to carry the woman along an obstacle course without her feet touching the fl oor. There is a clear set of rules. The track has to be 253.5 metres long and have one water and two dry obstacles. There are several ways of carrying the woman, including piggyback, fi reman’s lift (over the shoulder) or Estonian-style (the wife hangs upside down with her legs around the husband’s shoulders and holds onto his waist). Whoever completes the course in the fastest time wins the trophy (but not necessarily a wife these days!).






UNIT 1 17UNIT 1 17

For your portfolio

8 Writea Read the composition quickly. Do you think

the text was written by a girl or a boy? Give your reasons.

b Read the composition again and complete it with the words in the box.

to conclude moreover however for example

c What is the purpose of each paragraph? Write A–D in the boxes.

A the writer’s conclusionB positive pointsC introducing the topicD negative points

d Write your own composition on a different sport. Use the steps below to help you.

Think about the topic. Note down your ideas in a mind map.

Organise your ideas to fi t into four paragraphs:

Paragraph 1: introduce the topic Paragraph 2: positive points Paragraph 3: negative points Paragraph 4: your conclusion

Write your composition. Use your notes to help you.

If possible, have a break. Then check your writing and try to improve it, if you can.

What I think of boxing as a sportWhat I think ofWhat I think ofboxingb iboxing as a sporttas a sport

Boxing is a popular sport that many people seem to be fascinated by. Newspapers, magazines and sports programmes on TV frequently cover boxing matches. Professional boxers earn a lot of money, and successful boxers are treated as huge heroes.

It seems to me that some people, especially men, fi nd it appealing because it is an aggressive sport. When they watch a boxing match, they can identify with the winning boxer, and this gives them the feeling of being a winner themselves. Sometimes fans are rooting for a particular boxer, 1 because the boxer comes from their own country, and if ‘their’ boxer loses, they often feel as if they have lost a fi ght themselves. It is a fact that many people have feelings of aggression from time to time, but they cannot show their aggression in their everyday lives. Watching a boxing match gives them an outlet for this aggression. 2 , there is a negative side to boxing. It can be a very dangerous sport. Although boxers wear gloves during the fi ghts, and amateur boxers even have to wear helmets, there have frequently been accidents in both professional and amateur boxing, sometimes with dramatic consequences. Boxers have suffered head injuries and, occasionally, fi ghters have even been killed as a result of being knocked out in the ring. 3 , studies have shown that there are often long-term effects from boxing in the form of serious brain damage, even if a boxer has never been knocked out. 4 , I am personally not at all in favour of aggressive sports like boxing. I think it would be better if less time was given to aggressive sports on TV, and we celebrated more men and women from non-aggressive sports as heroes and heroines in our society. I believe that the world is aggressive enough already! Of course, people like competitive sports, and so do I, but I think that hitting other people is not something that should be regarded as a sport.

football

my opinions

good spectator sportin favour

the positivesthe negatives

injuries

fascinatinggame

brings peopletogether

aggressionof fans






Relative Clauses Diagram Defining versus non-defining

Relative Clauses Controlled Practice Adding information using relative clauses

Combine the pairs of sentences to make a new sentence with a relative clause. Many combinations are possible. • The lights go down; the door opens and out walks a salesman from San Francisco. • David ‘Double D’ Depto has travelled 8,000 kilometres in search of glory.

• But so does his opponent. • Waiting for him in the blue corner is Frank Stoldt, a tall, strong German policeman, who calls himself ‘Anti-

Terror Frank’.

• Suddenly, Frank Stoldt sees an opening. • He moves in to finish the match.

• The rules of a chessboxing match are simple. • There is one round of chess and then one round of boxing.

Relative Clause Freer Practice

Who Which Whose

That Where Whom

Science Article

sciencenewsforkids.org

The discovery of exoplanets — worlds beyond our solar system — is heating up, and scientists areracing to find the first Second Earth. Credit: ESA/C. Carreau

Two newly discovered

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/02/worlds-beyond-the-solar-system/

By Stephen Ornes / February 22, 2012

Once upon a time — about 20 years ago — kids in school learned about nine planets:Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The Nineorbited the sun, and they were the only planets that mattered. Any others existed in theimagination of children or in science fiction books and movies. The Star Trek crew, forinstance, regularly visited distant worlds populated by aliens. And the good guys in StarWars fled to forested or icy planets to escape the bad guys in a galaxy far, far away.

Your parents, however, probably remembered the names and order of the real planets inour solar system by reciting the sentence: My Very Excellent Mother Just Served UsNine Pizzas. The first letter of each word stood for a planet, and their order reflected thedeclining proximity of those planets to the sun — Mercury, Venus, Earth and so on.

But things have changed, and the reign of the Nine is officially over. Most famously,Pluto was demoted to “dwarf planet” status in 2006. Bigger shifts in our understandingof the planetary population, however, actually began a decade earlier: In 1995,astronomers discovered a planet with half the heft of Jupiter racing around a sun-likestar about 50 light-years away. (A light-year is the distance light can travel in a year. Ifyou were able to fly a ship as fast as the Space Shuttle, it would take about two millionyears to reach that planet.)

Discoveries of additional exoplanets, or planets outside thesolar system, soon followed. And now, new exoplanets areintroduced so regularly that it’s hard to believe anyone everdoubted they were out there.

But in the early 1990s, many scientists remained skeptical thatsuch planets existed, or if they did exist, that it would be

Worlds beyond the solar system | Science News for Kids http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/02/worlds-beyond-the-solar-...

1 of 5 7/23/2012 5:06 PM

planets, Kepler-20e andKepler-20f, are thesmallest exoplanets

found as of 2011. Theyorbit a star 1,000

light-years away. Credit:NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Hubble SpaceTelescope and SpitzerSpace Telescope have

trained their lenses on anexoplanet called HD

209458b. Theirobservations reveal that,like Earth, the exoplanet

has carbon dioxide,methane and water vapor

in its atmosphere. Buttemperatures on the

faraway world reach ascorching 2,000 degrees

Fahrenheit (1,395degrees Celsius). Credit:

NASA/JPL-Caltech

possible to see and study them.

“At the time, a lot of people didn’t believe [the exoplanets] wereplanets; they thought they might be weird stars,” says SaraSeager, a planet-hunting astronomer at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology in Cambridge. Other scientists believedthat even if planets were out there, attempts to study them“wouldn’t go anywhere.”

“There was no discussion among astronomers about planets orlife in the universe,” says Geoffrey Marcy, an astronomer at theUniversity of California, Berkeley and a pioneer in the field ofexoplanet discovery. “Both were considered to be flaky, pseudoscience topics — similarto looking for a fountain of youth or moving objects with your mind. In the 1980s andmid-1990s, we didn’t know of any technology that could detect planets around otherstars.”

Since that first exoplanet discovery, astronomers have discovered more than 700 others.Most of these other worlds were found with ground-based telescopes. Theorists, orscientists who use existing information to try to understand the big picture, say we’re justgetting started at uncovering and understanding other planets. Studies suggest that theentire Milky Way, the galaxy we call home, is home to hundreds of billions of planets —or more. Many of those worlds are likely small, rocky and Earth-sized. Some may evenhost extraterrestrial life.

No two worlds seem to be the same, and they challenge whatwe know about solar systems. “All these systems are almostlike a children’s game,” Seager says, “where anything goes —any planet you can imagine — in terms of mass and distancefrom its star. It’s really incredible.”

An exceptional planet and solar system

Exoplanets come in a variety of sizes and distances from theirstars. So far, all offer surprises. Many of the giant gas planets,as big as or bigger than Jupiter, race around their stars soquickly that a year on those worlds may last only a fewEarth-hours or days. Some exoplanets are also so hot thatmost metals, if present, would melt and flow like water. In2010, scientists reported that on a planet called HD 209458b,burning winds probably whip around at many times the speedof sound on Earth.

Despite the wild diversity of exoplanets, astronomers have notturned up another Earth. An Earth-like planet needs to berocky, about the same size as our world, possess anatmosphere and have the right temperature to hold liquidwater. Astronomers can estimate a planet’s temperature byknowing the distance between the planet and its star. If aplanet were too close to its star, soaring temperatures wouldvaporize any water on the world. If a planet were too far, frigidlows would freeze water. Astronomers talk about searching forexoplanets in the “Goldilocks zone,” an orbiting distance that would leave the planet nottoo hot and not too cold.

In December 2011, scientists introduced a planet solidly in this zone — but that world


2 of 5 7/23/2012 5:06 PM

This illustration shows theKepler Space Telescopeorbiting the sun. Kepler

watches more than100,000 stars for signs

of exoplanets passing by.Credit: NASA/Ames

/JPL-Caltech

was far larger than Earth. A few weeks later, just before Christmas, Earthlings wereintroduced to Kepler-20e, the first confirmed exoplanet smaller than Earth. Thisnewfound planet is the right size, but far too close to its star to have liquid water.

Even when an Earth-like planet emerges, it may not behabitable. Venus and Earth, after all, probably look similar froma distance: They’re about the same size, and each has anatmosphere. However, Venus’ atmosphere is crushingly denseand unable to support life.

One of the biggest discoveries made from observations byNASA’s Kepler Space Telescope — launched in 2009 — is thatmost confirmed exoplanets are unlike any planets in our solarsystem. The radius (or distance from the surface to the center)of most Kepler planets is two to three times that of Earth’sradius. There aren’t any planets that size in our solar system:Mars, Venus and Mercury are much smaller, while Jupiter,Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are much larger. That means wedon’t have a “local” example of the most popular planet-type inour galaxy.

“Planets we didn’t even know existed are the most common,”Seager explains. “They weren’t really predicted to be out there,and we didn’t even dream of this type of possibility. It’s humbling.”

Perhaps the most surprising discovery, though, is that alien planetary systems look so— well, alien. Says Seager, “It’s unsettling that we haven’t found anything like our solarsystem.”

“Every time there’s a new discovery, we never seem to find copies of the solar system,”says David Charbonneau, a planet hunter at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center forAstrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. “Instead, we find things that are not just different, butcompletely at odds with our understanding of the physics of how planets form.”

In September 2011, for example, Kepler astronomers introduced a faraway exoplanetthat orbits two stars — which means that world has two sunrises and two sunsets (anddouble shadows). And Kepler-20e, found in December, resides in a solar system of fiveplanets that stay so close to their star, their orbits could fit inside Mercury’s.

Watching for wobbles

Planet hunters may not have found an alien system that looks like home, but it’s notfrom a lack of trying. In the mid-1990s, astronomers typically used ground-basedtelescopes to hunt for exoplanets. These instruments watched stars, looking forwobbles.

A star’s gravity keeps a planet close by, but the planet’s gravity has an effect on the star,too. As a planet orbits a star, its gravitational tug makes the star wobble a little. OnEarth, astronomers use telescopes to watch stars carefully — if a star wobbles, then aplanet may be nearby. Most giant, close-in exoplanets have been discovered this way.

In


3 of 5 7/23/2012 5:06 PM

Astronomers Geoff Marcy, Sara Seager and David Charbonneau (from left to right) are on thecutting edge of exoplanet research. Credit: Marcy photo: C. Rose; Seager photo: Justin Knight;

Charbonneau photo: Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

2009, NASA launched a satellite that jumpstarted a new period of discovery for planethunters. Called the Kepler Space Telescope, it looks like a 4.5-meter-long (15-foot-long)futuristic trashcan racing around the sun. It has identified thousands of bright blips inthe dark sky that might be planets. These need further study to be confirmed, but theearly results are exciting. (And as its name suggests, Kepler-20e was discovered by thistelescope.)

Kepler and other projects, like a French-led mission called CoRoT, look for exoplanetsthat transit, or move between their home stars and Earth. When a planet transits, itblocks some of the light coming from the star. The phenomenon is similar to how a bugblocks light from a bulb as it buzzes by, or how the moon blocks sunlight during a solareclipse. After the planet passes its star, that star brightens again. A telescope measuresstarlight and uses the changes caused by a transit to estimate the planet’s size.

Kepler revolutionized the search for exoplanets. Already it has recorded the light frommore than 100,000 stars. Still, scientists have already run up against the telescope’slimitations. It watches only a patch of sky — roughly equivalent to the size of your handoutstretched at arm’s length.

Are we alone in the universe?

If scientists find Earth-like planets, simply knowing they exist won’t be satisfying.Scientists will want to figure out which planets have atmospheres and might supportliving organisms.

“We would love to analyze the surfaces and atmospheres of other planets to hunt forsigns of life,” explains Marcy at Berkeley. “Do they commonly have life on them? If so, isthe life usually just simple, such as bacteria, bugs and bamboo? Or does life normallyprogress … toward more complex forms, such as fish, birds and mammals? And howcommon is intelligent life in the universe? Are there intelligent species around one inevery 100 stars, or around one in every one million stars? Are we humans a commonresult of evolution or are we a rarity in the universe?”

Like all good questions, Marcy’s are easier to ask than answer. Plus, getting the righttools to answer those questions is a daunting task. Building and launching a spacetelescope like Kepler required decades of planning and lots of money. Scientists likeSeager, Marcy and Charbonneau aren’t only searching for planets, they’re alsosearching for faster and less expensive ways to do it. Thanks to their efforts, and otherastronomers searching the skies, exoplanet discovery is a field that’s finally taking off.

“Often in science, kids are given the impression that we know everything, and their duty


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is to catch up and learn all the facts out there in some dusty book,” Charbonneau says.But especially in astronomy, he says, that’s not the case: The biggest questions remainunanswered, and future generations will continue to look for answers.

“The thing that really excites me is that we cannot yet point to a star and say that onehas a planet that might have life on it,” Charbonneau says. “That’s one of the mostinteresting questions in all of science, and we don’t know the answer.”

Power words (adapted from the New Oxford American Dictionary)

exoplanet Also called an extrasolar planet. A planet that orbits a star outside the solarsystem.

radius A straight line from the center to the circumference of a circle or sphere.

mass The quantity of matter that a body contains.


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Receptive Skills Worksheet Worlds beyond the solar system

Gist questions:

• How is an exoplanet different from a planet? • Why do some people search the sky for exoplanets?

Scanning for detail Scan the article for dates and create a timeline of events.

Detailed questions 1. What did your parents learn about planets when they were in school? Is it different from what you are learning?

2. How did astronomers find most the exoplanets?

3. What makes Earth different from other exoplanets?

4. How much of the sky does the Kepler space telescope watch?

5. What is the chance of finding another planet with life?

Writing extension The picture and headline is from an event 10 years in the future. Write a brief article describing the event.

Receptive Skills Timeline Now

Receptive Skills Writing Extension

It talks! Astronomers make contact with Other Earth.

ryan fu-sum lesson plan 2012_09_10

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