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May 8, 2009
Katherine Delmar Burke School, San Francisco, CA
Our parents learned the solar system as the Sun and nine planets. It is our celestial backyard, and most folks feel this neighborhood is well-known and that there is "nothing new under the Sun". However, the discoveries since the early 1990's have revealed a new region of our solar system and have forged a new perspective on its organization. Symbolic of this shift is the 2006 re-classification of Pluto from a tiny oddball planet to one of the largest and proto-typical members of the Kuiper Belt. Emphasis has changed from individual objects to the families of objects, bringing with it a much clearer picture for our kids to learn. Get ready to re-think the familiar, because it is definitely "Not Your Parents' Solar System".
Notes
I presented this talk to the first and third grade classes, including my niece, Yuni. As this was a younger audience and I only had thirty minutes, the presentation is significantly abbreviated from my standard one. Still, I always end up going over, and the kids always have too many questions to fit in the allotted time.
Here are the slides of my presentation:
This presentation is expanded upon in my DVD course on the solar system with the Teaching Company:
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Appearances 
