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ABOUT LTTU

Learn Through the Universe is non-profit corporation located in Pasadena, California and formed by Mercedes Talley in November 2016. Governing Board of Directors: Mercedes Talley, president Stacy Mercado, secretary and treasurer Lesley Mahaffey Rick St. Laurent Advisory Board: Bruce Alberts, Chancellor’s Leadership Chair in Biochemistry and Biophysics for Science and Education at the University of California, San Francisco; past president of the National Academy of Sciences, and member of the writing team for the Next Generation Science Standards for the state of California  Robert M. Hazen, research scientist at the Carnegie Institute for Science; Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences at George Mason University Andrew Minigan, director of strategy, education program, The Right Question Institute Andrew Shtulman, associate professor of psychology and cognitive science and director of the Thinking Lab, Occidental College Website and graphics by Ten Worlds Productions, Inc. This website made possible by generous support from the John Templeton Foundation

Hoverable Dropdown Move the mouse over the button to open the dropdown menu. DropdownTable of Time Table of Space

Ten Times Smaller

Modules

Module 4 - 

Module 3 - 

Ten Times Larger

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Attachment 2: Question Formulation Technique

Teacher Preparation

Standards Bundle

Classroom Activity

Attachment 3: Print-out of Student Models

Attachment 1: Letter Code Glossary

Alignment of Activity Components to the Standards Bundle

Module Sections

Learn Through the Universe has students craft true-to-scale physical models of the universe at powers of ten, starting with the scale of themselves and steadily moving into the sub-atomic realm and out to the edge of the universe.  The models are then used to study relevant topics from the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. Each model is associated with a theme to motivate the selection and design of the disciplinary topic activities. Science thus becomes a backdrop for learning about humankind. The construction of 2D and 3D representations of matter calls for no special skill or technology beyond basic arithmetic, paper and pencil. At the same time it is a natural for taking advantage of computer-based, interactive zoom tools, maps, visualizations, 3D printing and other emergent tools when these resources are available. Go to the Powers of Ten area of this website to get an idea of the structures to be modeled, the themes for each power-of-ten level, and the kinds of activities that can be carried out during and after construction of the models. As detailed teaching modules are developed for each level, they will be posted to this area for easy access. Each module will provide detailed lesson plans identified for suitable grade levels that link specific learning outcomes with the relevant common core and next-generation science standards.

How It Works

HOW IT WORKS

Learn Through the Universe (LTTU) starts with the scale of students themselves and moves into the sub-atomic realm and out to the edge of the universe.  It tells the story of the universe by having students construct true-to-scale  models of the universe at powers of ten.  Each model is associated with a theme that connects aspects of human nature and culture with disciplinary knowledge and learning activities. 

Click on the Powers of Ten menu above to explore examples of the structures to be modeled, the themes for each power-of-ten level, and the activities that can be carried out during and after construction of the models.  As model lesson  plans are developed for each level, they will be posted for easy access.   Click on the Stories of Scale menu above to see how LTTU can be implemented through multi-week long episodes, ideally taking place at the end of the school year.  In this way students integrate and reflect on all the topics and skills they’ve learned in previous months.  Each Story of Scale covers three or more powers-of-ten levels to anchor familiarity with the process of “traveling” through the universe.  Each subsequent Story of Scale builds on the earlier ones, and deals with increasing degrees of abstraction. LTTU is an open-source system. It offers the powers-of-ten framework as a flexible starting point for implementation in accordance with the needs and interests of diverse students and teachers around the world. All are invited to develop new models, themes and lesson plans for their own use, and to share with others through this website. LTTU advocates the use of a powerful activity called the Question Formulation Technique (QFT). The QFT engages students in thinking with one another about what seem to be confounding aspects of our universe, both cognitively and personally. Click on the Resources menu to learn more.

Powers of Ten

In To Our Atoms

Out To Our Cosmos

Steps of the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) & Video Guide The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is a simple, but rigorous, step-by-step process designed to help students produce, improve, and strategize on how to use their questions. The QFT allows students to practice three thinking abilities in one process: divergent, convergent, and metacognitive thinking. The QFT helps students become more curious and engaged learners—when students ask questions it is a shortcut, not detour, to deeper learning.  Use backwards planning to guide your use of the QFT. The QFT Planning Tool can help to identify your teaching goals, consider how students' questions may be used, design a Question Focus (QFocus), develop prioritization instructions, and create reflection questions.  Signup for the Educator Network at www.rightquestion.org to access free resources and content.  Below are detailed steps of the QFT and video footage for corresponding steps. The videos can be viewed in their entirety below:  Using the QFT for Formative Assessment – 4th Grade Math The QFT for Summative Assessment – 8th Grade Social Studies The QFT in a High School Science Class – High School Science The QFT in Action – High School Humanities General Tips •The role of the teacher is to facilitate the students moving through the different steps of the QFT as simply as possible. • Monitor group work and give clarifying instructions as needed. Go around the room to observe group work and interactions during the process. Listen for the types of questions they are asking. Try your best not to get pulled into their discussions. Avoid answering any questions while students are in the process of producing questions. •Validate all student contributions equally. Use the same words for all contributions. For example: “thank you” acknowledges contributions neutrally. Using different words to validate different students’ contributions (e.g. good, great, excellent question) may affect student behavior. •Avoid giving examples of questions students should be asking. If you do, you will be setting the direction of the questions and impeding upon students’ independent thinking. •Allow groups to work at their own pace. It is okay if some groups produce more questions than others. If a group seems stuck, prompt them with the QFocus. For example, “Look at your QFocus and think about if there’s anything you would like to know about it and ask a question.” The value of producing questions is in the process of thinking and not in the number of questions produced.

www.rightquestion.org

StepsVideo Design a Question Focus (QFocus)The QFocus is a stimulus for jumpstarting student questions; it is the focus for students to generate their questions. The QFocus may be a statement, phrase, visual, aural aid, math problem, or equation. The QFocus may be anything as long as it is not a question and it is related to the content or intended learning outcomes. A good QFocus should be simple, clear, and encourage divergent thinking. Introduce the RulesIntroduce the four essential rules for producing questions to students:• Ask as many questions as you can.• Do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer the questions.• Write down every question exactly as it is stated.• Change any statement into a question. Remind students to follow the rules each time you use the technique. Give instructions for students to think about the rules and let them discuss one of the following:• What might be difficult about following the rules for producing questions?• Which rule might be most difficult to follow? Avoid naming or telling the students the difficulties or value of the rules. 4th Grade Math8th Grade Social StudiesHigh School Science         Introduce the Question Focus & Produce QuestionsPresent the QFocus without any additional information keeping explanation to a minimum. Following the rules, students make a list of questions using the QFocus as the focus for their questions. Students number each question. This step helps students think divergently.Introduce the QFocus4th Grade Math8th Grade Social Studies High School ScienceHigh School Humanities  Produce Questions4th Grade Math8th Grade Social StudiesHigh School ScienceHigh School Humanities  Improve QuestionsStudents work with the questions they produced. This step helps students do high-level work with their questions and identify how different types of questions elicit different types of information and answers. Questions can be open- or closed-ended: Closed-ended questions can be answered with yes, no, or with one word. Open-ended questions require an explanation and cannot be answered with yes, no, or with one word. Categorize questions as closed or open-ended: Students find closed-ended questions and mark them with a C. Students find open-ended questions and mark them with an O. Discuss the value of each type of question: Students identify advantages & disadvantages of closed-ended questions. Students identify advantages & disadvantages of open-ended questions. Change questions from one type to another: Students change one closed-ended question to open-ended. Students change one open-ended question to closed-ended. 4th Grade Math8th Grade Social Studies High School ScienceHigh School Humanities Prioritize QuestionsPrioritization instructions should bring students back to teaching objectives and the plan for using student questions. This step helps students think convergently. Although the number "3" is used below, facilitators may decide the amount of questions to prioritize that is best suited for the lesson. Examples of prioritization instructions: Choose 3 questions that… • you consider most important. • will help with your research. • can be used for your experiment. • will guide your reading/ writing.• can be answered as you read.• will help you solve the problem. Students should discuss and share why they selected their priority questions and where their priority questions fell in the sequence of their question list. 4th Grade Math8th Grade Social Studies High School ScienceHigh School Humanities Discuss Next StepsHow will questions be used? Next steps should align with priority instructions. For students, this further contextualizes how their questions will be used. 4th Grade Math Class8th Grade Social Studies High School Science ReflectStudents should reflect:• What did you learn?• How can you use what you learned? This step helps students think metacognitively about how they used questions to learn and reflect on new lines of thinking they may have developed. 4th Grade Math Class8th Grade Social Studies High School ScienceHigh School Humanities

Question Formulation Technique (QFT)

The following are not based on actual events but are offered to provide tangible examples for how LTTU could be implemented.

ESRI Mapping 

Sample Scenarios

QFT Walkthrough

Resources

The Metric System

White Paper

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

Home

The Earth/Time Experience

Performance Task A           • Students participate in the Question Formulation Technique to generate a processed list of three questions around this Question Focus: “There are many measures of the self.”      • Students perform a follow-up research and/or writing assignment as directed by the teacher.       • Students measure their heights and calculate the average student height in inches, feet, centimeters and meters. Performance Task B       • Students collaboratively study the Out to Our Cosmos and In to Our Atoms tables to increase their understanding of the concept of scale, and the difference between disciplinary-based knowledge and non-disciplinary-based knowledge (knowledge that is typically cross-disciplinary and cross-scale, often referring to what are known as the “Big Questions.”) Performance Task C      • Students increase their understanding of the concepts of models and modeling by collaboratively studying examples across the range of types of models, both physical and mental. • Students as a class generate two lists of character values, one of positives (such as kindness, courage and honesty) and one of negatives (such as arrogance, rudeness and cruelty). Performance Task D      • Students work in groups to develop specific, heroic “character models,” collaboratively devise a story that uses the character models in a story about overcoming a set of obstacles, and enact the story for the rest of the class. Performance Task E (optional)      • Students calculate the midpoint of the two scale tables based on the total number of powers-of-ten levels, and identify things that are about this size.      • Students as a class discuss the implications of asymmetry in the universe relative to the powers-of-ten levels, especially at the extremes of large and small.  Performance Task F       • Students carry out a reflective writing assignment as directed by the teacher.

Evidence Statements

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Introduction Learn Through the Universe recognizes that all of us are selves living in a world that extends in size far beyond us, and that diminishes in size deep within us. This is true for each and every one of us human beings, and it appears to be true for each and every other thing that exists in the universe (even though it is only we who seem to have this awareness). In this activity, students will learn the concepts of scale and modeling, and how they can be used to explore the size and structure of the universe, including of ourselves.

Model Lesson Plan 100 Grade Level: 5- Adult

Learning Module One

Ten Times Smaller

In this activity, students craft models of themselves at the zoom level of 10  and use the models to explore the art of storytelling. This activity is intended as the first in a series that will have students generate models of structures in the universe at powers of ten, a process designed to occur throughout a student’s years in elementary, middle and high school. As such this first experience represents an important initiation of the process. It specifically has students model themselves so as to personalize the long-term experience of modeling the structure of the universe from sub-atomic particles to the edge of the universe. An important option for this activity is to conduct it in tandem with the Hundred Times Smaller activity. Both involve students in modeling themselves and exploring the art of storytelling, so doing them in close sequence may better anchor the initial acquisition of knowledge about scale, powers of ten, and the metric system in terms of length measurements.

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© 2018 Learn Through the Universe

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•    Ask as many questions as you can •    Do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer any questions •    Write down every question exactly as it is stated •    Change any statement into a question

Additional information and sample videos of the Question Formulation Technique in action are available at rightquestion.org

The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) was developed by the Right Question Institute in Boston to help people of all ages (and in a variety of settings) learn to ask questions. It has proven to be an unusually effective way of engaging people in thinking and interacting with one another, and tends to save time overall by heightening their motivation to get the next steps done. The seven key steps of the QFT are: 1. Develop a Question Focus (QFocus) – The teacher identifies a QFocus as a stimulus used to generate questions. It can be an image, phrase or object (but not a question). An effective QFocus is simple, clear and provokes new lines of thinking. 2. Discuss the Rules for Producing Questions – The following four rules should be carefully discussed, including having students name potential challenges in following them: 3. Produce Questions- Students in groups of 4-6 use the QFocus to formulate all kinds of questions about the image, phrase, or object presented. This part of the process allows thinking freely without having to worry about the quality of the questions. 4. Improve the Questions - First, students in their groups review their list and label each question with a “C” for closed or “O” for open. “C” or closed-ended questions can be answered with a “yes” or “no” or with one word or definition. “O” or open-ended questions require explanation. Second, the class will think about and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each type of question (there is value in both). Third, students in their groups change at least one closed-ended question to an open-ended question, and one open-ended question to a closed-ended question. This will help them learn how to edit questions to meet their purpose. 5. Prioritize Questions – Students now choose three questions based on guidance from the teacher. For example, they may choose the three questions they find to be most important, the three questions that might be of interest to an expert in the field, or the three questions most pertinent to the next steps for the class. 6. Proceed with Next Steps – The questions can now be put into action. They may be used to do research, develop a project, or as a guide to further inquiry. 7. Reflection – It is important to reflect on the work accomplished: what has been learned and how it can be used. The reflection helps internalize the process, its value and how to apply it further.

• First, review your list and label the closed-ended questions with a “C” and the open-ended with an “O.” • Second, think about and name the advantages and disadvantages of asking each type of question. You will see that there is value in asking both types of questions. • Third, change at least one closed-ended question to an open-ended question, and one open-ended question to a closed-ended question. This will help you learn how to edit your questions to meet your purpose.

KEY COMPONENTS OF THE QUESTION FORMULATION TECHNIQUE

1. Develop a Question Focus (QFocus) 2. Discuss the Rules for Producing Questions 3. Produce Questions 4. Improve Questions 5. Prioritize Questions 6. Proceed with Next Steps 7. Reflect

Powers-of-Ten Table of Time

Learn Through the UniverseA New Approach toK-12 EducationMercedes V. TalleyMarch 2017Abstract“Learn Through the Universe” is a novel approach to K-12 education that makes clear the structure of the universe and our humanity within it as a unifying framework for knowledge. It can be introduced gradually and used in parallel with current K-12 infrastructure, curricula and standards. The central premise is to have students craft true-to-scale physical models of the universe at powers of ten, starting with the scale of themselves and gradually moving into the sub-atomic realm and out to the edge of the universe.  Students in this way actively build their base of knowledge for life rather than passively absorbing information, and in the process develop the ability to question, look for evidence and be comfortable with the uncertain and the unknown. The approach transcends disciplinary boundaries and as such will assist in integrating the common core and next-generation science standards, and demonstrating their relevance to life in the here and now. And it will reinstate attention to human nature and the importance of character in how our world works. The approach is supported by this website that provides a variety of detailed teaching modules for each power-of-ten level with recommendations for initial grade-level implementation. In the future, the website will host a gallery of images of constructions crafted by students of all ages, thus providing a globally shared context for all education that is not constrained by language or culture.Introduction“Learn Through the Universe” is a new approach to education based on the human experience of oneself and others in space and time. It makes clear the physical structure of the universe, and explores how humankind perceives and interacts with the beings and things that compose it. The approach has students craft true-to-scale 2D and 3D models of the universe at powers of ten, starting with the scale of oneself, and proceeding down into the subatomic realm and out to the edge of the universe. The models are then used to study relevant topics in the traditional disciplines of the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. Each model is associated with a theme to motivate the design of the disciplinary activities (see tables 1 and 2, next page). Science thus becomes a backdrop for learning about humankind, with the structure of the universe serving as a unifying framework for the structure of K-12 education and beyond. In Learn Through the Universe, students actively build their base of knowledge for life rather than passively absorbing information, and in the process develop the ability to question, look for evidence, and be comfortable with the uncertain and the unknown. The approach transcends disciplinary boundaries, and as such will assist in integrating the common core and next-generation science standards, and demonstrating their relevance to life in the here and now. It will reinstate attention to human nature and the importance of character in how our world works. The approach is supported by a website that provides a variety of detailed lesson plans for each power-of-ten level with recommendations for initial grade-level implementation. In the future, the website will host a gallery of images of constructions crafted by students of all ages, thus providing a globally shared context for all education that is not constrained by language or culture. Thanks to the power of the human mind and the tools it has developed over the past 500 years, we can “see” extraordinarily far into the macrocosm and the microcosm. And yet our insights regarding human nature seem by comparison to be as limited as they were for our prehistoric ancestors. Today we have much more data on ourselves, but the difficulty of understanding ourselves continues to be in contrast with the relative ease with which we probe and expand our knowledge of the physical universe. Learn Through the Universe acknowledges this contrast and offers new perspectives for teaching and learning about it. It will in particular highlight how science and technology have changed significantly over time and are likely to continue doing so, how society has consequently changed as well, and yet how the arts and humanities have been telling us the same stories about human joy and sorrow over and over again.Why Powers of Ten?The true scales of sub-atomic and cosmic space and time are difficult to comprehend but important to understand if we want to fully embrace the gifts of human curiosity and intellect. Fortunately there is a simple way to approach this understanding: through scale representations at powers of ten.The way has already been demonstrated by the iconic “Powers of Ten: A Film Dealing with the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero” by the Office of Charles and Ray Eames (1952), and the book “Powers of Ten” (based on the film) by Philip and Phylis Morrison (1982). The central concept is to use powers of ten as a virtual vehicle for traveling from the scale of oneself down into one’s cells, atoms and sub-atomic realms, and likewise out to the edge of the solar system, Milky Way Galaxy and universe. Powers of ten is the standard scientific method for this process because it is easy to use with the world’s decimal (ten-based) number system and the ten-based metric system of measurement. Thus powers of ten offer a simple and well-known way to quickly change scale.An important feature of zooming by powers of ten is that it occurs in jumps rather than in a continuum. Jumping enables a sufficient contrast in the observable phenomena at each scale to make for useful comparison. By keeping the zooms consistently at factors of ten, these comparisons are made across uniform metrics and can reveal important patterns in the overriding structure of matter, such as the recurring rhythms of density and emptiness that occur in traveling from the subatomic realm to the edge of the universe.There are few publications that explain the concept and use of scale or the serious misunderstandings that may result from schematics that are not drawn to scale. Learn Through the Universe (LTTU) suggests that promoting the role of scale in education will provide a new way to build knowledge - literally. The approach is ideally suited to implementation by means of having students construct 2D and 3D representations of matter at powers of ten. This is conceptually simple and calls for no special skill or technology beyond basic arithmetic, paper and pencil. At the same time it is a natural for taking advantage of computer-based, interactive zoom tools, maps, visualizations and 3D printing when these resources are available. All such spatial representations offer exploration of their implications for human experience and of the temporal dynamics that are pertinent to that powers-of-ten level. Constructing the models will give students abundant opportunity for collaborative teamwork, practical crafting and artistic expression. And students worldwide can share images of their constructions through a curated website, eliciting powerful personal and cultural comparisons. How is Learn Through the Universe Navigated?Learn Through the Universe is navigated by progressing through two parameters: space and time. For young students these progressions always start at the size scale of oneself and the time scale phenomena of everyday life. For more advanced students, their “travels” through and beyond the Milky Way Galaxy will position them to explore Einstein’s unification of space and time into the 4D spacetime fabric of the universe. Their travels into and through the atom will likewise introduce them to the world of quantum mechanics where our common sense understanding of matter and energy is profoundly inaccurate to physical reality. It is not expected that average K-12 students will become conversant with 4D spacetime and quantum mechanics, but by exposing them to these realms we can expand their propensity for imagination and affirm the true nature of knowledge as an ever-changing process of learning and never a fixed set of facts. And quantum physics is swiftly moving into the everyday worlds of commerce and industry, so such exposure is no longer just an esoteric emblem of knowledge but a stamp of knowing what’s up.Navigating through Space: Zooming OutThe travels through space start with the order-of-magnitude size of a human: 100 = 1 meter (m). Helping students understand why this size is right even though not exact can be done by measuring a variety of student heights in order to see that the resulting average size is close to 1 m and not at all close to 0.1 m or 10 m. Once comfortable with this starting size of the self averaged at 1 m, we are ready to travel. We start by letting our imagination zoom out and away from us, so that when looking back we see ourselves, our neighborhood and our whole planet at smaller and smaller sizes. At the first power-of-ten zoom (101), we look back and see ourselves ten times smaller, 0.1 m or 10 cm in height. Students can snap pictures of one another, print them at the ten times smaller size, adhere them to card stock and cut them out to produce relatively durable models. They can be made quasi-3D by attaching them to horizontal stands, which can then be placed in any number of scenarios along with ten-times smaller renditions of plants, furniture and buildings. It is important for this first zoom to use actual student photos if possible so that the models will be personal and real rather than impersonal and abstract.The next zoom to 102 brings us to a size of 1 cm. This is small enough that cutting out images of people is impractical so a good choice is to draw them. These two initial zooms to 101 and 102 are the only ones for which the model people are easily identifiable as individuals based on appearance, so for these levels explorations of storytelling involving characters would be particularly suitable. For 101, groups of students could come up with stories using their 10-times smaller model selves as characters, and present them to the rest of the class. For 102, students could collect tiny objects over a period of days, culminating in shared demonstrations of how these objects could serve as tools, clothing or furnishings for the 100 -times smaller people. For either level the class could study aspects of stories and storytelling such as the origins, types and purposes of this art-form.A method called Question Formulation Technique may be appropriate here. It has been increasingly used in recent years and shown to be remarkably effective in raising student engagement across all ages and disciplines. The technique could be a good option for any of the levels in Learn Through the Universe.With the next zoom to 103, we need new tactics as drawing 1-mm sized people is nearly impossible beyond a simple linear mark. At 104, model people will be the size of barely visible dots, and at 105 they will not be visible at all without magnifying lenses. These three levels represent an important transition. Losing sight of people has throughout history been a harbinger of treating them as abstractions at best or as less than humans at worst. The set of these three levels would thus provide a rich context for studying ethics and morals by means of topics in history or philosophy. 103 is also well suited for modeling buildings with an emphasis on how architecture serves human needs for shelter but also for social and religious gatherings. The buildings could be populated with 1-mm long bits of pencil lead to represent people in order to stimulate exploring how these people might feel in the different sizes and designs of the spaces. 104 and 105 are naturals for maps, first at the scale of a locality and then a region. Ideally students would render these by obtaining online overhead aerial images of their own locality and region and enlarging them to the proper scale. This choice would sustain the personal connection to the zoom process, but crafting maps of foreign or even imaginary places would be an additional option. At these scales, individual human-made structures are becoming too small to see, so the emphasis shifts to geographical features and networked human-made structures such as transportation and power transmission systems. These are readily made visible by the patterns of night-time lighting observable from space.At the million-fold zoom of 106, a benchmark is reached in the ability to render an illuminating model of our planet’s structure. A slice of the Earth at this scale spans 6.4 m from the core to the surface with one additional meter to include the atmosphere and transition to outer space. Students can color a scroll of paper to match the classic textbook pictures of the inner core, outer core, mantle, crust, ocean and atmosphere – but they will be re-booted at seeing how thin the crust and oceans really are. This is an example of how a textbook graphic duly noted as “not to scale” can nevertheless create lasting misperceptions of reality.The 106 benchmark zoom offers a crucial new opportunity to ask “how do we know?” How do we know the structure of the Earth if the deepest we’ve ever drilled is the equivalent of a pin-prick into the crust? This discussion can begin by contemplating the many ways in which early humans imagined the structure and composition of the realms beneath their feet. By observing volcanic activity they would have known that some of the underworld was hot enough to melt rock, but they also knew of caves and caverns that accommodated huge volumes of air-filled space. Literary fantasies such as “Journey to the Center of the Earth” by Jules Verne reflect all kinds of notions about what might lie beneath. Most mythologies and religions believed an underworld (or otherworld) to exist and typically that it was a place where the souls of the dead would reside. But what is a “soul?” What is a “spirit?” Most mythologies and religions believed there to be a literal or quasi-literal reality behind these terms, yet there has never been material evidence or verifiable logic to account for their existence. And yet “soul” and “spirit” clearly refer to aspects of being human that are profoundly important and should be openly discussed.So how did modern humans come up with the inner core, outer core, mantle and crust? The short answer is - by using the same method any of us might use to guess the contents of a gift box: by hefting, shaking and listening to it. We have done the equivalent with our planet by observing that (1) rocks and metals are found almost anywhere one digs deep enough, which gives a strong suggestion that Earth is made mostly of rock and metal; (2) the size of the Earth can be approximated based on simple geometry applied to the changing height of shadows with time, and the weight of the Earth based on its size and rock/metal composition; and (3) the travel of vibrations through Earth caused by Earth’s own shaking of itself via earthquakes can be analyzed to reveal distinct boundaries caused by density changes. It is only in the last 100 years that analysis of these seismic measurements has led to our current understanding of Earth’s internal structure.For the levels of 107 and 108, maps are again a good option as for 104 and 105. Topics for focused study are almost unlimited at these four levels, but are particularly suited to geography and history: the history of commerce from the Neolithic to the Silk Road to the internet; the history of global exploration across cultures and centuries; and the history of technology from the wheel to the steam engine to the propagation of electromagnetic waves. Geography can be nicely coupled with math in many ways at these levels, such as by seeing the preponderance of fractal forms in shorelines and by comparing Euclidean with spherical geometry. It would be useful to examine the many approaches used through history to show 3D surfaces of Earth in 2D maps, which tend to obfuscate reality by grossly enlarging the polar regions. Networks of human-made structures can also be compared to ecological, physiological and social networks, with literary tie-ins to writers such as Henry David Thoreau, George Orwell and Oliver Sacks.We now arrive at the billion times smaller realm of 109 where the Earth is 12.8 mm in diameter, a size easily approximated by wooden beads. It is a challenge for students to draw continents and oceans on these beads, but most will succeed and some with remarkable accuracy. Tying this Earth to a 3-mm diameter Moon bead at a distance of 38 cm completes an accurate model of the Earth-Moon system that needs only a few more beads, a playing field and 1.4-m diameter Sun (easily represented by a circle of that size formed from cut and re-connected hula hoops) to mock up the inner solar system. A few small styrofoam spheres (5-12 cm diameter) and a 5-km walk/run route would enable a “fly-by” of the inner planets with swings out to Jupiter and Saturn.We’ll take four zooms next to reach 1013 , another key level for understanding the role of humanity in the universe. This takes us far enough out of the solar system that we now look back at a roughly spherical region of space called the heliosphere, within which the Sun’s influence is dominant and outside of which there is a balance of influence on the part of all the stars in the galaxy. Here the sun is 14 mm in diameter and the heliosphere is 3.6 m across. The outer boundary of the heliosphere is a transitional zone called the heliopause, marked among other things by a sudden increase in the amount of galactic cosmic rays which are no longer blocked by the Sun’s solar wind. And here a remarkable event in human history is right now taking place, thanks to the Voyager mission launched in 1977. Voyager consists of two probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, whose initial objective was to study the outer planets and their moons. A unique feature of the mission is that each probe carries with it a gold-plated audio-visual disc (the “golden record”) filled with information about Earth to communicate with whatever intelligent life they may encounter. This information consists of photographs of Earth and its lifeforms, a range of scientific knowledge, spoken greetings in 55 languages, and a medley of natural sounds and music to represent our global culture. After their successful launches, each probe had fulfilled its study of the outer planets with spectacular success by the end of the 1980’s. They continued their outward journey and are now leaving the heliosphere. Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause on August 25, 2012; Voyager 2 is expected to do so in 2019 or 2020. They are farther from home and traveling faster than any other spacecraft, so are truly our emissaries to interstellar space. As NASA put it, “the Voyagers are destined – perhaps eternally – to wander the Milky Way.” But what does “eternally” mean, in this or any other context? And what might today’s students put on their version of the golden records?The zooms continue through the relative uniformity of interstellar space in our galaxy (unless we care to visit the supermassive black hole at its center), followed by the similarly relative uniformity of intergalactic space once we leave the Milky Way. They ultimately proceed on to 1027 where we finally reach the edge of the known universe. Whether with our own eyes or telescopes we can see most of the astronomical objects along this journey and for the most part grasp their reality, but the “edge of the universe” is another story. Yet this is an important one for students to ponder as it conforms with high precision to modern theoretical science while also invoking some of the big questions in philosophy and religion. Are we alone as lifeforms? As intelligent beings? Might there be other universes beyond or parallel with ours? Can there be such a thing as the nothingness that seems to exist beyond the edge of our universe? Scientists tell us that there is actually no such thing as “beyond the edge of the universe.” How can that be?Navigating through Space: Zooming InWe need an interlude before zooming into ourselves. The important point has been made that there is a presence and pertinence of humanity at every zoom level, but the physical reality of human presence at every level should not be overlooked. Between 104 and 105 this reality shifted from visible to invisible, but it would be a missed opportunity to let the abstraction of “invisible” extend to the 22subsequent zoom levels. Periodically during this outward journey, students should be reminded how big real people would be at a given level. For example, an actual person traveling within one of the Voyager probes at the 1014 zoom level that models the Heliosphere would be 0.00001 nanometers tall – the size of the nucleus of an atom. At the 1027 zoom level at the edge of the universe, people would be sized in the midrange of subatomic particles. These are boggling proportions, but comprehensible in a literal way by the middle and high school students who would be partaking in these advanced journeys.Now we shift our travels from outward to inward and begin zooming into ourselves. Starting again with the self at 1 m, we zoom in to 10-1 and look out to see our hand about 1m wide and 2m long. Students could draw the whole hand at this size by tracing out the shadow projected on a wall from a flashlight shining on each student’s actual hand – a vivid kind of self-image that invites comparison with the “hands” of other animals. Here access to a magnifying lens pops students into new perspectives that may cause shock at seeing their own surface appearance close-up, and all the more so when a fingertip reaches 1 m across at 10-2. This offers an excellent opportunity to study fingerprinting and the nature of personal identity. It also marks a transition comparable to 103 when modeled individuals were almost too small to be identifiable and were nearly invisible at the next level of 104. In zooming from 10-2 to 10-3, we are moving from the fingertip into tissue, and tissue does not generally allow visual discernment of whose tissue we are observing, in striking contrast with fingerprints.We continue progressing into tissue until we reach 10-5. Here students will be modeling entities that are about 10 microns in size, the size of a typical eukaryotic cell. Since the overall theme of LTTU is ourselves in the universe, we will focus on a human cell. While students carry out the research and design needed to make their 2D or 3D models of cells, they can explore philosophical questions pertinent to this scale. One derives from this being the first inward-zooming power-of-ten level that calls for visualizing something we cannot see with the naked eye; we need a microscope. What is the nature of our confidence that what we see through the microscope is an accurate rendition of what’s actually there? Is this confidence based on logical conjecture or faith – or both? At 10-5, these questions can be readily addressed by using the example of a magnifying lens and the simple optics behind its functionality. But the questions become more challenging as we proceed further into the microscopic realm, especially when we go beyond the capabilities of optical microscopy and begin to need more complex instrumentation such as scanning tunneling microscopes and particle accelerators. What are the philosophical implications of this progressive reliance for knowledge on tools of ever greater complexity and abstraction? And how might our understanding be biased by seeing only what the instrument transmits, without the additional information we usually get from all our other senses?Another key philosophical question pertinent to the 10-5 level is “what is an individual?” We are focusing here on individual cells, each bounded by a membrane and directed by the genetic material in its nucleus. Yet these cells derived from an individual human, in this case bounded by skin and directed largely by a brain. What is it about cells and humans that causes us to consider them as individuals, but not the tissues and organs that are between them in the hierarchy of anatomy? How does this compare with the relationship of a human individual to family, society and humanity as a whole? What is the nature of the experience of “one-ness” that is sought by so many spiritual endeavors in which individuality is perceived to disappear? Young students will no doubt have questions and ideas about this. More advanced students can explore it further by working with the thoughts of Arthur Schopenhauer: Individuation is but an appearance in a field of space and time, these being the conditioning forms through which my cognitive faculties apprehend their objects.  Hence the multiplicity and differences that distinguish individuals are likewise but appearances.  They exist, that is to say, only in my mental representation.  My own true inner being actually exists in every living creature as truly and immediately as known to my consciousness only in myself.  This realization, for which the standard formula in Sanskrit is tat tvam asi, is the ground of that compassion upon which all true, that is to say unselfish, virtue rests and whose expression is in every good deed.From 10-5 we proceed further into ourselves to observe organelles, biological molecules and, eventually, atoms. All of these down to molecules can be visually modeled reasonably well, but there are challenges when we get to atoms due to quantum mechanics. Electrons can be thought of as “orbiting” the nucleus, but it is important to convey the quantized as well as probabilistic nature of their existence (as also applies to all other sub-atomic particles). Younger students can be informed of these unfamiliar characteristics while not being expected to fully understand. For more advanced students, further zooming into the realm of fundamental particles such as quarks at 10-15 can be lightly explored. The last zoom, from 10-15 to 10-35, is a big and mostly nominal one, spanning twenty orders of magnitude through realms where no useful visualization is possible as essentially “it’s all in the math.” As with the pondering at the edge of the universe, trying to make sense of the extreme microcosm brings us to questions of philosophy and religion. Some would say that in this contemplation we are ultimately reduced - or elevated - to the sublime, beyond all contradictions and beliefs. LTTU provides a process that translates “all in the math” to much more tangible and relatable experiences, and that keep human beings present in the journey.Navigating through TimeThe scale treatment of time presents interesting contrasts with the scale modeling of space. One is that our knowledge of time is unidirectional into the past with the future importantly unknown, while our knowledge of space is bidirectional through zooming in and out of space. Another is that we are all familiar with the passage of time and accompanying changes in ourselves and the world, while most travels through space are virtual (outside of the range of what we see through magnifying lenses or what our astronauts have seen from outer space) and in that sense not at all familiar. A third is that while space encompasses 72 powers of ten, linear time stretches only 10 powers back to the formation of the universe 13.8 billion years ago. And while the zooms through space span many radically different phenomena in physical structure and behavior, traveling back in time encounters a relative continuum in the behavior of matter and energy until the 10th power of ten when, in the astoundingly sudden moment of the Big Bang, all of matter and energy came into existence.But this comparison of time and space is based on our ordinary human experience of the two domains, with structures of space defined exponentially and the structure of time linearly. We can and should explore time through its powers of ten, as they represent dynamics that are crucial to the nature of matter and energy and therefore crucial to how we actually live. Having stated this, a single true-to-scale experience of linear time can be illuminating, as outlined in the Addendum (p 13)As with space, a comprehensive study of time starts best at the scale of oneself: at 100, a single heartbeat of about one second. As with size, young students can measure their heart rates and recognize that while the duration of their heartbeats is variable, they are all much closer to one second than 0.1 second or 10 seconds. Ten times longer, ten seconds, matches to a long, deep breath. And here we have a new divergent pattern from the space realm, in that the next seven time zooms take us from 102 seconds (1 minute, 40 seconds) to 108 seconds (31.7 years), all readily within human experience in terms of ages of beings and durations of processes or events. But at 109, we jump to 317 years, well beyond human lifetimes or even the memories of our grandparents’ grandparents. From here the zooming out takes us through the time frames of ever larger entities: the rise and fall of civilizations (up to thousands of years), the uplift and erosion of mountains (up to hundreds of millions of years), the orbits of stars around the center of their galaxies (up to a billion years), and the age of the universe (13.8 billion years).Zooming in from the one-second heartbeat at 100 takes us to 0.1 second, an easily sensed duration, almost even in terms of counting fast from one to ten. Hundredths of seconds are more abstract, but relatable in terms of Olympic records such as for the 100-m dash and for understanding frame rates of movies and how they relate to human vision. But in contrast to slower and longer times, where human longevity spanned nine powers of ten, the faster and shorter times that manifest in the microscopic world quickly signify processes too fast for us to perceive directly. We can however use sound as a proxy for time to cover the levels of 10-3 to 10-6, since in sound pitch varies according to the frequency of the sound wave. Frequency is waves per second and humans detect sound in the range between 20 and 20,000 waves per second. This corresponds to the duration of time that passes as each sound wave progresses into our ears, ranging from 5 hundredths of a second duration for the very lowest, barely audible pitches to 50 microseconds of duration for the highest and also barely audible pitches. Even faster times correspond with the frequencies of light, the speeds of chemical reactions, the shortest laser pulses yet produced at 10-16 seconds, and finally the time frame of sub-atomic events. Within these fast ranges are vivid processes to explore such as hummingbird wings, lightning strikes and our gut reactions, both metabolic and neurological, that enable ourselves and all other organisms to be alive. What is time? – the mysteryNavigating through Human NatureHuman nature is far more important yet far more difficult to navigate than time and space. We know the attributes of human nature but barely understand how and why this particular “nature” of ours manifests as it does. This is in remarkable contrast with the nature of the universe we so readily traverse thanks to the legacy of science, a little math and our imagination. And it’s not just the stupendous complexity of our biochemical bodies that generate our human nature that is confounding. Human life is a flow of conscious experience that is constantly blending the rational with the instinctual; thinking with feeling in both memory and the moment; and the release to habits of personality while yearning for inspiration from a higher good within or from one’s surroundings. All cultures seem to share the concept of universal values encompassing morality, ethics and aesthetics. As such societies have varying levels of subjective metrics on human behaviors and outcomes, but this is nowhere close to providing a tangible, definitive structure to explore, as can be done with time and space.So where does this leave us? It leaves us with many intractable individual and social problems, widely called “wicked” problems. Wicked problems arise from human nature, as opposed to “tame” problems that may be extremely complicated but are fundamentally open to scientific solution. For example, inequality and the conflicts it engenders is a wicked problem; building spacecraft that can explore our solar system and beyond is tame. Learn Through the Universe is dedicated to supporting the human endeavor for betterment at large, and proposes to do so by establishing close but informal linkages of its new model for K-12 education with other initiatives and the variety of public and private schools devoted to these values [https://characterlab.org/, http://teachfastly.com/about, http://www.ivalongbeach.org/, http://www.greatheartsamerica.org/].Practical Aspects for Implementing Learn Through the UniverseThe approach can be used in many different ways. It can be implemented alongside existing curricula without requiring any change to those curricula. The power-of-ten space models will generally require 2-20 hours for construction per level depending on the complexity of the crafting method and the amount of correlative disciplinary content to be incorporated in the form of reading, writing and interaction. Level models could be constructed up to once each month but at least once each semester to ensure continuity in the experience of scale. It is not necessary that models be crafted for each and every level. As an example, the realms in outer space between the levels of 1014 and 1026 could be traveled by means of six rather than twelve zooms, one stopping at the outer limits of our galaxy (1019), and the last at the edge of the universe (1026). This is a reasonable option because the universe at these scales has relatively few structural features beyond the size of the objects (stars, galaxies and galactic clusters) and the density of their distribution (alternating between sparse and dense). This is in striking contrast to the shrinking travels where nearly every power of ten zoom represents significant new structural and behavioral features until reaching the realm of the fundamental particles at 10-16.In primary schools the constructions could be undertaken by single classrooms, grade levels or school-wide, with a blend of these modalities probably ideal. In middle and high schools these options would also be feasible although many constructions would be best suited for science or history courses. The Table of Space (p 10) includes suggestions for matching grade levels with the powers of ten levels, but those are entirely flexible as long as the levels are initially visited in order from self to micro and self to macro. Having made that assertion, however, one of the natural uses of the approach is to revisit levels when they have some relevance to a topic of study. Middle and high school science classes could revisit the microscopic levels from 10-5 to 10-10> in the context of materials other than our own organic tissues to explore the structure and composition of air, water, rock and metals or synthetic materials such as plastics, fabrics and electronics. Following each chosen route from the familiar macro level through reliably shrinking zooms to the level of atoms confirms the fundamental nature of matter as we know it. The fact that we are all made of atoms of the same elements becomes experiential rather than abstract.It is important to note that Learn Through the Universe is not a science curriculum; it is a curriculum of the universe. It is made possible by what science has revealed over the last 500 years, and through it students will be likely to develop greatly improved science literacy. But it conveys only what we know about the structure of the universe, while learning science requires understanding how we arrived at this knowledge and why we believe it is so. The importance of these how and why aspects is strongly articulated in two reports from the National Academies (“Taking Science to School” and “Ready, Set, Science”), both published in 2007. The research findings that prompted these reports are countervailing to how most of science is currently taught. They show that students best learn science by operating as scientists, that is by cooperatively exploring ideas and questions, working with models and tools to make predictions, gathering evidence and engaging in logical reasoning about the evidence to arrive at new knowledge. Indeed learning in all disciplines, not just the sciences, would be more effective if acquired through appropriate versions of these active learning modes.ConclusionIt’s time for a new approach to education. Academia is besieged by challenges to its centuries-old hegemony. K-12 education needs the boost of a new perspective that can be readily incorporated into existing classrooms without undoing the important work of the disciplines. The next generation science standards will be served well in that its three dimensions of disciplinary core ideas, practices, and cross-cutting concepts will have enlivening powers-of-ten creation activities to reiterate and integrate them, as will the common core standards for mathematics and language arts. Students deserve to learn about our universe through an approach that models the real world as it is known to exist, including its unknowns. It is our imagination that makes this zoom journey through the universe possible, and it has always been our imagination that generates new ways of thinking, feeling, inventing and expressing. As Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited while imagination embraces the world.” In our increasingly digitized and post-modern world, LTTU offers a new way to integrate disciplinary education with collaborative teamwork and character building. It is not just time for this to happen, it is spacetime for this to manifest throughout the universe. Powers-of-Ten Table of Space Powers-of-Ten Table of Time (work in progress) AddendumA single linear timeline of the history of the universe starting with the Big Bang is another way to appreciate scale. Here we will focus on the most recent third of that timeline, starting with Earth’s formation some 4.5 billion years ago. The chronology reveals initial stretches of pure geology (~1.0 billion years) followed by the origin of life and subsequent evolution of microbiology (~3.0 billion years) before we reach the relative explosion of new life forms that started some 0.5 billion years ago. Ironically, because of the long and by default “boring” duration of Earth’s first 4 billion years, these timelines are often graphically rendered not to scale so as to fit on one page with the “interesting” last part expanded quite out of proportion to its real duration. The result is profound miscomprehension and confusion. The point here is that a uniform scale in a linear (year by year) format works well for studying our universe through time, in contrast with a uniform scale that is exponential (by powers of ten) as required for vast changes in size and distance. A practical scale for students to use in crafting the timeline of Earth’s history is 1 mm = 1 million years, which leads to a 4.6-meter scroll timeline with the last 10,000 years of “modern” human history occurring in the nearly invisible final hundredth of a millimeter.A vivid way to experience this true scale history of planet Earth is as a 33-day long event in which each minute of real time represents 100,000 years of “Earth time.” At this scale each day represents nearly 150 million years. The event would be scheduled so that the last five days of it occur on a suitable Monday through Friday during the school year (see Table of Time, page 9). The first of the 33 days would provide an introduction to the event and a description of the condensation of a nebular cloud of gas and dust into the primordial solar system. Each subsequent day would provide a 1-20 minute update of what is happening on that day in Earth history. Many of these updates would require only a few minutes of description as the evolution of the early Earth was extremely gradual and therefore “not much happening” relative to more recent times, up until the 33rd day when the historic content dramatically accelerates.  That last day would require a few hours or could be a full day event during which time the dinosaurs go extinct and mammals eventually dominate.  Prehistoric humans appear only in the last 26 minutes of the day and the last 10,000 years of modern history take place in the last 6 seconds.Table of Time: Earth’s History in 33 Days (based on 1 minute = 100,000 years)

Table of Time: Earth’s History in 33 Days (based on 1 minute = 100,000 years)

Power of TenDurationExample EventModel Lesson Plan 1001 second human heartbeatThe Measure of the Self (see pages 2, 3) 10110 secondslong deep breath        “ 1021 min 40 sec1-block walk        “ 10316 min 40 sec1-mile walkSlow Times 1042 hr 47 minfast marathon        “ 10527 hr 47 minlong day and night        “  10611.6 daysfast sail across the Atlantic        “ 1073.8 monthsColumbus’ first Atlantic sail        “ 10831.7 yearshuman maturation        “ 109317 yearslifetime of quahog clam        “ 10103,170 yearslifetime of bristlecone pine        “ 101131,700 yearsprecession cycle of EarthSlower Times 1012317,000 yearshalf-life of plutonium-242        “ 10133.2 myrserosion of Grand Canyon        “ 101432 myrsformation of mountains        “ 1015320 myrsorbit of Milky Way        “ 10163.2 byrsage of diamonds on Earth        “ 101713.8 byrsage of universe        “ 1001 secondheartbeat   The Measure of the Self (see pages 2, 3) 10-10.1 seceyeblink        “ 10-20.01 secvisual reflex response        “ 10-31 millisecneuronal action potential        “ 10-4100 microsectelephone sampling rateFast Times 10-510 microseclightning stroke        “ 10-6 - 10-7 1 microsecto100 nanosec strobe light flash         “ 10-8 - 10-24 10 nanosecto1 yoctosecchemical reactions,electronicslasersatomic and sub-atomic processes A Realm of Mystery (see page 3) 10-44“Planck time”shortest theoretical timeThe Planck Limit (see page 3)

Power of TenThings about this SizeTheme Model Lesson Plan 100humanEach of us is a unique SELF; at times we feel similar to OTHERs, at times differentThe Measure of the Self(awareness) 101houseWe are all born to a mother and father and are a FAMILY with them and other relativesTen Times Smaller Self(story) 102theaterWe interact with others in SOCIAL GROUPS according to our interests, needs and customsHundred Times Smaller Self(need) 103schoolARCHITECTURE defines the built spaces  in which we live, learn, play, work and worshipBeing in Buildings(mood) 104townNAVIGATION is how we get where we want to go, typically using geography and mapsMaking Maps 1(journey) 105regionTrade and COMMERCE are exchanges of goods, services and moneyMaking Maps 2(value) 106countrySUSTAINABILITY is the ability to support the activities of life ongoinglyA Slice of the Earth(formation) 107EarthUNITY is one-ness of beingThe Home Planet(habitability) 108Earth-Moon systemCYCLES are processes and patterns that have geometrically circular dynamics The World on a String (rhythm) 109Sun A SOURCE is a point of origin; RADIANCE is a state of giving off energy or matterThe Sun (origin) 1010starsA HIERARCHY is a categorization of people or things according to age, size, power or otherStars(grouping) 1011orbit of MercuryCENTRALITY signifies organization around a focal point; ECCENTRICIY refers to an object not in uniform relationship with its focal pointSolar System 1(normality) 1012orbit of SaturnSYSTEMS are assemblies of things that relate with each other in particular waysSolar System 2(resonance) 1013heliosphereBOUNDARIES mark the transition between different spaces, times or thingsSolar System 3(governance) 1014 -1019 spaces in the Milky WayEMPTINESS signifies the absence of a quality or substanceHow Do We Model Emptiness?(relativity) 1020Milky Way GalaxyUNEXPECTEDNESS is having the nature of being different from what was assumed to be soA Spiral System(naming) 1021galactic groupHETEROGENEITY is the quality of things being different from one anotherOur Near Neighborhood(pattern) 1022 – 1025spaces of galaxiesSPACETIME is the four-dimensional fabric of the universe: 3D space melded with 1D timeFour –and more – Dimensions(imagining) 1026the known  universeSINGULARITY is a trait marking one moment, place or thing as distinct from all othersA View of a Mystery(humility)

The LTTU logo was inspired by the first-ever detection of gravitational waves in 2015 due to the collision of two super-massive black holes. This breakthrough event opens a new window on the world by expanding beyond the previous reliance on fluctuations in the electromagnetic field. It is likely to help us understand new and unexpected aspects of our universe, including the processes that took place shortly after the Big Bang.   Addendum A single linear timeline of the history of the universe starting with the Big Bang is another way to appreciate scale. Here we will focus on the most recent third of that timeline, starting with Earth’s formation some 4.6 billion years ago. The chronology reveals initial stretches of pure geology 0.7 billion years) followed by the origin of life and subsequent evolution of microbiology 3.4 billion years) before we reach the relative explosion of new life forms that started some 0.5 billion years ago (see table 4, page 17). Ironically, because of the long and by default “boring” duration of Earth’s first 4 billion years, these timelines are often graphically rendered not to scale so as to fit on one page with the “interesting” last part expanded quite out of proportion to its real duration. The result is profound miscomprehension and confusion. The point here is that a uniform scale in a linear (year by year) format works well for studying our universe through time, in contrast with a uniform scale that is exponential (by powers of ten) as required for vast changes in size and distance. A practical scale for students to use in crafting the timeline of Earth’s history is 1 mm = 1 million years, which leads to a 4.6-meter scroll timeline with the last 10,000 years of “modern” human history occurring in the nearly invisible final hundredth of a millimeter. A vivid way to experience this true scale history of planet Earth is as a 33-day long event in which each minute of real time represents 100,000 years of “Earth time.” At this scale each day represents nearly 150 million years. The event would be scheduled so that the last five days of it occur on a suitable Monday through Friday during the school year (see Table of Time, page 9). The first of the 33 days would provide an introduction to the event and a description of the condensation of a nebular cloud of gas and dust into the primordial solar system. Each subsequent day would provide a 1-20 minute update of what is happening on that day in Earth history. Many of these updates would require only a few minutes of description as the evolution of the early Earth was extremely gradual and therefore “not much happening” relative to more recent times, up until the 33rd day when the historic content dramatically accelerates.  That last day would require a few hours or could be a full day event during which time the dinosaurs go extinct and mammals eventually dominate.  Prehistoric humans appear only in the last 26 minutes of the day and the last 10,000 years of modern history take place in the last 6 seconds.

Learn Through the Universe A New Approach to K-12 and Beyond  Mercedes V. Talley March 2018  Introduction “Learn Through the Universe” (LTTU) is a new system of learning based on the human experience of oneself and others in space and time. It reveals the structure of the universe while focusing on how humankind perceives and interacts with the beings and things that compose it. In this way LTTU grounds the learning process in the context of fundamental questions such as: “What is the universe?”, “Who are we?”, and “Why are we here?” The approach has students construct true-to-scale 2D and 3D models of the universe at powers of ten, starting with the scale of oneself, and proceeding down into the subatomic realm and out to the edge of the universe. The models are used to study relevant topics in the traditional disciplines of the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, as well as in applied disciplines such as health, business and engineering. Each model is associated with a theme that can be used to explore the meaning of the model and the reality it represents (see tables 1 and 2, next pages). The structure of the universe thus becomes a backdrop for learning about humankind. Thanks to the power of the human mind and the tools it has developed over the past 500 years, we can “see” extraordinarily far into the macrocosm and the microcosm. And yet our insights regarding human nature seem to be as limited as they were for our prehistoric ancestors. Today we have much more data on ourselves, but the difficulty of understanding ourselves continues to be in contrast with the relative ease with which we probe and expand our knowledge of the physical universe. Learn Through the Universe (LTTU) acknowledges this contrast and offers new perspectives learning about it. It will in particular highlight how science and technology have changed significantly over time and are likely to continue doing so, how society has consequently changed as well, and yet how the arts and humanities have been telling us the same stories about human joy and sorrow over and over again.   The next generation of innovators across human endeavor will need an integrated understanding of basic knowledge, but even more so the ability to think and work collaboratively with others. LTTU will answer these needs based on its integrated approach, and by the intentional design of the model lesson plans it provides. As an example, LTTU advocates use of the “Question Formulation Technique (QFT)” [http://rightquestion.org/education ]. The QFT has been shown to be remarkably effective in raising student engagement and improving critical thinking across all ages and topics. It is particularly suited for helping students (and teachers) dive into the challenging aspects of scale and modeling, and of spiritual as well as material existence, that permeate LTTU.

Why Powers of Ten? The true scales of sub-atomic and cosmic space and time are difficult to comprehend but important to understand if we want to fully embrace the gifts of human curiosity and intellect. Fortunately there is a simple way to approach this understanding: through scale representations at powers of ten. The way has already been demonstrated by the iconic “Powers of Ten: A Film Dealing with the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero” by the Office of Charles and Ray Eames (1952), and the book “Powers of Ten” (based on the film) by Philip and Phylis Morrison (1982). The central concept is to use powers of ten as a virtual vehicle for traveling from the scale of oneself down into one’s cells, atoms and sub-atomic realms, and likewise out to the edge of the solar system, Milky Way Galaxy and universe. Powers of ten is the standard scientific method for this process because it is easy to use with the world’s decimal (ten-based) number system and the ten-based metric system of measurement. Thus powers of ten offer a simple and well-known way to quickly change scale. An important feature of zooming by powers of ten is that it occurs in jumps rather than in a continuum. Jumping enables a sufficient contrast in the observable phenomena at each scale to make for useful comparison. By keeping the zooms consistently at factors of ten, these comparisons are made across uniform metrics and can reveal important patterns in the overriding structure of matter, such as the recurring rhythms of density and emptiness that occur in traveling from the subatomic realm to the edge of the universe. There are few publications that explain the concept and use of scale or the serious misunderstandings that may result from schematics that are not drawn to scale. Learn Through the Universe (LTTU) suggests that promoting the role of scale in education will provide a new way to build knowledge - literally. The approach is ideally suited to implementation by means of having students construct 2D and 3D representations of matter at powers of ten. This is conceptually simple and calls for no special skill or technology beyond basic arithmetic, paper and pencil. At the same time it is a natural for taking advantage of computer-based, interactive zoom tools, maps, visualizations, and 3D printing, and other emergent technologies when these resources are available. Constructing the models will give students abundant opportunity for collaborative teamwork, practical crafting and artistic expression. And students worldwide can share images of their constructions through a curated website, eliciting powerful personal and cultural comparisons. How is Learn Through the Universe Navigated? Learn Through the Universe is navigated by progressing through two parameters: space and time. For young students these progressions always start at the size scale of oneself and the time scale phenomena of everyday life. For more advanced students, their “travels” through and beyond the Milky Way Galaxy will position them to explore Einstein’s unification of space and time into the 4D spacetime fabric of the universe. Their travels into and through the atom will likewise introduce them to the world of quantum mechanics where our common sense understanding of matter and energy is profoundly inaccurate to physical reality. It is not expected that average K-12 students will become conversant with 4D spacetime and quantum mechanics, but by exposing them to these realms we can expand their propensity for imagination and affirm the true nature of knowledge as an ever-changing process of learning and never a fixed set of facts. And quantum physics is swiftly moving into the everyday worlds of commerce and industry, so such exposure is no longer just an esoteric emblem of knowledge but a stamp of knowing what’s up. Navigating through Space: Zooming Out The travels through space start with the order-of-magnitude size of a human: 100 = 1 meter (m). Helping students understand why this size is right even though not exact can be done by measuring a variety of student heights in order to see that the resulting average size is close to 1 m and not at all close to 0.1 m or 10 m. Once comfortable with this starting size of the self averaged at 1 m, we are ready to travel. We start by letting our imagination zoom out and away from us, so that when looking back we see ourselves, our neighborhood and our whole planet at smaller and smaller sizes. At the first power-of-ten zoom (101), we look back and see ourselves ten times smaller, 0.1 m or 10 cm in height. Students can snap pictures of one another, print them at the ten times smaller size, adhere them to card stock and cut them out to produce relatively durable models. They can be made quasi-3D by attaching them to horizontal stands, which can then be placed in any number of scenarios along with ten-times smaller renditions of plants, furniture and buildings. It is important for this first zoom to use actual student photos if possible so that the models will be personal and real rather than impersonal and abstract. The next zoom to 102 brings us to a size of 1 cm. The same student photos from 101 would ideally be used to sustain the personal and real nature of the models, even though cutting them out along precision lines is not practical. These two initial zooms to 101 and 102 are the only ones for which the model people are easily identifiable as individuals based on appearance, so for these levels explorations of storytelling involving characters would be particularly suitable. For 101, groups of students could come up with stories using their 10-times smaller model selves as characters, and present them to the rest of the class. For 102, students could collect tiny objects over a period of days, culminating in shared demonstrations of how these objects could serve as tools, clothing or furnishings for the 100-times smaller people. For either level the class could study aspects of stories and storytelling such as the origins, types and purposes of this art-form. A method called “Question Formulation Technique” may be appropriate here [rightquestion.org]. It has been increasingly used in recent years and shown to be remarkably effective in raising student engagement across all ages and disciplines. The technique is a good option for any of the levels in Learn Through the Universe and has been incorporated into many of the model lesson plans. Instructions on its use are provided on the LTTU website.  We need an interlude before zooming into ourselves. The important point has been made that there is a presence and pertinence of humanity at every zoom level, but the physical reality of human presence at every level should not be overlooked. Between 104 and 105 this reality shifted from visible to invisible, but it would be a missed opportunity to let the abstraction of “invisible” extend to the 22 subsequent zoom levels. Periodically during this outward journey, students should be reminded how big real people would be at a given level. For example, an actual person traveling within one of the Voyager probes at the 1014 zoom level that models the heliosphere would be 0.00001 nanometers tall – the size of the nucleus of an atom. At the 1027 zoom level at the edge of the universe, people would be sized in the midrange of subatomic particles. These are boggling proportions, but comprehensible in a literal way for the middle and high school students who would be partaking of these advanced journeys.

Why Powers of Ten? The true scales of sub-atomic and cosmic space and time are difficult to comprehend but important to understand if we want to fully embrace the gifts of human curiosity and intellect. Fortunately there is a simple way to approach this understanding: through scale representations at powers of ten. The way has already been demonstrated by the iconic “Powers of Ten: A Film Dealing with the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero” by the Office of Charles and Ray Eames (1952), and the book “Powers of Ten” (based on the film) by Philip and Phylis Morrison (1982). The central concept is to use powers of ten as a virtual vehicle for traveling from the scale of oneself down into one’s cells, atoms and sub-atomic realms, and likewise out to the edge of the solar system, Milky Way Galaxy and universe. Powers of ten is the standard scientific method for this process because it is easy to use with the world’s decimal (ten-based) number system and the ten-based metric system of measurement. Thus powers of ten offer a simple and well-known way to quickly change scale. An important feature of zooming by powers of ten is that it occurs in jumps rather than in a continuum. Jumping enables a sufficient contrast in the observable phenomena at each scale to make for useful comparison. By keeping the zooms consistently at factors of ten, these comparisons are made across uniform metrics and can reveal important patterns in the overriding structure of matter, such as the recurring rhythms of density and emptiness that occur in traveling from the subatomic realm to the edge of the universe. There are few publications that explain the concept and use of scale or the serious misunderstandings that may result from schematics that are not drawn to scale. Learn Through the Universe (LTTU) suggests that promoting the role of scale in education will provide a new way to build knowledge - literally. The approach is ideally suited to implementation by means of having students construct 2D and 3D representations of matter at powers of ten. This is conceptually simple and calls for no special skill or technology beyond basic arithmetic, paper and pencil. At the same time it is a natural for taking advantage of computer-based, interactive zoom tools, maps, visualizations, and 3D printing, and other emergent technologies when these resources are available. Constructing the models will give students abundant opportunity for collaborative teamwork, practical crafting and artistic expression. And students worldwide can share images of their constructions through a curated website, eliciting powerful personal and cultural comparisons. How is Learn Through the Universe Navigated? Learn Through the Universe is navigated by progressing through two parameters: space and time. For young students these progressions always start at the size scale of oneself and the time scale phenomena of everyday life. For more advanced students, their “travels” through and beyond the Milky Way Galaxy will position them to explore Einstein’s unification of space and time into the 4D spacetime fabric of the universe. Their travels into and through the atom will likewise introduce them to the world of quantum mechanics where our common sense understanding of matter and energy is profoundly inaccurate to physical reality. It is not expected that average K-12 students will become conversant with 4D spacetime and quantum mechanics, but by exposing them to these realms we can expand their propensity for imagination and affirm the true nature of knowledge as an ever-changing process of learning and never a fixed set of facts. And quantum physics is swiftly moving into the everyday worlds of commerce and industry, so such exposure is no longer just an esoteric emblem of knowledge but a stamp of knowing what’s up. Learn Through the Universe transcends disciplinary boundaries, and as such will assist in integrating the common core and next-generation science standards, and demonstrating their relevance to life in the here and now.  It will reinstate attention to human nature and the importance of character in how our world works.  The approach is supported by a website that provides a variety of detailed lesson plans for each power-of-ten level with recommendations for initial grade-level implementation.  In the future, the website will host a gallery of images of constructions crafted by students of all ages, thus providing a globally shared context for all education that is not constrained by language or culture.   The ultimate focus of LTTU is K-12 education, but the currently confounding realities of effecting change in this sector suggest that more initial success with implementation could be achieved in the college-level and informal education sectors.  These have already proved responsive and ready to proceed in collaborative ventures, so are envisioned as important partners in early roll out, especially in colleges of education. Navigating through Space: Zooming Out The travels through space start with the order-of-magnitude size of a human: 100 = 1 meter (m). Helping students understand why this size is right even though not exact can be done by measuring a variety of student heights in order to see that the resulting average size is close to 1 m and not at all close to 0.1 m or 10 m. At the same time, while height is the most familiar metric for size, there are many other important “measures of the self.” These include qualities of movement (such as speed and focus), personality traits (such as curiosity and introversion), and character values (such as courage and honesty). When someone “sizes you up,” they are assessing how these attributes integrate to make you who you are. It is important to include this holistic assessment of what a self is at this beginning point of the LTTU journey to provide a grounding for exploring the full range of human behavior (both individual and social) as it manifests across time and space. Now we are ready to travel. We start by letting our imagination zoom out and away from us, so that when looking back we see ourselves, our neighborhood and our whole planet at smaller and smaller sizes. At the first power-of-ten zoom (101), we look back and see ourselves ten times smaller, 0.1 m or 10 cm in height. Students can snap pictures of one another, print them at the ten times smaller size, adhere them to card stock and cut them out to produce relatively durable models. They can be made quasi-3D by attaching them to horizontal stands, which can then be placed in any number of scenarios along with ten-times smaller renditions of plants, furniture and buildings. It is important for this first zoom to use actual student photos if possible so that the models will be personal and real rather than impersonal and abstract. The next zoom to 102 brings us to a size of 1 cm. The same student photos from 101 would ideally be used to sustain the personal and real nature of the models, even though cutting them out along precision lines is not practical. These two initial zooms to 101 and 102 are the only ones for which the model people are easily identifiable as individuals based on appearance, so for these levels explorations of storytelling involving characters would be particularly suitable. For 101, groups of students could come up with stories using their 10-times smaller model selves as characters, and present them to the rest of the class. For 102, students could collect tiny objects over a period of days, culminating in shared demonstrations of how these objects could serve as tools, clothing or furnishings for the 100-times smaller people. For either level the class could study aspects of stories and storytelling such as the origins, types and purposes of this art-form. With the next zoom to 103 we need new tactics, as drawing 1-mm sized people is nearly impossible beyond a simple linear mark. At 104, model people will be the size of barely visible dots, and at 105 they will not be visible at all without magnifying lenses. These three levels represent an important transition. Losing sight of people has throughout history been a harbinger of treating them as abstractions at best or as less than humans at worst. The set of these three levels would thus provide a rich context for studying ethics and morals by means of topics in history or philosophy. 103 is also well suited for modeling buildings with an emphasis on how architecture serves human needs for shelter as well as for social and religious gatherings. The buildings could be populated with 1-mm long bits of pencil lead to represent people in order to stimulate exploring how these people might feel in the different sizes and designs of the spaces. 104 and 105 are naturals for maps, first at the scale of a locality and then a region. Ideally students would render these by obtaining online overhead aerial images of their own locality and region and enlarging them to the proper scale. This choice would sustain the personal connection to the zoom process, but crafting maps of foreign or even imaginary places would be an additional option. At these scales, individual human-made structures are becoming too small to see, so the emphasis shifts to geographical features and networked human-made structures such as transportation and power transmission systems. These are readily made visible by the patterns of night-time lighting observable from space. At the million-fold zoom of 106, a benchmark is reached in the ability to render an illuminating model of our planet’s structure. A slice of the Earth at this scale spans 7.4 m from the core to the surface and out to include one meter for the atmosphere and transition to outer space. Students can color a scroll of paper to match the classic textbook pictures of the inner core, outer core, mantle, crust, ocean and layers of the atmosphere – but they will be re-booted at seeing how thin the crust and oceans really are. This is an example of how a textbook graphic duly noted as “not to scale” can nevertheless create lasting misperceptions of reality. The fact that at this scale the oceans are only a few millimeters deep provides a vivid perspective for discussing the theme of sustainability. The 106 benchmark zoom also offers the new opportunity to ask “how do we know?” How do we know the internal structure of the Earth if the deepest we’ve ever drilled is the equivalent of a pin-prick into the crust? This discussion can begin by contemplating the many ways in which early humans imagined the structure and composition of the realms beneath their feet. By observing volcanic activity they would have known that some of the underworld was hot enough to melt rock, but they also knew of caves and caverns that accommodated huge volumes of air-filled space. Literary fantasies such as “Journey to the Center of the Earth” by Jules Verne reflect all kinds of notions about what might lie beneath.  So how did modern humans come up with the inner core, outer core, mantle and crust? The short answer is - by using the same method any of us might use to guess the contents of a gift box: hefting, shaking and listening. We have done the equivalent with our planet by measuring how vibrations caused by earthquakes travel through the Earth. In other words, Earth shakes itself and we can analyze the speeds and directions of the resulting vibrational waves. It is only in the last 100 years that analysis of these seismic measurements has led to our current understanding of Earth’s internal structure. For the levels of 106 - 108, maps are again a good option as for 104 and 105. Topics for focused study are almost unlimited at these five levels, but are particularly suited to geography and history: the history of commerce from the Neolithic to the Silk Road to the internet; the history of global exploration across cultures and centuries; and the history of technology from the wheel to the steam engine to the propagation of electromagnetic waves. Geography can be nicely coupled with math in many ways at these levels, such as by seeing the preponderance of fractal forms in shorelines and by comparing Euclidean with spherical geometry. It would be useful to examine the many approaches used through history to show 3D surfaces of Earth in 2D maps, which tend to obfuscate reality by grossly enlarging the polar regions. Networks of human-made structures can also be compared to ecological, social and physiological networks, with literary tie-ins to writers such as Henry David Thoreau, C. S. Lewis and Oliver Sacks. We now arrive at the billion times smaller realm of 109 where the Earth is 12.8 mm in diameter, a size easily approximated by wooden beads. It is a challenge for students to draw continents and oceans on these beads, but most will succeed and some with remarkable accuracy. Tying this Earth to a 3-mm diameter Moon bead at a distance of 38 cm completes an accurate model of the Earth-Moon system (the size of which matches the power of ten level of 108). This model system needs only a few more beads, a playing field and 1.4-m diameter Sun (easily represented by a circle of that size formed from cut and re-connected hula hoops) to mock up the inner solar system. A few small styrofoam spheres (5-12 cm diameter) and a 5-km walk/run route would enable a “fly-by” of the inner planets with swings out to Jupiter and Saturn. We’ll take four zooms next to reach 1013 , another key level for understanding the role of humankind in the universe. This takes us far enough out of the solar system that we now look back at a roughly spherical region of space called the heliosphere, within which the Sun’s influence is dominant and outside of which there is a balance of influence on the part of all the stars in the galaxy. Here the sun is 14 mm in diameter and the heliosphere is 3.6 m across. The outer boundary of the heliosphere is a transitional zone called the heliopause, marked among other things by a sudden increase in the flux of galactic cosmic rays that are no longer blocked by the Sun’s solar wind. And here a remarkable event in human history is right now taking place, thanks to the Voyager mission launched in 1977. Voyager consists of two probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, whose initial objective was to study the outer planets and their moons. A unique feature of the mission is that each probe carries with it a gold-plated audio-visual disc (the “golden record”) filled with information about Earth to communicate with whatever intelligent life they may encounter. This information consists of photographs of Earth and its lifeforms, a range of scientific knowledge, spoken greetings in 55 languages, and a medley of natural sounds and music to represent our global culture. After their successful launches, each probe had fulfilled its study of the outer planets with spectacular success by the end of the 1980’s. They continued their outward journey and are now leaving the heliosphere. Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause on August 25, 2012; Voyager 2 is expected to do so in 2019 or 2020. They are farther from home and traveling faster than any other spacecraft, so are truly our emissaries to interstellar space. As NASA put it, “the Voyagers are destined – perhaps eternally – to wander the Milky Way.” But what does “eternally” mean, in this or any other context? And what might today’s students put on their version of the golden records? The zooms continue through the relative uniformity of interstellar space in our galaxy (unless we care to visit the supermassive black hole at its center), followed by the similarly relative uniformity of intergalactic space once we leave the Milky Way. They ultimately proceed on to 1027 where we finally reach the edge of the known universe. Whether with our own eyes or telescopes we can see most of the astronomical objects along this journey and for the most part grasp their reality, but the “edge of the universe” is another story. Yet this is an important one for students to ponder as it conforms with high precision to modern theoretical science while also invoking some of the big questions in philosophy and religion. Are we alone as lifeforms? As intelligent beings? Might there be other universes beyond or parallel with ours? Can there be such a thing as the nothingness that seems to exist beyond the edge of our universe? Scientists tell us that there is actually no such thing as “beyond the edge of the universe.” How can that be? These levels are particularly well suited to using the Question Formulation Technique mentioned on page 5 so as to engage students in developing the questions themselves. Interlude We need an interlude before zooming into ourselves. The important point has been made that there is a presence and pertinence of humanity at every zoom level, but the physical reality of human presence at every level should not be overlooked. Between 104 and 105 this reality shifted from visible to invisible, but it would be a missed opportunity to let the abstraction of “invisible” extend to the 22 subsequent zoom levels. Periodically during this outward journey, students should be reminded how big real people would be at a given level. For example, an actual person traveling within one of the Voyager probes at the 1014 zoom level that models the heliosphere would be 0.00001 nanometers tall – the size of the nucleus of an atom. At the 1027 zoom level at the edge of the universe, people would be sized in the midrange of subatomic particles. These are boggling proportions, but comprehensible in a literal way for the middle and high school students who would be partaking of these advanced journeys. Navigating through Space: Zooming In Now we shift our travels from outward to inward and begin zooming into ourselves. Starting again with the self at 1 m, we zoom in to 10-1 and look out to see our hand about 1m wide and 2m long. Students could draw the whole hand at this size by tracing out the shadow projected on a wall from a flashlight shining on each student’s actual hand – a vivid kind of self-image that invites comparison with the “hands” of other animals. Here access to a magnifying lens pops students into new perspectives that may cause shock at seeing their own surface appearance close-up, and all the more so when a fingertip reaches 1 m across at 101-2. This offers an excellent opportunity to study fingerprinting and the nature of personal identity. It also marks a transition comparable to 103 when modeled individuals were almost too small to be identifiable and were nearly invisible at the next level of 104. In zooming from 10-2 to 10-3, we are moving from the fingertip into tissue, and tissue does not generally allow visual discernment of whose tissue we are observing, in striking contrast with fingerprints. We continue progressing into tissue until we reach 10-5. Here students will be modeling entities that are about 10 microns in size, the size of a typical eukaryotic cell. Since the overall theme of LTTU is ourselves in the universe, we will focus on a human cell. While students carry out the research and design needed to make their 2D or 3D models of cells, they can explore philosophical questions pertinent to this scale. One derives from this being the first inward-zooming power-of-ten level that calls for visualizing something we cannot see with the naked eye; we need a microscope. What is the nature of our confidence that what we see through the microscope is an accurate rendition of what’s actually there? Is this confidence based on logical conjecture or trust in technology – or both? At 10-5, these questions can be readily addressed by using the example of a magnifying lens and the simple optics behind its functionality. But the questions become more challenging as we proceed further into the microscopic realm, especially when we go beyond the capabilities of optical microscopy and begin to need more complex instrumentation such as scanning tunneling microscopes and particle accelerators. What are the philosophical implications of this progressive reliance for knowledge on tools of ever greater complexity and abstraction? And how might our understanding be biased by observing only what the instrument transmits, without the additional information we usually get from our own senses? Another key philosophical question pertinent to the 10-5 level is “what is an individual?” We are focusing here on individual cells, each bounded by a membrane and directed by the genetic material in its nucleus. Yet these cells derived from an individual human, in this case bounded by skin and directed largely by a brain. What is it about cells and humans that causes us to consider them as individuals, but not the tissues and organs that are between them in the hierarchy of anatomy? How does this compare with the relationship of a human individual to family, society and humanity as a whole? What is the nature of the experience of “one-ness” that is sought by so many spiritual endeavors in which individuality is perceived to disappear? Young students will no doubt have questions and ideas about this. More advanced students can explore it further by working with the thoughts of Arthur Schopenhauer: Individuation is but an appearance in a field of space and time, these being the conditioning forms through which my cognitive faculties apprehend their objects.  Hence the multiplicity and differences that distinguish individuals are likewise but appearances.  They exist, that is to say, only in my mental representation.  My own true inner being actually exists in every living creature as truly and immediately as known to my consciousness only in myself.  This realization, for which the standard formula in Sanskrit is tat tvam asi, is the ground of that compassion upon which all true, that is to say unselfish, virtue rests and whose expression is in every good deed. From 10-5 we proceed further into ourselves to observe organelles, biological molecules and, eventually, atoms. All of these down to molecules can be visually modeled reasonably well, but there are challenges when we get to atoms due to quantum mechanics. Electrons can be thought of as “orbiting” the nucleus, but it is important to convey the quantized as well as probabilistic nature of their existence (as also applies to all other sub-atomic particles). Younger students can be informed of these unfamiliar characteristics while not being expected to fully understand. For more advanced students, further zooming into the realm of fundamental particles such as quarks at 10-15 can be lightly explored. The last zoom, from 10-15 to 10-35, is a big and mostly nominal one, spanning twenty orders of magnitude through realms where no useful visualization is possible as essentially “it’s all in the math.” As with the pondering at the edge of the universe, trying to make sense of the extreme microcosm brings us to questions of philosophy and religion. Some would say that in this contemplation we are ultimately reduced - or elevated - to the sublime, beyond all contradictions and beliefs. LTTU provides a process that translates “all in the math” to much more tangible and relatable experiences, and that keep human beings present in the journey. Navigating through Time The scale treatment of time presents interesting contrasts with the scale modeling of space. One is that our knowledge of time is unidirectional into the past with the future importantly unknown, while our knowledge of space is bidirectional through zooming in and out of space. Another is that we are all familiar with the passage of time and accompanying changes in ourselves and the world, while most travels through space are virtual (outside of the range of what we see through magnifying lenses or what our astronauts have seen from outer space) and in that sense not at all familiar. A third is that while space encompasses 72 powers of ten, linear time stretches only 10 powers back to the formation of the universe 13.8 billion years ago. And while the zooms through space span many radically different phenomena in physical structure and behavior, traveling back in time encounters a relative continuum in the behavior of matter and energy until the 10th power of ten when, in the astoundingly sudden moment of the Big Bang, the primordial components of matter as we know it came into existence. This event has inescapable parallels with the creation myths of all religions, and merits being explored in that context. The above comparison of time and space is based on our ordinary human experience of the two domains, with structures of space defined exponentially and the structure of time linearly. We can and should explore time through its powers of ten, as they represent dynamics that are crucial to the nature of matter and energy and therefore crucial to how we actually live. Having stated this, a single true-to-scale experience of linear time can be illuminating, as outlined in the Addendum on page 16. As with space, a comprehensive study of time starts best at the scale of oneself: at 100, a single heartbeat of about one second (see table 3, page 12). As with size, young students can measure their heart rates and recognize that while the duration of their heartbeats is variable, they are all much closer to one second than 0.1 second or 10 seconds. Ten times longer, ten seconds, matches to a long, deep breath. And here we have a new divergent pattern from the space realm, in that the next seven time zooms take us from 102 seconds (1 minute, 40 seconds) to 108 seconds (31.7 years), all readily within human experience in terms of ages of beings and durations of processes or events. But at 109, we jump to 317 years, well beyond human lifetimes or even the memories of our grandparents’ grandparents. From here the zooming out takes us through the time frames of ever larger entities: the rise and fall of civilizations (up to thousands of years), the uplift and erosion of mountains (up to hundreds of millions of years), the orbits of stars around the center of their galaxies (up to a billion years), and the age of the universe (13.8 billion years). Zooming in from the one-second heartbeat at 100 takes us to 0.1 second, an easily sensed duration, almost even in terms of counting fast from one to ten. Hundredths of seconds are more abstract, but relatable in terms of Olympic records, and for understanding frame rates of movies in relationship to human vision. But in contrast to slower and longer times, where human longevity spanned nine powers of ten, the faster and shorter times that manifest in the microscopic world quickly signify processes too fast for us to perceive directly. We can use sound, however, as a proxy for time to cover the levels of 10-3 to 10-6. In sound, pitch varies according to the frequency of the sound wave. Frequency is waves per second and humans detect sound in the range between 20 and 20,000 waves per second. This corresponds to the duration of time that passes as each sound wave progresses into our ears, ranging from 5 hundredths of a second duration for the very lowest, barely audible pitches to 50 microseconds of duration for the highest and also barely audible pitches. Even faster times correspond with the frequencies of light, the speeds of chemical reactions, the shortest laser pulses yet produced at 10-16 seconds, and finally the time frame of sub-atomic events. Within these fast ranges are vivid processes to explore such as lightning strikes, lasers, and our own gut reactions, both metabolic and neurological, that enable ourselves and all other organisms to be alive. LTTU provides six model lesson plans for studying time at powers of ten. Three of them are the same as three from the space tables on pages 2 and 3: The Measure of the Self, A Realm of Mystery, and The Planck Limit. These will enable understanding the crucial relationship between temporal processes and spatial dimensions across scales. The other three span several to many powers-of-ten levels: Slow Times, Slower Times, and Fast Times. These provide a way to dive more fully into the nature of time and the vast range of temporal dynamics that pervade the universe, but that are rarely addressed in K-12 settings. A final but no less important aspect of time is the mystery of what time really is. Neither the past thousands of years of philosophical thinking nor the last powerhouse century of science have brought us closer to explaining what time is beyond “what you measure with a clock.” The mystery has been deeply explored by many and will not be further described here, but it needs to be addressed in seeking to understand the structure of the universe.

DayName 1Name 2DurationEvents 1pre-Hadean 17   hrsNebula condenses < 1  secSun ignites 2Hadean Earth’s layers begin separating 3 " 4 " 5 " 6Archaen continental cores begin forming 7 life begins 8 biology and geology evolve 9 " 10 " 11 " 12 " 13 " 14 " 15 " 16Proterozoic plate tectonics begins 17 biology and geology evolve 18 " 19 " 20 " 21 " 22 " 23 oxygen accumulates from photosynthesis 24 3.0   hrsfirst snowball Earth  25 biology and geology evolve 26 " 27 2.5   hrssecond snowball Earth  28 biology and geology evolve 29 complex cells (eukaryotes) appear 30Paleozoic Cambrian13.7 hrsjellyfish, worms, trilobites Ordovician9.4   hrshagfish, crustaceans, mosses 31 Silurian6.9   hrssharks, rays, land plants Devonian14.6 hrsfish, amphibians, insects, ferns 32 Carboniferous15.4 hrsreptiles, seed-bearing plants Permian12.0  hrsturtles 33MesozoicTriassic3.5   hrsdinosaurs Jurassic4.0   hrsmammals Cretaceous5.5   hrsbirds, flowering plants CenozoicPaleogene7.0   hrsmammals replace dinosaurs as dominant animals Neogene3.4   hrsbats, hoofed animals, predators, monkeys, apes Pleistocene26.0 minHomo habilis to Homo sapiens "2.0   minhuman use of fire Anthropocene6.0   secmodern humans

Practical Aspects for Implementing Learn Through the Universe The approach can be used in many different ways. It can be implemented alongside existing curricula without requiring any change to those curricula. The power-of-ten space models will generally require 2-20 hours for construction per level depending on the complexity of the crafting method and the amount of correlative disciplinary content to be incorporated in the form of reading, writing and interaction. Level models could be constructed up to once each month but at least once each semester to ensure continuity in the experience of scale. It is not necessary that models be crafted for each and every level. As an example, the realms in outer space between the levels of 1014 and 1026 could be traveled by means of six rather than twelve zooms, one stopping at the outer limits of our galaxy (1019), and the last at the edge of the universe (1026). This is a reasonable option because the universe at these scales has relatively few structural features beyond the size of the objects (stars, galaxies and galactic clusters) and the density of their distribution (alternating between sparse and dense). This is in striking contrast to the shrinking travels where nearly every power of ten zoom represents significant new structural and behavioral features until reaching the realm of the fundamental particles at 10-16. In primary schools, the constructions could be undertaken by single classrooms, grade levels or school-wide, with a blend of these modalities probably ideal. In middle and high schools these options would also be feasible, though perhaps more difficult outside of single classrooms due to scheduling complications. It would be ideal if the course implementation of LTTU represented all the disciplines rather than concentrating in history and science where the most obvious but not necessarily the most impactful connections can be made. The model lesson plans include suggestions for matching grade levels with the powers of ten levels, but those are entirely flexible as long as the levels are initially visited in order from self to micro and self to macro. Having made that assertion, however, one of the natural uses of the approach is to revisit levels when they have some relevance to a topic of study. Middle and high school social science classes, for example, could revisit levels to add new dimensions to studies of commerce (105) and hierarchy (1010), or to develop new themes and lesson plans to suit their needs for studying psychology and civics. Science classes could lightly revisit the microscopic levels from 10-5 to 10-10 in the context of materials other than our own organic tissues to explore the structure and composition of air, water, rock and metals or synthetic materials such as plastics, fabrics and electronics. Following each chosen route from the familiar macro level through reliably shrinking zooms to the level of atoms confirms the fundamental nature of matter as we know it. The fact that we are all made of atoms of the same elements would become quasi-experiential rather than abstract and mostly forgotten. It is important to note that LTTU is not a science curriculum; it is a curriculum of the universe. It is made possible by what science has revealed over the last 500 years, and through it students will likely develop greatly improved science literacy. But it conveys only what we know about the structure of the universe, while learning science requires the acquisition of additional knowledge. Recent research findings show that students best learn science by operating as scientists, that is by cooperatively exploring ideas and questions, working with models and tools to make predictions, gathering evidence, and engaging in logical reasoning about the evidence to arrive at new knowledge. LTTU aims to incorporate those kinds of active learning modes for all the disciplines. Conclusion It’s time for a new approach to education. Academia is besieged by challenges to its centuries-old hegemony. K-12 education needs the boost of a new perspective that can be readily incorporated into existing classrooms without undoing the important work of the disciplines. The next generation science standards will be served well in that its three dimensions of disciplinary core ideas, practices, and cross-cutting concepts will have enlivening powers-of-ten creation activities to reiterate and integrate them, as will the common core standards for mathematics and language arts. Students deserve to learn about our universe through an approach that models the actual world as it is known to exist, including its unknowns. They especially deserve to learn how humankind co-exists with this universe and the places of religion, philosophy and spirituality in this co-existence through the flow of time. As stated in the Indian Kena Upanishad centuries ago: “That which in the lightning flashes forth, makes one blink, and say ‘Ah!’ – that ‘Ah!’ refers to divinity.” It is our imagination that makes this zoom journey through the universe possible, and it has always been our imagination that generates new ways of thinking, feeling, inventing and expressing. As Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited while imagination embraces the world.” In our increasingly digitized and post-modern world, LTTU offers a new way to integrate disciplinary education with collaborative teamwork and character building. It is not just time for this to happen, it is spacetime for this to manifest throughout the universe.

Power of TenThings about this SizeThemeModel Lesson Plan 100humanEach of us is a unique SELF; at times we feel similar to OTHERS, at times differentThe Measure of the Self(awareness) 10-1handHandiness is a humanized term for FUNCTIONALITY, meaning the specific utility that a part gives to the wholeTen Times Larger Hand(animal “hands”) 10-2fingertipIDENTITY is the way we are determined to be a specific individualHundred Times Larger Fingertip(fingerprints) 10-3fingertip friction ridgeSENSING is perceiving the existence of specific forms of matter or energyInto the Skin 1(touch) 10-4group of cellsSIGNALING is the transmission of information in order to communicateInto the Skin 2(language) 10-5human cellINDIVIDUALITY is existence as a distinct entityOur Cells(heredity) 10-6bacterial cellADAPTATION is a change in form or behavior due to changes in the surroundingsThe Bacterial Kingdom (environments) 10-7 – 10-8 virus large biomolecule DIVERSITY is a characteristic of groups of things that have a range of attributes What is a Virus?(aliens)The Bio-machines of Life(machines) 10-9small biomoleculeTo CHANGE is to transform into something fundamentally differentThe Basic Ingredients of Life(why we eat) 10-10atomELEMENTALITY is the quality of being a fundamental substance or attributeThe Basic Units of Ordinary Matter(alchemy) 10-11 – 10-13 space in the electron cloudUNCERTAINTY is the state of not knowing for sureThe Emptiness of Matter(probability) 10-14nucleus of an atomATTRACTION and REPULSION are forces that pull things together or push them apartThe Atomic Core(balance) 10-15protons/neutronsINFORMATION is knowledge about specific events, situations or thingsSub-Atomic Matter(data) 10-16 to 10-34 sub-atomic particlesORDER is a condition of logical or prescribed arrangement among things; CHAOS is the oppositeA Realm of Mystery(evidence) 10-35theoretical limit of sizeFRACTALS are never-ending patterns that are self-similar across all scalesThe Planck Limit(respect)

Learn Through the Universe (LTTU) integrates the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering, and can address all the common core and next generation science standards.

We learn about the universe through collaborative construction of true-to-scale models at powers of ten that ignite our imagination about who and what we are.

Spacetime Arrival

LTTU teaches not just the unity, structure and flow of the universe, but also its scales of space and time and how these affect what we percieve of reality.

10-2

Learn Through the Universe brings us to the human experience of self and others in space and time.

107

1012

It integrates character development with inquiry in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering, and can address all the common core and next generation science standards.

1020

For a 3-minute video experience of zooming in and out, click on video below.

DayEon PeriodDurationEvents 1 pre-Hadean 17   hrs Nebula condenses < 1  sec Sun ignites 2 Hadean Earth’s layers begin separating 3 " 4 " 5 " 6 Archaen continental cores begin forming 7 life begins 8 biology and geology evolve 9 " 10 " 11 " 12 " 13 " 14 " 15 " 16 Proterozoic plate tectonics begins 17 biology and geology evolve 18 " 19 " 20 " 21 " 22 " 23 oxygen accumulates from photosynthesis 24 3.0   hrs first snowball Earth  25 biology and geology evolve 26 " 27 2.5   hrs second snowball Earth  28 biology and geology evolve 29 complex cells (eukaryotes) appear 30 Paleozoic Cambrian 13.7 hrs jellyfish, worms, trilobites Ordovician 9.4   hrs hagfish, crustaceans, mosses 31 Silurian 6.9   hrs sharks, rays, land plants Devonian 14.6 hrs fish, amphibians, insects, ferns 32 Carboniferous 15.4 hrs reptiles, seed-bearing plants Permian 12.0  hrs turtles 33 Mesozoic Triassic 3.5   hrs dinosaurs Jurassic 4.0   hrs mammals Cretaceous 5.5   hrs birds, flowering plants Cenozoic Paleogene 7.0   hrs mammals replace dinosaurs as dominant animals Neogene 3.4   hrs bats, hoofed animals, predators, monkeys, apes Pleistocene 26.0 min Homo habilis to Homo sapiens " 2.0   min human use of fire Anthropocene6.0   sec modern humans

THE EARTH/TIME EXPERIENCE

(based on 1 minute = 100,000 years)

The Earth Time Experience

Table of Time: Earth’s History in 33 Days

Re-enacting the 4.6 billion-year history of the Earth is a powerful way to explore the meaning of scale in time. A vivid choice of scale for this re-enactment is as a 33-day long event in which each minute of real time represents 100,000 years of “Earth Time.” At this scale, each day represents nearly 150 million years. The first day of this just-over-a-month-long experience would provide a 10-30 minute long kickoff description of how Earth’s history began – with the condensation of a nebular cloud of gas and dust into the primordial solar system. Each subsequent day would provide a 1-20 minute update of what is happening on that day in Earth history. Many of these updates would require only a few minutes of description, as the evolution of the early Earth was extremely gradual even though significant chemical and physical processes were underway, ultimately resulting in the formation of life on somewhere near the 7th day. When the 33rd day arrives, the historic content dramatically intensifies.  In the course of this last day, the dinosaurs go extinct and mammals eventually dominate.  Prehistoric humans appear only in the last 26 minutes of the day. The last 10,000 years of modern history take place in the last 6 seconds (see table). The Earth Time Experience could make for a school-wide event that could convey the true scale of time in no other way possible, with all grade levels contributing their own visual and theatrical versions of the unfolding processes. It would be particularly interesting to see what students would come up with to convey all of modern human history in just 6 seconds.

earth-moon system

1011

Things About This Size

ARCHITECTURE defines the built spaces in which we live, learn, play, work and worship

UNEXPECTEDNESS is having the nature of being different from what was assumed to be so

human

CYCLES are processes and patterns that have geometrically circular dynamics

1012

Theme

Being in Buildings (mood)

Spiral Systems (naming)

Each of us is a unique SELF; at times we feel similar to OTHERs, at times different

The World on a String (rhythm)

1014

Model Lesson Plan

earth

1020

The Measure of the Self (awareness)

As we travel out to the edge of the universe, we see our selves as individuals getting smaller and smaller. Available model lesson plans that incorporate common core and next generation science standards are marked for easy access. The themes show how this outward progression framed by STEM can be used to explore human nature and character development. Click on the highlighted boxes below to explore the sample lesson plan. 

UNITY is one-ness of being

100

orbit of Saturn

SYSTEMS are assemblies of things that relate with each other in particular ways

The Home Planet  (habitability)

1014 - 1019

104

Solar System 2 (resonance)

1021

town

109

10-35

galactic group

NAVIGATION is how we get where we want to go, typically using geography and maps

sun

101

1026

HETEROGENEITY is the quality of things being different from one another

Making Maps 1 (journey)

A SOURCE is a point of origin; RADIANCE is a state of giving off energy or matter

house

The Sun (origin)

1022 - 1025

Our Near Neighborhood (pattern)

1013

We are all born to a mother and father and are a FAMILY with them and other relatives

heliosphere

Ten Times Smaller Self (story)

BOUNDARIES mark the transition between different spaces, times or things

105

1021-1025

Solar System 3   (governance)

region

1010

spaces of galaxies

Trade and COMMERCE are exchanges of goods, services and money

star

OUT TO OUR COSMOS

SPACETIME is the four-dimensional fabric of the universe: 3D space melded with 1D time

Making Maps 2 (value)

A HIERARCHY is a categorization of people or things according to age, size, power or other

102

Four -and more- Dimensions (imagining)

1013 - 1019

Stars (grouping)

103

theater

spaces in the Milky Way

We interact with others in SOCIAL GROUPS according to our interests, needs and customs

EMPTINESS signifies the absence of a quality or substance

Hundred Times Smaller Self (need)

106

the known universe

How Do We Model Emptiness?(relativity)

country

SINGULARITY is a trait marking one moment, place or thing as distinct from all others

orbit of Mercury

108

SUSTAINABILITY is the ability to support the activities of life ongoingly

CENTRALITY signifies organization around a focal point; ECCENTRICIY refers to an object not in uniform relationship with its focal point

A View of a Mystery (humility)

A Slice of the Earth (formation)

Solar System 1 (normality)

Power of Ten

school

Milky Way Galaxy

10-11 - 10-13

10-4

10-10

10-16 - 10-34

10-7 - 10-8

10-14

10-5

10-1

10-3

10-9

10-15

10-6

10-16 - 10-34      Sub-Atomic Particles                Order and chaos                            Visualizing a Realm of Mystery

10-5                  Human Cell                              Individuality                                   Life of a Fibroblast

As we travel into our selves, our cells and our atoms, we see our selves as individuals getting larger and larger. The titles of available learning modules are highlighted for easy access.

10-14                Nucleus of an Atom                  Creation                                        The Structure of an Atomic Core

Model Module

10-6                  Bacterial Cell                            Adaptation                                    Life with bacteria; and no life without them

10-15                Protons and Neutrons               Information                                   The Nature of Sub-Atomic Matter

10-9                  Small Biomolecule                     Change                                         The Basic Ingredients of Life

10-2                  Fingertip                                   Identity                                         Hundred Times Larger Fingertip

10-35                Theoretical Limit of Size            Fractals: The end of all branching    The Planck Limit

10-4                  Group of Cells                          Signaling                                        Into the Skin 2

Into Our Atoms

10-10                Atom                                       Elementally                                    The Fundamental Units of Ordinary Matter

10-1                  Hand                                        Structure and function                   Ten Times Larger Hand

Example Models

100                   Human                                     Self                                               Measure of the Self

10-7 - 10-8         Virus                                        Diversity                                       Virus: Life At the Edge

10-3                  Fingertip Friction Ridge              Sensing                                         Into the Skin 1

As we travel out to the edge of the universe, we see our selves as individuals getting smaller and smaller. The titles of available learning modules are highlighted for easy access.

10-11 - 10-13     Space In the Electron Cloud       Uncertainty                                   How Do We Model Uncertainty?

10-16 - 10-34      Sub-Atomic Particles                Order and chaos                            Visualizing a Realm of Mystery

FRACTALS are never-ending patterns that are self-similar across all scales

IDENTITY is the way we are determined to be a specific individual

As we travel into our selves, our cells and our atoms, we see our selves as individuals getting larger and larger. Available model lesson plans that incorporate common core and next generation science standards are marked for easy access. The themes show how this inward progression framed by STEM can be used to explore human nature and character development.

bacterial cell

group of cells

Ten Times Larger Hand (animal “hands”)

Into the Skin 1 (touch)

10-7- 10-8

human cell

hand

The Basic Ingredients of Life (why we eat)

ORDER is a condition of logical or prescribed arrangement among things; CHAOS is the opposite

SIGNALING is the transmission of matter or energy in order to communicate

INFORMATION is knowledge about specific events, situations or things

atom

fingertip friction ridge

ADAPTATION is a change in form or behavior due to changes in the surroundings

small biomolecule

DIVERSITY is a characteristic of groups of things that have a range of attributes

Hundred Times Larger Fingertip (fingerprints)

space in the electron cloud

fingertips

Our Cells (heredity)

ATTRACTION and REPULSION are forces that pull things together, or push them apart

INDIVIDUALITY is existence as a distinct entity

The Planck Limit (respect)

nucleus of an atom

Handiness is a humanized term for FUNCTIONALITY, meaning the specific utility that a part gives to the whole

theoretical limit of size

Sub-Atomic Matter(data)

Into the Skin 2 (language)

ELEMENTALITY is the quality of being a fundamental substance or attribute

A Realm of Mystery(evidence)

The Emptiness of Matter (probability)

The Bacterial Kingdom (environments)

What is a Virus? (aliens) The Bio-machines of Life (machines)

IN TO OUR ATOMS

The Basic Units of Ordinary Matter (alchemy)

SENSING is perceiving the existence of specific forms of matter or energy

protons/neutrons

virus large biomolecule

10-16 - 10-24

The Atomic Core (balance)

Each of us is a unique SELF; at times we feel similar to others, at times different

To CHANGE is to transform into something fundamentally different

sub-atomic particles

UNCERTAINTY is the state of not knowing for sure

Stories of Scale

Earth/Time Experience

About

The Metric System All of the nearly 200 countries in the world – with only three exceptions – use the metric system of measurement. The exceptions are the USA, Liberia and Myanmar, which use the imperial (or “English”) system. Why is this so? History and politics, of course. But it is unfortunate because the metric system, being a ten-based number system, is easy to use. It requires essentially the same number sense as is required for our ten-based money system, which is intuitive for most people. And because it uses a standard set of inter-related “base units” (such as the second, meter and kilogram) and a standard set of prefixes based on powers of ten (such as kilo, mega and giga), it is easily used to convey the extremes of size and distance that we now know to constitute the universe. Using the imperial system to explore the universe is like trying to fly an airplane to the Moon. Here are links to a few good sites for teaching tips and unit conversions:

In To Our Atoms

Out To Our Cosmos

At the Lake Avenue Elementary School, Ryan Turner is leading his second-grade class through an introductory version of the “Ten Times Smaller Self” model lesson plan. Each student has selected a model image from a set of paper templates representing elementary school-sized children at one-tenth their actual size. The model heights range from about 8 to 14 centimeters (or 3½ to 6 inches). The students color the models, glue them to card stock and cut them out to provide sturdy representations of themselves as ten times smaller individuals. Ryan puts the students into small groups and gives them instructions for coming up with stories about how their models will meet the challenges of being ten times smaller than the furnishings around them were designed for. He assists the students to imagine that the models represent themselves as real individuals, and emphasizes that the stories should reflect the groups working as teams to help one another and the team as a whole find success. At Main Street Middle School, Eva Morales has been teaching an earth science unit for her seventh graders. The time is right for the class to carry out the “Slice of the Earth” model lesson plan to visualize the layers of the Earth at a scale of one million to one. Students work in groups to cut 7.4 meter-long strips of butcher paper and color them to represent the inner core, outer core, mantle, crust, oceans and layers of the atmosphere, culminating in the transition to outer space about one meter beyond the crust. Seeing that the deepest oceans and breathable portion of the atmosphere are only millimeters thick makes for a powerful view regarding the nature of sustainability for life on the planet. The class uses the rest of the week to study how the structure and composition of the Earth were determined even though the deepest humans have ever drilled is the equivalent of a pin-prick into the crust. This exploration is paired with discussions about human impacts on the environment. At Pine Road High School, Chris Miller’s eleventh-grade history class is studying the Cold War. She leads the students through a discussion about nuclear energy, eliciting their knowledge from their science courses about atoms and elements, with a focus on uranium. She then has the students work in groups to generate their own questions about the forces of attraction and repulsion within the nucleus of a uranium atom, and how these forces relate to the social forces of attraction and repulsion within and between individuals, groups and nations.

SAMPLE SCENARIOS

Sample Scenarios

5 Keys to Social and Emotional Learning Success

Studies show that sustained and well-integrated social and emotional learning (SEL) programs can help schools engage their students and improve achievement. Explore the classroom practices that make up the best and most effective SEL programs.

Introduction Learn Through the Universe recognizes that all of us are selves living in a world that extends in size far beyond us, and that diminishes in size deep within us. This is true for each and every one of us human beings, and it appears to be true for each and every other thing that exists in the universe (even though it is only we who seem to have this awareness). In this activity, students will learn the concepts of scale and modeling, and how they can be used to explore the size and structure of the universe, including of our selves.

Learn Through the Universe

Activity AStudents participate in the Question Formulation Technique to generate a processed list of three questions around this Question Focus: “There are many measures of the self.”Students measure their heights and calculate the average student height in inches, feet, centimeters and meters.The class discusses the many things that can be measured about humans, such as other sizes (shoes and circumferences), speeds (at rest and in motion), personality traits (shy or gregarious), and character values (both positive and negative).Students perform a follow-up research and/or writing assignment as directed by the teacher.Activity BStudents study modified versions [link] of the Out to Our Cosmos and In to Our Atoms tables, and use them to learn the fundamentals of powers of ten, including basic math and notation, and why powers of ten are necessary for exploring the universe this way.Activity CStudents increase their understanding of the concepts of models and modeling by studying examples across the range of types of models, both physical and mental. These include toys, sculptures, diagrams, tables, maps, stories, and ideals of behavior.The class generates two lists of character values, one of positives (such as kindness, courage, and honesty) and one of negatives (such as arrogance, disrespect, and cruelty).Activity DStudents work in groups to develop specific, noble “character models.” Each student chooses one negative and two positive character values from the class list to represent their noble model. Each group collaboratively devises a story in which their character models together overcome a set of obstacles. Each group then enacts the story for the rest of the class.Activity EStudents carry out a reflective writing assignment as directed by the teacher. This can broadly deal with all the experiences in this lesson or can focus more narrowly on measurement, modeling, character, or awareness of being a self.Activity F (optional)Students calculate the midpoint of the two scale tables based on the total number of powers-of-ten levels, and identify things that are about this size.Students as a class discuss the implications of asymmetry in the universe relative to the powers-of-ten levels, especially at the extremes of large and small.

Activity Summaries

Model Lesson Plan 100 The Measure of the Self Grade Level: 3 - Adult

Activity AStudents measure their heights and calculate the average student height in centimeters and meters, and calculate their hundred-times smaller heights (or use the measurements from 100 or 101).Students generate hundred-times smaller images of themselves starting with the ten-times smaller images developed in Model Lesson Plan 101.Students develop and employ methods to generate hundred-times smaller images of dwellings, furnishings and landscape features.Activity BStudents gather a variety of tiny to small objects (both natural and synthetic), that might be usable as tools, décor or furnishings for their hundred-times smaller selves.The class develops a rubric for assessing the merit of the objects across parameters such as practical utility, aesthetic values, and creativity to meet the needs of their model selves.Students in groups use the rubric to assess the overall value of their collected objects. In the process they may identify unmet needs and expand their collection accordingly.Activity CStudents in groups depict their models and collections in a scene, and describe in words the group dynamics among the model individuals, all to be shared with the rest of the class.

Info for Classroom Use

Connections to Instruction This activity is intended for students at the 5th grade level although it could be adapted for use in grades 6 through 8. It can be conducted on its own or in conjunction with reading one of the fiction stories about “small” people listed in the Supplementary Resources. For older students, this activity would primarily serve as a prelude to further levels and could be done in an expedited manner for time efficiency. .  Simplified versions of this activity can be used for grades 1 through 4. These do not involve photography, calculation or the extent of measurement required here for the 5th grade, but instead provide a variety of size and posture templates for students to cut out and generate more generic models of themselves at ten times smaller, followed by similar story-telling approaches as described here. This enables introducing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) cross-cutting concept of Scale, Proportion and Quantity at an early age, an important grounding for dealing with the big questions of philosophy and human nature.  Approximate Duration for the Activity Five blocks of 50 minutes each Materials Needed      •  English and metric measuring tolls      •  Card stock, glue and scissors      •  Camera Supplementary Resources Tom Thumb, folk tale The Borrowers, Mary Norton The Indian in the Cupboard, Lynne Reid Banks Attachments Attachment 1: Letter coder glossary for standards bundle Attachment 2: “Question Formulation Technique” referred to in Performance Task E Attachment 3: Three print-outs of “kid” model at sizes/distances A,B, and C

Introduction Having modeled themselves at ten times smaller in the previous lesson, students now model themselves at one hundred times smaller. At this scale, the models are about 10mm in height, not easy to cut out (or necessary to do so), but still recognizable as individual selves. Students will gather small objects over a period of 1-2 days and carry out a set of activities about how the objects might be used by their model selves as tools, décor and furnishings.

Model Lesson Plan 102 Hundred Times Smaller SelfGrade Level: 3 - Adult

Performance Task A                •                •                             • Performance Task B Performance Task C

1) Roll of white butcher paper 2) Pencils 3) Metric rulers 4) Coloring media

Students measure their heights and calculate the average student height in centimeters and meters, and calculate their hundred-times smaller heights. Students generate hundred-times smaller images of themselves using the ten-times smaller images developed in Model Lesson Plan 101. Students develop and employ methods to generate hundred-times smaller images of dwellings, furnishings and landscape features.

All of the task components address the NGSS cross-cutting concept of Scale, Proportion and Quantity as well as the NGSS practice of Developing and Using Models. Activity Component A asks students to measure their heights and make calculations with these data. This component addresses the CCSS-M practices MP.1, MP.2, MP.5, and MP.6 and the CCSS-M content standards of 5.MD.1 and 5.NBT.1 by having students calculate their ten-times smaller height in English and metric units and working with place value understanding in powers of ten. Activity Component B asks students to design a method for solving the problem of how to generate ten-times smaller photographic images of themselves, addressing the NGSS performance expectation of 3-5-ETS1-2. By discussing their solution with classmates, students also address the CC-ELA standard 5.SL.1 (specifically 5.SL.1.b, 5.SL.1.c and 5.SL.1.d). Activity Component C asks students to craft quasi-3D models of themselves at ten times smaller using the method they selected in Activity Component B. This addresses the NGSS practice of Developing and Using Models. Activity Component D asks students to collaboratively devise a story in groups of 3-5 using their model versions of themselves as characters. Having the students present the story partially addresses the CCSS-ELA standard 4.SL.4. Activity Component E (optional) asks students to engage in the “Question Formulation Technique” to generate a set of questions pertinent to the art of storytelling for further follow-up activities. This addresses the CCSS-ELA standards 5.SL.1 (specifically 5.SL.1.b, 5.SL.1.c, and 5.SL.1.d) and 5.SL.2.

Activity Summaries

104,

Introduction There are ten Stories of Scale, five that take us Out to Our Cosmos and five In to Our Atoms. The Stories are presented as a sequence that alternates between the In to and Out to directions. In traditional educational settings, this translates into three stories for grades 3-5 (advanced elementary school), three stories for grades 6-8 (middle school), and four stories for grades 9-12 (high school). For informal education settings, such as for museums and libraries offering family and group learning experiences, the translation of what story is offered when is more flexible. Informal education venues could offer abbreviated Stories as half-day or full-day workshops, or as full Stories over a sequence of weekends. For college settings, the Stories of Scale are probably too broad and deep at the same time, and LTTU is generally best implemented by use of selected model lesson plans to provide a scaffolding of scale in time and space pertinent to specific curricular topics. Click here for a collegiate example developed in partnership with a national, interdisciplinary education project called SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities). The first Story begins by validating our existence as humans that manifest a variety of measurable attributes and who happen to average close to 1 m in height. The Story then imagines that we travel away from ourselves and look back to see ourselves at ten, one hundred, and one thousand times smaller. Each of the nine subsequent Stories takes us through a set of experiences that are comparable to the first Story in traveling through scales, but altogether different in the physical and non-physical nature of things and events to be modeled and studied.

Middle School (grades 6-8): Duration:  3-4 Weeks each Second Zoom In (10-4, 10-5, 10-6) - Models are groups of cells, human cells, and bacterial cells  - Themes are signaling, individuality, and adaptation  - Activity Focus: TBD Third Zoom Out (107, 108, 109)   - Models are Earth, Earth-moon system, and Solar System  - Themes are unity, cycles, source (and radiance)  - Activity Focus: TBD  Third Zoom In (10-7, 10-8, 10-9)   - Models are virus, large biomolecules, and small biomolecules  - Themes are diversity, change, and transformation  - Activity Focus: TBD  Click here to see how the Middle School Stories address the common core and next generation science standards.

STORIES OF SCALE

Advanced Elementary (grades 3-adult): Duration: 2 weeks each First Zoom Out: Storytelling 1 This Story of Scale explores our existence as selves who can be “sized up” in many ways. This includes height, the starting size for our self as we virtually navigate the universe in this and the three other levels in this Story. The “sizing up” also includes other quantitative measurements, and attributes such as personality traits and character values, much harder to measure, but important to explore. The Story proceeds into making models of our selves at ten and one hundred times smaller around themes of self and others, families, and small social groups. At one thousand times smaller, the themes shift to large social groups and architecture. Storytelling is the focus for this First Zoom Out Story, both as a learning activity interpreted in different ways for each level, and as a content topic in literature. First Zoom In: Sensing  The second Story of Scale starts at the scale of our selves as does the First Zoom Out, but by contrast it quickly removes us from familiar views of the self and leaves us at a transition to the unfamiliar, just-below visibility tissue of the outer skin of the palm side of the little fingertip. In between we get familiar with the variety of functionalities of the hand due to its unique structure, and with the sub-story of fingerprinting as a method for determining human identity. Sensing is the focus, both as a physical activity carried out in several ways during the Story, and as a content topic about how we physiologically sense the inner and outer worlds. Second Zoom Out: Mapping  The Second Zoom Out has us again traveling away and looking back, but humans are now too small to see other than as tiny specks at 104. We therefore use maps as models of increasingly large parts of Earth’s surface, from area to region to continent. Along the way we have a variety of historic, economic, and technological topics to study around navigation and commerce. At the 104 level, we also model Earth as cross-sectional slices, one radially from the core out to the atmosphere and beginnings of outer space, and one longitudinally through the surface to examine how the outer layer of the planet is broken into slowly moving tectonic plates. Middle School (grades 6-adult): Duration: 2-4 weeks each Second Zoom In: Modeling 1  > 10-4, 10-5, 10-6 < Third Zoom Out: Cycling > 107, 108, 109 < Third Zoom In: Eating > 10-7, 10-8, 10-9 < High School/Beyond (grades 9-adult) Duration: 2-6 weeks each Fourth Zoom In: Modeling 2 > 10-10, 10-11, 10-12, 10-13, 10-14 < Fourth Zoom Out: Locomoting > 1010, 1011, 1012, 1013 < Last Zoom In: Computing > 10-15 to 10-35 < Last Zoom Out: Storytelling 2 > 1014 to 1026 <

Advanced Elementary (grades 3-adult): Duration: 2 weeks each First Zoom Out: Storytelling 1 > 100, 101, 102, 103 <  This Story of Scale explores our existence as selves who can be “sized up” in many ways. This includes height, the starting size for our self as we virtually navigate the universe in this and the three other levels in this Story. The “sizing up” also includes other quantitative measurements, and attributes such as personality traits and character values, much harder to measure, but important to explore. The Story proceeds into making models of our selves at ten and one hundred times smaller around themes of self and others, families, and small social groups. At one thousand times smaller, the themes shift to large social groups and architecture. Storytelling is the focus for this First Zoom Out Story, both as a learning activity interpreted in different ways for each level, and as a content topic in literature. First Zoom In: Sensing > 100, 10-1, 10-2, 10-3 <  The second Story of Scale starts at the scale of our selves as does the First Zoom Out, but by contrast it quickly removes us from familiar views of the self and leaves us at a transition to the unfamiliar, just-below visibility tissue of the outer skin of the palm side of the little fingertip. In between we get familiar with the variety of functionalities of the hand due to its unique structure, and with the sub-story of fingerprinting as a method for determining human identity. Sensing is the focus, both as a physical activity carried out in several ways during the Story, and as a content topic about how we physiologically sense the inner and outer worlds. Second Zoom Out: Mapping > 104, 105, 106 <  The Second Zoom Out has us again traveling away and looking back, but humans are now too small to see other than as tiny specks at 104. We therefore use maps as models of increasingly large parts of Earth’s surface, from area to region to continent. Along the way we have a variety of historic, economic, and technological topics to study around navigation and commerce. At the 104 level, we also model Earth as cross-sectional slices, one radially from the core out to the atmosphere and beginnings of outer space, and one longitudinally through the surface to examine how the outer layer of the planet is broken into slowly moving tectonic plates. Middle School (grades 6-adult): Duration: 2-4 weeks each Second Zoom In: Modeling 1  > 10-4, 10-5, 10-6 < Third Zoom Out: Cycling > 107, 108, 109 < Third Zoom In: Eating > 10-7, 10-8, 10-9 < High School/Beyond (grades 9-adult) Duration: 2-6 weeks each Fourth Zoom In: Modeling 2 > 10-10, 10-11, 10-12, 10-13, 10-14 < Fourth Zoom Out: Locomoting > 1010, 1011, 1012, 1013 < Last Zoom In: Computing > 10-15 to 10-35 < Last Zoom Out: Storytelling 2 > 1014 to 1026 <

105,

Model Lesson Plan 103 Being In Buildings Grade Level: 3 - adult

Activity AStudents in groups collaboratively identify three types of buildings they would like to design and build, and then do so for one of each. They select one of the three to develop further by defining the purpose of the built space and decorating it accordingly.Activity BStudents measure as needed and calculate the size of thousand-times smaller selves and determine the appropriate diameter and length of pencil leads to represent people in their models. Each group populates their model with vertically oriented “people” using the bits of pencil lead, glue and tweezers.Activity CStudents participate in the Question Formulation Technique to generate a processed list of three questions around the Question Focus of one of the “people” in their group model.Each group presents their model building to the rest of the class, describing the design and purpose of the built space, and what were the three questions resulting from the QFT.Activity DEach student writes an essay describing the moods they imagine they would experience being in each of the three built spaces at full scale, and how the models helped (or did not help) them gain the knowledge needed to make these assessments.Activity EThe class discusses why there are many folk stories about small people in the range of ten or one hundred times smaller, but not for thousand times smaller people.Activity FThe class identifies one or more architects in the community they think might be interested in their work, and invite them to visit the class for presentations and a discussion.

Introduction Students will design and build simple 3D models of large buildings, with themselves inhabiting the spaces as 1-2 mm long bits of pencil lead. The pencil-lead models can no longer be identified visually as distinct people, but by being positioned upright in the architectural spaces, they bear a striking resemblance to humans (the effect disappears almost completely if placed horizontally). Students will carry out a set of activities exploring their mood and connection to one another and to their surroundings as imagined in these built spaces.

IN TO OUR ATOMS

Introduction In this activity, students craft models of the palm of their hands at the zoom level of 10-1, in the process becoming more familiar with and knowledgeable about this body part that so readily connects us to much of the world around us, including by enabling us to wield tools, while also serving as a unique tool in itself.

Activity AStudents participate in the Question Formulation Technique to generate a processed list of three questions around the Question Focus of two x-ray images of the hand, one palm side and one back side.Students perform a follow-up research and/or writing assignment based on the questions as directed by the teacher.Activity BStudents calculate the size of thousand-times smaller selves and determine the appropriate diameter and length of pencil leads to represent people in their models. Each group populates their model with vertically oriented “people” using the bits of pencil lead, glue and tweezers.Activity CStudents in groups collaboratively design and construct a ten times larger image of the palm of one of the group member’s hands.Activity DStudents follow instructions to individually experience the senses involved in opening and closing the hand, and discuss their experiences with a group.Students in groups use colored pencils to draw the creases and folds (called flexure lines) visible in their hands onto the model hand.Activity EStudents carry out a reflective writing assignment on functions of the hand as directed by the teacher.Activity F (optional)Students work in groups to research how human hand structure and function compares with that of another animal (such as bat, sea lion, gibbon, octopus), and present their findings to the class as a poster.

Model Lesson Plan 10-1 Ten Times Larger Hand Grade Level: 3 - adult

Introduction Having modeled the palm of the hand at ten times larger in the previous lesson, students now model the palm side of their little fingertip at ten times larger, particularly noticing the pattern of friction ridges that make possible the practice of fingerprinting.

Model Lesson Plan 10-2 Ten Times Larger Finger Tip Grade Level: 3 - adult

Activity AStudents participate in the Question Formulation Technique to generate a processed list of three questions around the Question Focus of an image showing the three main types of fingerprint pattern (loop, whorl, arch).Students perform a follow-up research and/or writing assignment as directed by the teacher.Activity BEach student generates a 2D representation of one of their little fingertips at ten times smaller, focusing on their unique pattern of friction ridges.Activity CThe class studies the history, literature and technology of fingerprinting, and together reports their findings by producing a booklet that includes text, a timeline, images and other journalistic approaches.Activity DStudents in groups discuss ways other than fingerprints and visual recognition that can be used to identify people, such as sound, location, forensic data, and digital data.Activity EThe class identifies police officers in the community who might be interested in their work, and invite one or more to visit the class for presentations and a discussion.

Model Lesson Plan 10-3 Into the Skin 1 Grade Level: 3 - adult

Introduction This lesson focuses on the structure and function of the friction ridges that are responsible for our fingerprints, as explored in the previous lesson. This level is significant in making the scale transition from where things are readily visible and knowable down into the microscopic world, which is inherently more removed and therefore abstract. Students will learn the importance of this transition on many levels, including that the cellular nature of life was not arrived at until 200 years after the invention of the microscope, with nearly all of the foundational knowledge of biology being developed in the subsequent 38 years. In other words, it took a long time and much incremental research before cells became sufficiently well described to permit asserting them to be the fundamental units of life, followed by rapid improvements in microscopy and in biology as it manifests at these scales.

Activity AStudents participate in the Question Formulation Technique to generate a processed list of three questions around the Question Focus of the statement: “Soon we will visit a microscopic place.”Students perform a follow-up research and/or writing assignment based on the questions as directed by the teacher.Activity BStudents in groups explore “what it’s like” inside the friction ridge skin of the fingertip through physical touch and consideration of the formation of blisters, including comparison with the skin on the back of the hand.The class reads a brief early history of the microscope including the initial invention, the naming of the “cell,” the discovery of protozoans and bacteria, and the initial characterization of plant and animal cells.Students in groups draw simple friction ridge cross-sections at 1000 times smaller.Activity CStudents read “In to the Skin and Beyond” and follow its suggestions for imagining oneself shrinking to a 1000 times smaller size and burrowing into the little fingertip for a journey.Activity DStudents draw structural features such as the epidermis, dermis, sweat pores, blood vessels and tactile corpuscles onto the friction ridge models with guidance from simple histological diagrams.Students perform a follow-up research and/or writing assignment as directed by the teacher.Activity EStudents in groups carry out skin sensitivity tests for temperature and touch (two-point discrimination).The class discusses outcomes of the tests and explores the basic neuroscience of sensing.

Glue the print-outs from Task Component B to card stock and cut out your photo. Design a method to attach the photo to a horizontal stand to form a “student model,” and do so using standard classroom materials such as folded paper, clay or wood blocks. 

Information for Classroom Use

Attachment 2: Print-out of “kid model” A

With your group, come up with a story involving your student models and present the story to the rest of the class. The story might be about what happens when the student models decide to go from the surface of a table down to the floor, or from one side of the classroom to another, or to play soccer with a ping pong ball - or another idea from your group. Rehearse the story and present it to the rest of the class.

Attachment 2: Print-out of “kid model” B

Module Sections

Introduction In this activity, students craft models of themselves at the zoom level of 101 and use the models to explore the art of storytelling. An important option for this activity is to conduct it in tandem with the Hundred Times Smaller activity. Both involve students in modeling themselves and exploring the art of storytelling, so doing them in close sequence may better anchor the initial acquisition of knowledge about scale, powers of ten, and the metric system in terms of length measurements.

(optional activity): Use the “Question Formulation Technique” (Attachment 3) based on one of the following “Question Foci”:    • There are times we all feel smaller than we really are    • Many cultures around the world have folk tales about small people The question formulation technique will result in a list of student-generated questions that have been processed to be meaningful and important for a follow-up activity designated by the teacher. For either of the question foci above, this could involve a classroom discussion followed by a reflective writing assignment on the part of individual students.

Alignment of Activity Components to the Standards Bundle All of the task components address the NGSS cross-cutting concept of Scale, Proportion and Quantity as well as the NGSS practice of Developing and Using Models. Task Component A asks students to measure their heights and make calculations with these data. This component addresses the CCSS-M practices MP.1, MP.2, MP.5, and MP.6 and the CCSS-M content standards of 5.MD.1 and 5.NBT.1 by having students calculate their ten-times smaller height in English and metric units and working with place value understanding in powers of ten. Task Component B asks students to design a method for solving the problem of how to generate ten-times smaller photographic images of themselves, partially addressing the NGSS performance expectation of 3-5-ETS1-2. By discussing their solution with classmates, students also partially address the CC-ELA standard 5.SL.1 (specifically 5.SL.1.b, 5.SL.1.c and 5.SL.1.d). Task Component C asks students to craft quasi-3D models of themselves at ten times smaller using the method they selected in Task Component B. This addresses the NGSS practice of Developing and Using Models. Task Component D asks students to collaboratively devise a story in groups of 3-5 using their model versions of themselves as characters. Having the students present the story partially addresses the CCSS-ELA standard 4.SL.4. Task Component E (optional) asks students to engage in the “Question Formulation Technique” to generate a set of questions pertinent to the art of storytelling for further follow-up activities. This addresses the CCSS-ELA standards 5.SL.1 (specifically 5.SL.1.b, 5.SL.1.c, and 5.SL.1.d) and 5.SL.2.

Attachment 2: Print-out of “kid model” C

Attachment 2 - CCSM-M:  NTB, MD

Information for Classroom Use Connections to Instruction This activity is intended for students at the 5th grade level although it could be adapted for use in grades 6 through 8. It can be conducted on its own or in conjunction with reading one of the fiction stories about “small” people listed in the Supplementary Resources. For older students, this activity would primarily serve as a prelude to further levels and could be done in an expedited manner for time efficiency. Simplified versions of this activity can be used for grades 1 through 4. These do not involve photography, calculation or the extent of measurement required here for the 5th grade, but instead provide a variety of size and posture templates for students to cut out and generate more generic models of themselves at ten times smaller, followed by similar story-telling approaches as described here. This enables introducing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) cross-cutting concept of Scale, Proportion and Quantity at an early age, an important grounding for dealing with the big questions of philosophy and human nature. Approximate Duration for the Activity Activity Component A:   45 minutes Activity Component B:   45-60 minutes Activity Component C:   30 minutes Activity Component D:   45-60 minutes Activity Component E:   45-60 minutes Materials Needed     • English and metric measuring tools     • Card stock, glue and scissors     • Camera Supplementary Resources Tom Thumb, folk tale The Borrowers, Mary Norton The Indian in the Cupboard, Lynne Reid Banks Attachments Attachment 1: Letter code glossary for standards bundle Attachment 2: “Question Formulation Technique” referred to in Activity Component E Attachment 3: Three print-outs of “kid” model at sizes/distances A, B and C

In groups of 3-5 students, measure your heights in inches, feet, centimeters and meters. Calculate what your height would be in all four units if you suddenly became ten times smaller. Discuss as a class the relative ease or difficulty of the ten times smaller calculations in English as opposed to metric units. Gather the heights of all students in the class and calculate the average student height in all four units.

Classroom Activity Context People have long been intrigued with the experience of the “other,” including other people, other animals, or other beings of any sort. A particularly interesting set of these others is the set of oneself imagined at different sizes from barely visible to gargantuan. In this activity we will craft models of ourselves ten times smaller than actual, and then imagine what it would be like for these ten times smaller model people to live in the actual world. The models should be in a variety of expressive, upright postures. This will help the models be personalized to real individuals and may stimulate aspects of stories that will be imagined and shared with the rest of the class. Activity Components A. B. C. D.  E.

Attachment 1: Letter Code Glossary NGSS                  Next Generation Science Standards ETS               Engineering, Technology and Applications of Science CCSS-M           Common Core State Standards - Mathematics MP                Mathematical Practice MD                Measurement and Data OA                Operations and Algebraic Thinking NBT              Number and Operations in Base Ten CCSS-ELA     Common Core State Standards – English and Language Arts RL                Reading Literacy W                 Writing WL               Speaking and Listening

Standards Bundle (see attachment 1 for letter code glossary) NGSS Cross-cutting concept: Scale, Proportion and Quantity Practice: Developing and Using Models  3-5-ETS-2     Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem. CCSS-M All 8 of the standards for mathematical practice will connect with this activity, especially 1,2, 4, 5 and 6: MP.1      Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. MP.2      Reason abstractly and quantitatively. MP.4      Model with mathematics. MP.5      Use appropriate tools strategically. MP.6      Attend to precision.  5.MD.1      Convert among different-sized standard measurement units within a given measurement system (eg convert 5 cm to 0.05 m), and use these conversions in solving multi-step, real world problems. 5.NBT.1      Recognize that in a multi-digit number, a digit in one place represents 10 times as much as it represents in the place to its right and 1/10 of what it represents in the place to its left. CCSS-ELA  5.SL.1      Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly. 5.SL.1.b      Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles. 5.SL.1.c      Pose and respond to specific questions by making comments that contribute to the discussion and elaborate on the remarks of others. 5.SL.1.d     Review the key ideas expressed and draw conclusions in light of information and knowledge gained from the discussions. 4.SL.4      Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.  If the activity is conducted in conjunction with reading one of the fiction stories listed in Supplemental Resources:  5.RL.2      Determine the theme of a story, drama or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.

Work on the task of making a model of yourself that is ten times smaller than you are. This will require getting a photograph of yourself printed on a piece of paper so that the height of the photograph equals the ten times smaller height of yourself that you calculated in Task Component A. One way to do this is to snap a picture with a camera, load the file into a computer equipped with image management tools, and stretch or shrink the image to achieve the ten times smaller height, then print it out. Another way takes more effort but is important to understand for those occasions when computer tools are not available. With your group, measure the height in centimeters of the “kid model” on each of the three photographs in Attachment 3 and note the actual height of the “kid model” by reading the tall ruler next to him/her in the photo. Determine which photo is closest to being ten times smaller than the actual “kid model” and whether the photographer should be closer to or farther away from the “kid model” to get a ten times smaller image. Work with your group to design a method for having photos taken of yourselves that will print out at ten times smaller in a way that will be efficient and effective for the whole class. Each group will present their solution to the class; the class will then discuss the solutions and choose what they think is the most suitable for their conditions. Using the method agreed upon, take photographs of yourselves in an upright position and get them printed out on ordinary 8½ by 11 paper.

Lesson Plan 101 Ten Times Smaller Grade Level: 3 - adult

Activity AStudents participate in the Question Formulation Technique to generate a processed list of three questions around one of these Question Foci:There are times we all feel smaller than we really areMany cultures around the world have folk tales about small peopleStudents perform a follow-up research and/or writing assignment based on the questions as directed by the teacher.Activity BStudents measure their heights in inches, feet, centimeters and meters (or use measurements from the 100 lesson plan).The class reprises discussions from 100 about powers of ten, particularly noting that their average height is much closer to 1 meter than to 0.1 or 10 meters.Students calculateTheir ten times smaller height in inches, feet, centimeters and meters.The average height of students in the class in inches, feet, centimeters and meters.Activity CStudents collaboratively design and carry out a method for generating ten-times smaller photographic images of themselves.Activity DStudents craft the ten-times smaller models of themselves.Activity EStudents devise a story that involves all ten-times smaller members of their group, and enact the story for the rest of the class.

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