Practice+Podcast

Practice Podcast
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Steps
For this project, it will help to work in partners. You can take turns reading the script and learn together how to use GarageBand. Also, you can have one computer with GarageBand up and one computer up on this page, making it easy to read the script and record at the same time. 1. Drag a picture of each planet to your desktop 2. Open up GarageBand. Click on "Create New Podcast Episode" 3. Click on the appropriate gender voice track and record the script below by clicking the red circular record button. Hint: It is a good idea to record each planet blurb in its own snippet (click the record button to stop recording). This makes it easier to edit and correct mistakes. 4. Move the clips around to the appropriate places, and edit if necessary. 5. Click on the loop browser to find a jingle. Click on them to hear them play, and drag them into the jingle track to make them a part of the podcast. Move and edit if necessary 6. Drag in pictures into the podcast track, positioned where the accompanying script starts. 7. When you are finished, go under the Share menu down to "Export Podcast to Disk"

Script
Intro: Today, we are going to take a tour of the solar system and learn some little know facts about each planet. Everybody buckle up. The tour rocket is ready to take off.

Mercury: The first planet, closet to the sun, is Mercury. Mercury is a world of extremes. Because it is so close to the Sun a visitor could easily cook to death. However because Mercury spins so slowly it gets very cold in the night time, which means a visitor could also freeze to death. Mercury is so close to the Sun, and so small, that it has only a very small atmosphere. It has been blown away by the Sun's solar winds. That means that there is almost no air on Mercury.

Venus: Next stop is Venus. Venus is a hostile planet. Its thick cloud cover makes it impossible to see the surface, and also traps much of the Sun's heat. This extra heat gives Venus the hottest average temperature of any of the planets. In many ways Venus is similar to the Earth. It has active volcanoes, venusquakes, mountains and valleys. The major difference is that Venus's atmosphere makes the planet far too hot for life.

Earth: The next planet should look familiar. It's our planet, Earth. The Earth is the biggest of all the terrestrial planets. A terrestrial planet is a dense planet found in the inner Solar System. Our planet is an oasis of life in an otherwise desolate universe. The Earth's temperature, weather, atmosphere and many other factors are just right to keep us alive.

Mars: The red planet that is next is Mars. Mars excites scientists because its mild temperament is more like the Earth's than any of the other planets. Evidence suggests that Mars once had rivers, streams, lakes, and even an ocean. As Mars' atmosphere slowly depleted into outer space the surface water began to permanently evaporate. Today the only water on Mars is either frozen in the polar caps, or underground. Did you know, Mars has higher mountains, and deeper canyons than any other planet. The largest canyon on Mars would stretch from New York City to Los Angeles on the Earth. That makes the Grand Canyon look tiny. It also has the Solar Systems biggest volcano, Olympus Mons.

Jupiter: After flying through the asteroid belt, we come to the biggest planet, Jupiter. Jupiter's great red spot visible in the picture to the right is where a giant storm has been raging for at least 300 years. This storm's super hurricane winds blow across an area larger than the Earth. This giant planet has no solid surface. Under its atmosphere is a large liquid ocean of hydrogen and water. What lies in between that ocean and the atmosphere? Actually there is no in between. The atmosphere slowly gets thicker and thicker until it becomes part of the ocean. In other words Jupiter's ocean has no surface on which you could float a boat. The sky slowly becomes the ocean.

Saturn: Another giant planet is Saturn with its big rings. Saturn is a favorite object for many observers. Its beautiful rings are 169,800 miles wide, but less thick than a football field. In many ways Saturn is similar to Jupiter, but it is much smaller. Under the clouds of methane and helium the sky gradually turns into liquid until it becomes a giant ocean of liquid chemicals.

Uranus: Now we come to Uranus. Uranus is very odd. Unlike all the other planets and most of the moons in our Solar System Uranus spins on its side. It is believed that long ago a very large object smashed into this planet. The crash was so powerful that it completely changed the direction of Uranus' spin. Uranus may have an ocean of water beneath its clouds. It has a large rocky core, and because of the tremendous pressure could possibly contain trillions of large diamonds.

Neptune: Next up is Neptune. Neptune is very similar to Uranus in size and color. However, Neptune has a giant storm much like the storm on Jupiter. This storm is often called The Great Dark Spot. We do not know how long this storm has been active, because it is so far away that we could not get a good view of Neptune until modern times when we began to send robot explorers.

Pluto: Wait, why are we stopping? We didn't see Pluto! Wait, Pluto isn't a planet? Pluto is smaller than 7 of the moons in the Solar System. Because it is so small many scientists don't consider it a planet at all. In 1999 a group of scientists attempted to redesignate Pluto as a comet. On August 24th, 2006 Pluto's status was officially changed from planet to dwarf planet. For decades children have been taught that there are nine planets in the Solar System. However, with this change, there are now only eight planets. Pluto has never been visited by space craft. Because we have never sent probes to this planet we know very little about it. 