Design as of January 2005.
To build the model you need the following:
Kepler Paper Model Instructions (PDF, 285 KB)
UPDATE 2009: The articulated (movable) antenna is outdated. Actual spacecraft design change occured that called for fixed antenna, so you should eliminate steps 28-32 of the instructions where the antenna is mounted on a boom, and just glue the antenna directly to the spacecraft instead.
Kepler Paper Model Photometer Parts (PDF, 50 KB)
Kepler Paper Model Photometer (PDF, 44 KB)
Kepler Paper Model Spacecraft Base (PDF, 45 KB)
Kepler Paper Model Spacecraft Parts (PDF, 288 KB)
The files for the model should be printed out on heavy stock paper such as glossy photo paper. Four sheets are needed. All pages use standard 8.5x11 inches paper size.
There are a few other materials needed, such as a small piece of heavy plastic from store packaging, black paint and a glue stick.
Tools include a scissors, hand held hole punch, good straight edge, glue gun and an exacto-knife.
The files for the model should be printed out on heavy stock paper such as glossy photo paper. Five sheets are needed. All pages use standard 8.5x11 inches paper size.
Each page has 6 inch long scales on them. If these are not 6 inches long when printed, check to make sure that your computer print options under Acrobat settings are NOT set to shrink or enlarge.
Photos below are from Helen Bachtell, teacher at Stony Creek Elementary School
(click on picture to make larger):
During the fall of 2003, my students at Stony Creek elementary began studying a unit on habitable planets. They focused on Earth and what makes it habitable. After several lessons on atmosphere, water, greenhouse effect, and the sun, I asked my students to create their own habitable planet.
They did an extensive research project on the different biomes on Earth and came up with some fantastic planets. Each student made a brochure with pictures of their planet (computer generated with imported photographs which also met the technology content standards) with detailed descriptions of plants, animals, climates etc. This was a perfect lead into Kepler which we spent 4 weeks talking about the project and began another extensive unit on our solar system. Each student made a paper model of Kepler and the photograph of the students is taken in front of the display case where we hung the models in "space". Also in the display case were all the habitable planet brochures. Dave Koch came to Stony Creek in December and gave a presentation on space and Kepler. We were fortunate also to have the model of Kepler at our school for the afternoon of Dave's presentation. After the Kepler presentation, all of my students wanted to learn about space travel and light years. We did an extensive project on stars (temperature, size and distance) which then led into space travel. We used a lot of information from the NASA web site, Astronomy Picture of the Day and created travel guides for space. It was great fun especially when I took pictures of the students with my digital camera and they introduced themselves as the crew members for traveling in space.