Proposal regarding an idea for adding a new activity, "Solar System".

[Aman Gupta]

Author: Aman Kumar Gupta



*General Purpose:*GCompris is a high-quality educational suite which aims
at making learning easier for children aged 2 to 10. GCompris currently has
137 activities on various topics such as science, maths, games with which
it has successfully created a great learning environment for children.
However, we can take GCompris one more step forward by creating one new
activity which aims at introducing kids, aging 6-10 years, to the Solar
System, which is currently unavailable in GCompris. This activity aims at
making children aware of the Solar System and making them curious about
Extra-terrestrial space in an interactive learning manner.



*Screen-wise Mock-up:*This will be a 2-level interactive activity. They are
briefly demonstrated below.


* Level-1:*The first level is a tutorial level where the child can learn
about different planets, stars, etc.


   - This screen will contain The Sun, all the 8 planets, stars, and the
   Moon and a spaceship, similar to this,
   http://s1.dmcdn.net/NoiVN/1280x720-F8c.jpg ,
   https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CqB2JKHrYDg/maxresdefault.jpg , or we can place
   all the planets linearly to avoid confusion to the child as can be seen
   here:
   http://giantsandpilgrims.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/solar-system4.png
   - The activity starts with a basic, easy to understand introduction to
   the Solar System which would explain about planets, stars, Sun and the Moon.
   - After the introduction, the "Spaceship" will initially be on the top
   of the Earth.
   - Next, the child will be prompted that he may click on any planet to
   explore about it. And when the kid hovers over any planet, its scale
   increases with a "bounce" animation, to make it look attractive. And when
   the child clicks on any planet, its name will be spelled out and the
   spaceship will fly to it, hence making it fun for the child, and an
   original picture of the planet will pop-up with the planet describing some
   properties about it in the written form.

The properties will be as follows:
1. Name
2. Size
3. Position in the Solar System
4. Duration of day and night
5. Number of days in an year
6. Distance from Sun
7. Comparison with Earth, like how many earths can fit inside it. Thus,
making it easy to imagine the size of that planet
8. 1 most significant fact about that planet. in the form of "Do you
know?", which will arouse the curiosity in the Child to learn more.
E.g:

   -  "Hello, My name is Jupiter. I'm the largest planet in the Solar
   System with a width of .
   -  I am the 5th planet in the Solar System 1 day on me is of 10 hours.
   -  It takes me 4380 days to complete 1 year (12 years on Earth).
   -  I am 778.5 million km away from the Sun.
   -  As many as 1300 Earths can fit inside me.
   -  Do you know?
   -  Jupiter is two and a half times more massive than all the other
   planets in the solar system combined!"


 After reading about it, the child can click "Close" button on the topmost
right of the image and he can continue exploring other planets.

This was the tutorial part and there won't be much interaction than this
(similar to the Explore Animals activity).  Else it will get complex.

   *Level-2:*


   - This will be an interactive-quiz level where the child will actually
   get involved in the activit
   - In this level, there will be certain questions regarding the planets
   which would have 4 options and the child has to select the Correct one.

         e.g:  "How many planets are in the solar system?" or, "Which
planet is farthest from the Sun?", and there will be Pictures of 4 planets
along their names below them.

   - There will also be a mix of "Drag and Drop" questions where the child
   will be shown an empty Solar System with a list of all the 8 planets, and
   will be questioned.

         e.g:  "Drag the 5th planet of the Solar System to its position" or
"Drag and drop the planet next to Jupiter" or "Drag and drop the largest
planet in the Solar System to the indicated position".

*Conclusion:*

So, this is how I plan to present the Solar system to the kids and teach
them in an interactive manner. This may be their first sneak-peak into the
world of Extra-terrestrial space.

Any suggestions and feedback will be highly appreciated!

Regards,
Aman Kumar Gupta
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