Project Astro Materials, Solar System Models, Star Party Materials, and ?

This page holds links to odds and ends of materials that I've created. This page will be perpetually under construction, as I seem to always have twice as much stuff to get up here as is already here.

Unless indicated otherwise, all files are Adobe Acrobat documents. If you would like to edit these for your own use, feel free. Email me and I'll provide the sources. Generally, figures are done with Freehand and text was written with FrameMaker, though I have the figures as EPS files as well.

Project Astro Notes

I am involved in Project Astro, a program to bring astronomers into public schools to assist with teaching students about science and astronomy. Project Astro is organized by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Locally, Project Astro is coordinated by Harvard CfA and the Museum of Science.

I worked with a 6th grade class at J.G. Whittier Middle School in Haverhill, MA. These notes outline the activities done, materials used, and other odds and ends. This was written primarily for my own benefit so I could remember what worked/didn't work for next year, but they could be helpful to someone trying to teach to the 6th grade level.

In the project astro notes there are references to two handouts, here they are (but read the info in my Project Astro Notes regarding their use - otherwise you will confuse the students as it can look very complicated):

Gravity handout

Science handout

If you do the spectrometer exercises, you need to have copies of the charts. Here are some nice clean ones to start with. You can get the spectrometers here. Buy the plastic ones, not the cardboard ones.

Night Time Scale Model of the Solar System

While there are all sorts of scale model of the Solar System type exercises (Mitchell Charity's page has a good listing of what's available), none were really tailored towards discovering the spatial relationships of the planets, and in a way that could be done at night as part of a Star Party. If anyone decides to build one, let me know, as I imagine there are all sorts of enhancements that could be done. Also, the directions seem obvious to me - but that's 'cause I already know how to build it...

Star Party Materials

If you haven't already read this handy guide written by Peter Bealo, do so now!

Here's an event press release that I used. Send these out the appropriate editor (call and find out to be sure) at least 1 week prior to the event.

Here are some handouts that I've used. The goal is to have the students ask questions of the astronomers about WHAT and WHY they are seeing what they're seeing (instead of being passive 'lookers'). Obviously, if you use these, you'll need to update the moon positions and the star charts (both of which were produced by The Sky software), as well as questions about the planets.

November 1998
October 1999

Take home exercise to find Uranus and Neptune with binoculars.

last update 4-Oct-99