Wikijunior talk:Solar System/Solar System

Older content has been removed from this page for ease of reading and editing. Older versions of this discussion page have been archived at the following points: See also:
 * 2005-08-30 --SV Resolution 15:29, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

duh...what's this about again?

How the Solar System was born
I propose to merge Wikijunior Solar System/How the Solar System was born into this article. If there are any takers, let's try to put it in. --Rob Horning 23:46, 6 August 2005 (UTC)
 * This has been done, right? --SV Resolution 15:06, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

Vote on Proofreading
Rob Horning has proposed that the time is approaching to start proofreading this wikibook. I have proposed a process for proofing a page, and provided a place to talk about the proofreading process.

I have not seen any discussion of the proofreading process, so now I am going to ask for a vote.

Resolution: Proofreading Our Solar System 2005-08-30
Be it resolved that:
 * This module, Our Solar System, is essentially complete and in need of proofreading.
 * We shall begin the proofreading process on this module as of 2005-09-02 as soon as voting is completed.
 * We shall follow the proposed proofreading process
 * Including putting the "proofreading notice" at the top of the module
 * And creating a list of tasks that people can volunteer for.

Voting will continue through 2005-09-01 2005-09-06. If, by the end of the voting period, the "Ayes" have it, any person can claim community support and begin the proofreading process referenced above (placing the notice and creating the initial list of assignments).

All in Favor (Aye)

 * 1) --SV Resolution 15:29, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * 2) &mdash; Laura Scudder | Talk 15:56, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Summary
Consensus -- nobody voted against the proposal. --SV Resolution 22:41, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

Where to leave feedback?
I'm new to this project and can't find a general discussion page about the Solar System book. If there is one, please feel free to move my comment to the appropriate place. I'd like to leave a little feedback from my daughter (nearly 8). She finds it confusing that there are so many explanations in brackets breaking up the story: is it too late to suggest little fact boxes where new words are explained separately? I think she'd also appreciate more diagrams, for example the section saying "first comes Mercury, then..." would be much easier to follow if there was a simple diagram next to it. 84.179.32.65 19:34, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

It is never too late to create fact boxes or diagrams. Anything that makes it easier to understand the book is good. Please -- be bold! If you can find a good diagram, please find it. I don't think you would interfere in the proofreading process by sticking it in. If you want to suggest a change to the text (like extracting stuff into fact boxes), you can create a "test version" of the page or section and discuss it here. Thanks! We can use all the help we can get. --SV Resolution 18:09, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Missing reference
Reference #24 is missing.--Shanel 20:00, 30 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Ouch! I am not sure what happened.  I don't know if I messed that up or if BaseJumper123 did it. --SV Resolution 18:10, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Havent touched the links or really deleted anything - Basejumper123 17:54 (UST), 31 October 2005

Kids say the darndest things
I just had 5 kids in the age group of this book take a look and they said "the words are really good, but it needs more pictures!" good signs for the book!

-Basejumper123 17:54 (UST), 31 October 2005

GREAT work bringing in some kids. Can you add some more pictures? There are a lot of good ones available for free at NASA. All it takes is googling NASA images, choosing, downloading to your PC, uploading to Commons and adding the "public-domain NASA" tag. Thanks for offering. It will really improve the book. --SV Resolution 15:30, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Finishing up this module
This module is nearly complete. Please do not add information. Please just proofread/copyedit the information already in the module.

When you take on assignment, please do not undo the work already completed in earlier assignments.

If you feel this absolutely must be done, please reopen the phases of work that were completed but which you are now undoing.

If you decide to use conjunctions to hook up existing sentences into more complex sentences, or to add words, you will undo the Phase 3 grade level work in the section you are changing. Please remove the strikeouts and signatures from these sections of phase 3.

If you decide to add facts, this takes you back to phase 2. Please remove the "done" indications from phase 3 and phase 2 for those sections of the module. For instance, the statement that Neptune's and Pluto's orbits cross needs to be fact-checked and needs a reference added in the reference list. Then the sentence/paragraph that statement appears in needs to be checked for grade level.

If you decide to reorganize paragraphs, you need to be sure that the references travel with the facts, and you need to check the result for grade level again.

Please help move this book to completion.

Here is what I have discovered:
 * Writing to grade level means I have to use short sentences and simple words. It sounds choppy. I wouldn't write this way for adults.  But kids are still learning to read.
 * WORD has a nice tool for evaluating grade level of the writing. It's part of the grammar check, so spelling and grammar get checked at the same time.  Bonus.  Most of what I had written already passed WORD's grammar checks.

Thanks to everyone who is trying to make this book great. I know we can all come to an agreement and all pull in the same direction to get this book done. --SV Resolution 15:30, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Now, we send rockets into space to learn more. Astronauts travel around the Earth. Some of them have landed on the the Moon. Robots can fly to other worlds to take pictures. There are even robots on Mars now!

I would say we send astronauts and robots into space. Get rid of the exclamation point.

Rockets carry probes, telescopes, astronauts and robots into space. Astronauts have landed on the moon and robots have landed on mars.

Have robots landed on the moon?


 * There are many robots that have gone to the Moon. Most notable is the Surveyor probes, of which Apollo XII landed within just a few feet of one of the robotic missions to the Moon.  I'm not sure if the designers of that probe expected human hands to work on it after launch, but some pieces were returned to the Earth to test metal fatigue on the lunar environment, and a speculative finding of bacteria that somehow survived for several years on the surface of the Moon raised a whole lot of questions for exobiology and how to maintain a clean environment for interplanetary probes so they don't carry lifeforms with them to other worlds by mistake.  Mars and Europa are of particular concern that space probes don't accidentally introduce life to those worlds before we can study if life exists there in the first place.  --Rob Horning 01:55, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Finishing? What was I thinking?
Maybe a wiki is a lousy place to write a book. As soon as proofreading is complete, someone is sure to come along and add content, reorganize, raise the reading level... --SV Resolution 02:03, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Heavy
There seem to be a lot of facts and concepts in just this one module – perhaps some should be introduced elsewhere...? David Kernow 04:36, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Planetary Nebula
I added a note stating that 'planetary' is what these nebulae were called because through 18th century telescopes, they looked like planets. The name stuck but they have nothing to do with planets. This is often confusing for folks. Canuck100 (talk) 00:10, 8 November 2009 (UTC)