An embodied encounter with the Solar System

Abstract

Background, a Human Orrery is an accurate spatio-temporal representation of the movement of inner planets and one comet. It is printed on a tarp with a scale of one meter for the astronomical unit. We investigate the emergence of a model of the Solar System as 9-10 years old learners encounter the Human Orrery for the first time during a one-hour session. Results, We analyse the joint action of learners and teacher in interaction with the tarp. Learners carry out an inquiry process: they act as individual or as a group while they observe, face a perplexing situation, suggest different meaning and conclude. The teacher keeps their curiosity alive, guide their inquiry and institutionalize their findings. Hence, through individual knowledge of the Solar System, body movements and metaphoric gestures, all signs on the tarp are interpreted in accordance with the scientific model of the Solar System. The emergence of a scientific understanding through an inquiry process is confirmed during six similar one-hour sessions; Conclusions, In a one-hour session, the tarp of the Human Orrery is transformed into a place where planets and comets move around the Sun. Learners become celestial objects, enacting their revolution with an accurate relative speed. Such an embodied version of the Solar System allows a deep understanding of astronomical phenomena (from the alternation of day and night to the retrogradation of Mars) and offers a rare opportunity to enact and measure mathematical relations in the context of astronomy (such as Kepler laws).