Gravitational attraction and orbital motion take center stage in this Grade 6 Science worksheet on Earth's Place in the Universe. Students examine how gravity acts as the centripetal force that keeps planets and satellites in orbit, while connecting gravitational influence to mass, distance, elliptical orbits, and changing orbital speed.

Build a Clear Model of Orbital Motion

The resource guides students through the relationship between a star and a planet and explains how their mutual gravitational attraction can produce an elliptical orbit. Students also compare gravitational influence in the Earth–Moon system and a Jupiter–satellite system, focusing on how differences in mass and distance affect gravitational influence.

What Students Practise

• Multiple-choice questions covering gravity, centripetal force, orbital motion, mass, distance, elliptical orbits, and orbital speed
• True-or-false statements that check key ideas about gravitational attraction and motion
• Short-answer responses requiring students to explain scientific relationships in their own words
• A dialogue activity that applies gravitational and orbital concepts through scientific communication
• A matching activity connecting relevant ideas and descriptions
• A cloze passage reinforcing essential vocabulary and concepts
• A labeled diagram focused on orbital motion
• A reading passage followed by questions that apply information about gravitational attraction
• An essay that gives students an opportunity to develop a more complete scientific explanation

Teacher-Ready Support

Along with the student worksheet, you receive a separate Teacher Guide PDF with learning objectives, teaching tips, discussion questions, and common mistakes. This gives teachers practical support for introducing the concepts, prompting classroom discussion, and addressing misconceptions while students work through the material.

Flexible Classroom Use

Use this resource as a classroom worksheet during a lesson on Earth's Place in the Universe, as guided practice after instruction, or as independent science work that reinforces gravitational attraction and orbital motion. The varied response formats allow students to encounter the same core ideas through selected response, written explanation, visual interpretation, reading, and extended response.

With its focus on the actual science behind planetary and satellite orbits plus built-in teacher guidance, this resource provides structured practice for connecting gravity, centripetal force, mass, distance, elliptical orbits, and orbital speed within an Earth-and-space science context. The resource is identified with the NGSS framework.