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Description

Use the contents of your fruit bowl to demonstrate the staggering size of the planets in our solar system.

Courtesy of The Scout Association
https://www.scouts.org.uk/activities/fruit-salad-solar-system/

An alternative version is included.

Resources

40 minutes
Bowls
Eight different fruits for each solar system (ideally peppercorns, blueberries, grapes, dried cranberries, grapefruits, oranges, small satsumas, and plums)
An exercise ball (or similar sized ball)
Vases or bowls of water (optional)
Knives (optional)

Safety
All activities must be safely managed. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Do a risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Always get approval for the activity and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
- Sharp objects: Teach young people how to use sharp objects safely. Supervise them appropriately throughout. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.
- Food: Check for allergies before you begin and read the guidance on food safety. Make sure you have suitable areas for storing and preparing food and avoid cross contamination of different foods.


Change the level of challenge
- The person leading the activity can tell the group as much information as they think is appropriate – some people may want to know more than others.
- Someone helping to lead the activity could prepare all the fruit while the groups test the planets’ density, to speed it up.

Instructions

Build a group solar system
1. The person leading the activity should put one of each fruit on a table or on the floor. Everyone else should sit so that they can see. It’s best to lay the fruit out in a group, not a line, so that you can build a clear solar system line later.
2. Everyone should try and name the planets in our solar system, in whatever order they like. It’s okay if people can’t remember them all.
3. The person leading the game should start with Mercury, as it’s closest to the sun. They should show the group what represents Mercury in the fruit salad solar system (the peppercorn), and put it down in front of the other fruits, to one side.
4. The person leading the game should do this with each planet in turn, working outwards from Mercury through Venus (blueberry), Earth (grape), Mars (dried cranberry), Jupiter (grapefruit), Saturn (orange), Uranus (small satsuma), and Neptune (plum). Pluto isn’t included in this activity because in 2006 scientists decided it was a dwarf planet, not a planet.
5. The person leading the game should get the exercise ball, and place it next to the peppercorn Mercury. Now, everyone can see how big it is compared to the planets.
6. The solar system that the person leading the activity has built shows how big the planets are compared to each other – it doesn’t show how far apart they are.

Build your own solar system
1. Split into groups, and give each group one of each fruit.
2. Each group should find a space, and set up their own Solar System. They should try to remember the order of the fruit planets, but they can check if they need to.

Take it further...
A: Test the planets’ density
1. The person leading the activity should fill two vases or bowls with water.
2. Everyone should gather together into one group.
3. The person leading the activity should get a grapefruit Jupiter and an orange Saturn.
4. One person should stand behind each vase or bowl, holding either the grapefruit Jupiter or the orange Saturn.
The person leading the activity should tell everyone that both of these fruit planets are made of hydrogen, but one will float, and the other will sink.
5. Everyone should point to the planet that they think will float.
6. Everyone should count to three, and then the people behind the vases or bowls should gently place the fruit planets on top of the water.
7. The grapefruit Jupiter should sink to the bottom of the vase or bowl, and then orange Saturn should float on the water. This is because Jupiter’s gases are more densely packed (are squashed in closer together) than Saturn’s.

B: Use the fruit
1. Everyone should bring the fruit back together. You’ll probably want to put the peppercorns to one side and not use them for this part of the activity.
2. Everyone should wash the fruit, and prepare it by peeling or chopping it.
3. Everyone should take the fruit they’d like to eat, to make their own fruit salad. How about trying a fruit they haven’t had before?


Learn about The Solar System
>> Starting big - the whole of space
- The Universe includes everything we can, and can’t, see. We’re not sure how big it is, because not all of it contains visible light so we can’t measure all of it. We do know that it’s 13.8 billion years old.
- A galaxy is a large group of stars, held together by gravity. Our galaxy is called the Milky Way.
- One of the stars in the Milky Way is the Sun. Eight planets orbit the sun and make up our solar system. One of these planets is Earth, our home.

>>The planets in our solar system
Our closest neighbours are the rocky planets. Starting from the closest to the sun, they are:
- Mercury (peppercorn). Mercury is the smallest planet, and the closest to the sun.
- Venus (blueberry). Venus spins in the opposite direction to all of the other planets in the solar system, and its surface is covered in volcanos.
- Earth (grape). Welcome home to planet Earth. Did you know that three-quarters of our planet is covered with water?
- Mars (dried cranberry). Mars is also known as the ‘red planet’. It gets its striking colour from a mineral called iron oxide, which covers most of its surface.

Beyond Mars are the gas giants. Still working outwards from the sun, they are:
- Jupiter (grapefruit). Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It’s so big that all of the other planets in the solar system could fit inside it.
- Saturn (orange). Saturn comes in second on the size scale, but tops the charts as the lightest planet, as it’s almost entirely made of gas.
- Uranus (small satsuma). Uranus is the coldest planet in our solar system.
- Neptune (plum). Neptune takes its name from the Roman god of the sea, as it’s a deep blue colour. It’s roughly the same size as Uranus.

Some people find it easier to remember the order of the planets with a saying or rhyme (if you want to be fancy, these are called mnemonics). For example:
- My very easy method just speeds up naming
- Mum’s very easy map just shows you north
- Mercury’s volcanoes erupt mulberry jam sandwiches until noon.

>> Pluto
Until 2006, Pluto was considered to be the ninth planet in our solar system. In 2006, scientists decided on a clear definition of ‘planet’. Pluto didn’t meet all of these new criteria because it doesn’t have enough gravitational influence - its orbit still has lots of small objects in, which Pluto hasn’t pulled in or pushed away. Pluto became known as a dwarf planet - it’s smaller than our moon.

>> The Sun
- The Sun is a huge ball of gas. Continuous reactions generate a lot of energy. We receive some of this energy as light, and other forms of radiation. The sun is very hot - at the centre, its temperature is 15 million degrees.
- The closer a (fruit) planet is to the Sun, the more heat and radiation it gets. We can live on Earth because it’s the perfect distance away from the Sun, and we’ve evolved to live with the temperature and radiation.


Reflection
- This activity helped you to develop skills. Which skills did you use in this activity? Did you learn any techniques to help you learn and remember things? What worked best for you? Did you practice any practical skills like chopping?
- This activity also helped you to learn how to live healthily. Why is it important to eat a range of fruits and vegetables? Did you know all of the names of the fruits in your solar system? Had you tried any of them before? Which one is your favourite? Would you like to eat them again?

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ALTERNATIVE: Using fruit to show the different sizes of planets in the solar system (from the Scouting Magazine).
See "Fruit salad solar system _ Summer of Skills.pdf" document attached

Tags

• astronomy
• planets
• solar system

Badge Links

• Astronomer - Model
• Astronomer - Model or draw
• Space - Planets