Encourage your older learners to explore World Space Week with this investigation into elliptical orbits. Equations of ellipses are normally studied in A-level Further Maths, so this worksheet gives early access to a more complicated part of mathematics with the aid of the dynamic geometry website www.desmos.com.

Learners will learn about how the shapes of planetary orbits, are not perfect circles but actually ellipses, and these can be modelled mathematically. Learners will get the opportunity to plot an ellipse manually as well as use the tools on desmos to make dynamic functions to model many different orbits.