Asteroid Belt Art

Of all the subjects we study in science, space seems to be a particularly fascinating one. But of course it would be! It's absolutely incredible! Just think about all the quarks and spirals and ever-expanding bits. Absolutely nuts! Mind boggling! When things are this brain exploding (read: difficult to grasp), we find that art helps to not only solidify the learning but to bring a greater perspective. Check out the Asteroid Belt art we created in an attempt to understand size differential between Mars and Jupiter. This also gives us a tactile, visual representation of the Asteroid Belt placement!

Can you guess what we made our asteroids from? CHALK! It works really well and it looks super cool!

Gather:

Large pieces of chalk in white, grey, black, tan

Butter knife

Cutting board

Black, orange and red construction paper

Scissors

White glue

White, silver and gold/yellow/red acrylic paint

Brushes

Create:

1. Use a knife to scrape apart large chunks of chalk. Make smaller pieces and dust too!

2. Add white acrylic paint to a small bowl. Add enough water to thin. Use a thick paint brush to "splatter" white stars onto the paper. You can do this by either scraping your nail across the bristles or hold a finger out on the opposite hand and bang the middle of the brush against it.

3. Cut a large circle from the orange construction paper. Now cut a much smaller circle from the red construction paper.

4. Paint strips or otherwise make marks on the orange circle to represent gas. We used a small bit of foil scrunched up to stamp a gassy effect.

5. Glue Mars and Jupiter on opposite corners of the paper.