Q&A for How to Make a Model of the Earth

A creative way to model the Earth's layers would be to use candy or chocolate with different textures. For example, you could use a soft chocolate center to represent the inner core, a nougat or fudge middle layer for the outer core, a crunchy wafer cookie for the mantle, and some hard candy on the outside for the crust. Making it cross-sectional would really showcase the internal structure. Eating your way through the planet is definitely a tasty way for students to learn about Earth science! The different textures help drive home the idea that each layer has unique properties.

Make a layered model with clay.

You could try using clay or Play-Doh and mold it into a ball shape.

Styrofoam is very light, and you can easily poke a hole in it with a wooden stick.

Use a small ball such as a baseball.

The troposphere is the layer closest to the Earth. After that, it's the stratosphere (the part with the ozone layer), the mesosphere, the thermosphere and the exosphere. The edge of space is defined as being 100km above sea level, so the exosphere is technically in outer space.

Yes, you can! Just make sure that you don't destroy the ball in the process.

Take a thin sheet of white card stock (paper is too floppy) and cut out a large circle. Cut the center out of the circle so that you have a doughnut shape. About two-thirds from the inner edge, draw a black circle. This is Cassini's Division, a gap in the rings. Then, draw white and yellow circles on the rest of the card to model the rest of the rings.