7th grade science, 1960s

Around 1966-67, Mother Pezolt taught 7th grade science, based on a standard text book. Thinking back on the class, she had a lot to offer. We worked on several projects. I remember drawing a poster of oil deposits pooled underground at the base of a salt dome. She arranged for a class trip to see the NASA museum (National Aeronautic and Space Administration) in Houston, Texas. We got to touch the truly small capsule that the astronauts were contained in during their journeys orbiting the earth. (I remember thinking the astronauts could use more window to see out of, that little canister so claustrophobic. There's been commentary that the first astronauts were like lab mice in a sardine can, or something like that. They had no control of the craft - no steering wheels or brakes so to speak.)

The science project I've been thinking about involved making a replica of the sun, one with a segment removed so that one could see the inner layers. I used a styrofoam ball, and it was more difficult than I anticipated, but I muddled through. I don't remember the names of the layers within the sun. I do remember sunspots were thought to be storms on the sun's surface - that their temperature was considerably cooler than that of the rest of the surface. The solar surface also featured - was it prominences and corollas? Like geysers of fire shooting out from below - some went straight out, others arced like a bridge. We were taught about the three states of matter on earth: solids, gases and liquids. There was another form of matter, very hot, that could be found within the sun called plasma. Even in the 1960s, I was curious - how do we know that?