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 Teacher _____________________

Student    _____________________

Gender:   M    F    grade  ________age ________

The Comet's Tale

Note: The content questions are posed in both essay and multiple choice formats. Use either or a combination to suit your class level.

    Content (essay)

  1. Where do comets come from?
  2. What are comets made of?
  3. a) What is the period of a comet? b) Is comet Halley a short-period comet or a long-period comet? What is its period?
  4. Draw the typical shape of a short-period comet's orbit in our solar system. What is this shape called?
  5. Are comets the same things asteroids and meteors? If not, what's the difference?
  6. Some scientists think that a large comet or asteroid that hit the Earth caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Other scientists think the extinction occurred slowly, as the Earth's climate changed. What do you think happened, and why?

Content (mulitple choice)

  1. Where do comets come from?

    a) inside Jupiter's orbit
    b) from other parts of the galaxy
    c) a cloud of solar system debris between us and the nearest star
    d) the direction of Alpha Centauri

2. What are comets made of?

    a) dust and rock
    b) a mixture of dust, rocky material and frozen gases
    c) Coronene and other organic substances
    d) ice and carbon dioxide

3. What is the period of a comet?

    a) the time it takes for the comet to travel once around the Sun
    b) the shortest distance from the Sun to the comet along the comet's path
    c) the number of times the comet orbits the Sun in a millenium
    d) the amount of time between sightings of the comet from Earth

4. Whar is a short-period comet?

    a) a comet whose orbit has been perturbed into a very flat ellipse
    b) one whose orbit has been pulled into the inner solar system by gravity
    c) one that approaches the sun at least every 10,000 years
    d) one that comes very close to the sun

5.What is a long period comet?

    a) one that stays outside the orbit of Pluto
    b) a comet that is still in the Oort cloud
    c) one with a period of more than 50 years
    d) a comet whose orbit takes it near the Sun every 10,000 years or more

6. What kind of period does Comet Halley have?

    a) short
    b) medium
    c) long

7. Where is the Sun within a comet's orbit

    a) near the perihelion
    b) at one focus of an elliptical orbit
    c) at the center of a circluar
    d) any of the above

8. What is a meteor?

    a) a comet that enters the Earth's atmosphere
    b) debris left behind by a comet as is passes near the sun
    c) a shooting star
    d) a rocky left-over from the formation of the planets

9. What is an asteroid?

    a) a rocky left-over from the formation of the planets
    b) debris left behind by a comet as is passes near the sun
    c) a fragment of a moon that was hit by a comet
    d) a cosmic "dirty snowball"

10. What is the Alvarez Hypothesis?

    a) an intrinsic gradualist theory of mass extinction
    b) an extrinsic catastrophist theory of mass extinction
    c) the idea that dinosaurs became extinct after a large object hit the Earth and cause severe climate changes
    d) a and c
    e) b and c

The Internet:

1.  How would someone use the internet to learn about something?
    What are the steps?

 

2.  When you use the internet to learn about something, do you usually find out

    a) just what you wanted to know
    b) more
    c) less
    d) something different

3. What can you do to INCREASE the amount of information received?

 

4. What can you do to DECREASE the amount of information received?

 

5. What are some POSITIVE things about using the internet for research?

 

6. What are some NEGATIVE things about using the internet for research?

 

7.  How is using the internet different from going to the library for research? (besides books instead of computers)

 

8.  Would you use the internet for research on a different subject?

9. Which of the following do you use at home? (check all that apply)

   video games ______  computer ______  Internet/Web browser ______

The Subject:

1. Would you like to learn more about comets?

2. What was one thing you learned that you didn't know before?

3. Would you like to learn more about Earth and Space science?

4. Did you tell anyone outside the class about the internet lesson? Who? What did you say?



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