Black Holes Lesson Plan: Earth’s Place in the Universe

Grade Levels: 6-8, 9-12

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the Black Holes Lesson Plan.

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Black Holes, and supports an understanding of the idea that the solar system consists of the sun and a collection of objects that are held in orbit around the sun by its gravitational pull on them. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Display an image of a black hole, like this one recently released by astronomers:

Ask students:

  • What can you infer about black holes from this image?
  • What do you want to know more about?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

  • Read the description on the Black Holes topic page.
  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
  • Have students read one of the Related Reading articles. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Students take the Black Holes Challenge and Quiz, applying essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about black holes while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

  • Make-a-Movie: Produce a tutorial that explains how black holes affect space-time.
  • Make-a-Map: Create a concept map identifying the two ways black holes are formed, and explain the stages of each.
  • Creative Coding: Code a comic that illustrates the formation of a black hole.

More to Explore 

Related BrainPOP Topics: Deepen understanding of Earth’s place in the universe with these topics: Relativity, Life Cycle of Stars, Milky Way, and Dark Matter.

Teacher Support Resources:

Related:

    Filed as:  6-8, 9-12, Black Holes, BrainPOP, Lesson Plan, Science, Space, Teacher Resources