K-12 Online Astronomy Activities
by Andrew Fraknoi (Foothill College & A.S.P.)
€й copyright 2000 Project ASTRO, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 390 Ashton Ave., San Francisco, CA 94112
Reproduction of any kind without express written permission is forbidden. Contact the author at: fraknoiandrew {at} fhda.edu
This resource list includes a small selection of especially effective astronomy activities designed for K-12 classes and science projects. We focus on those activities that are either hands-on, or at least encourage students to think for themselves, and not merely follow a cookbook recipe or fill in a few blanks. Each listing has a brief summary and comments; note that these comments are the opinion of the list’s compiler and are not the “official policy” of Project ASTRO or the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Another person in astronomy education may have selected a different list of activities and may have had different things to say about them. Additions or suggestions for future editions of this list are most welcome.
The Web is now a huge, and mostly unorganized, repository of information, and we make no claim that our list is complete. Instead, we simply hope that it can introduce you to the wide range of organizations and institutions that are working to put astronomy activities on the web, and to give you leads for activities that contain reasonable astronomy and emphasize hands-on, inquiry-based learning.
Several large collections of astronomy activities on the Web (mostly sponsored by NASA) that can be printed out as entire books are summarized in the last section.
Classification:
- e = elementary
- m = middle school
- h = high school
- a = any grade
1. General Astronomy
2. Moon Phases and Eclipses
3. The Seasons and the Sun in the Sky
4. Constellations and Sky Observing
5. The Scale of the Solar System
6. Planets and Satellites: General
7. Planets and Satellites: Specific Worlds
8. Comets, Asteroids, Meteors, and Meteorites
9. The Sun
10. Stars and Stellar Evolution
11. Galaxies
12. Cosmology
13. Light and Color
14. Telescopes, Observing, and Instrumentation
15. The Universe at Many Wavelengths
16. The Search for Life Elsewhere
17. Debunking Pseudo-science
18. Interdisciplinary Approaches to Astronomy
19. Appendix: Some Activity Books That Can be Printed Out
In this classic activity by Dennis Schatz, groups of students are asked to come up with a list of astronomical terms that are used in business and commerce, such as Saturn cars, and Mars candy bars. You must scroll down past the main article to get to the activity. [a]
Students learn to scale the history of the universe since the big bang to a one-year calendar, noting where significant events (such as the formation of the Earth or the rise of humans) would fall in that year. Based on a suggestion by Carl Sagan. [m,h]
Astronomer Elizabeth Roettger introduces and gives basic instructions for the use of a free program called Image, for image processing. She suggests both terrestrial and celestial images to play with and demonstrates a few simple techniques. [h]
Students are asked to imagine an astronomer and then to draw a picture. No clues are given about the astronomer’s race, sex, or age. Students discuss why they drew the pictures they drew and why they have the mental images of scientists that they have. [a]
Students learn to understand the concept of a light year by calculating distances to the stars in other units, such as bike years, car years, and Space Shuttle years. Part of the SETI Institute Life in the Universe curriculum. [m,h]
Students use web-based lunar-phase displays to find the phase of the Moon for their birthday this year and in other years. They then place their birthday moon in the context of the pattern of moon phases. Good beginning activity for younger students, but should be followed by encouraging students to observe the Moon in the real sky, not just the computer. [e]
The Seasons and the Sun in the Sky
This calculational activity by Evan Manning helps familiarize students with the Gregorian calendar, and then asks them to come up with a calendar system for another planet where the year is also not an integer multiple of days. [m,h]
In this advanced observing activity by Steven Edberg, students observe the transit time of the Sun and the stars and discover that the solar day is not equal to the sidereal day. [h]
Instructions for building a sun-clock, using their print-out and a compass, to measure local solar time. [e, m]
Constellations and Sky Observing
To help students see how different cultures invented different visual interpretations of the same groups of stars, they are given a “new” star constellations and asked to draw a figure connecting many of the stars and then to invent a legend to go with it. Comes with a nice resource sheet showing how Ursa Major was seen by many different cultures. Part of the “Astro Adventures” book by Dennis Schatz and Doug Cooper. [e,m]
Alan Gould guides students on how to use