Hands-on, Eyes-on Astronomy Education
How can you bring astronomy into the classroom in something other than an abstract fashion? There are several choices. In broad terms, here’s what comes quickly to mind:
Make observing a homework assignment that links directly to abstract materials.
Examples:
Have students find and observe one bright star a month and tie the observation to knowledge of that particular star’s basic qualities which can then be expanded into a more general lesson about the nature of stars. (I’d be happy to help someone develop a instructional unit along these lines.)
Observe the moon at least three different times during a month, drawing its phase and noting its general position in the sky. Tie that observation to reading, scale models, and demonstrations of the Moon’s phases and monthly movements across the sky.
Observe the nearest star – our Sun - in daylight in the light of hydrogen alpha.
This, admittedly, requires some special equipment, or special assistance from local amateur astronomers, but the results are exciting. When seen in hydrogen alpha, the Sun is a red ball, and almost always includes “tiny” – they’re several times larger than the Earth – flames jumping off its edges. Those flames are called solar prominences. It’s the ability to see these changing features that gives students a special understanding of how alive – how dynamic – a star is. Far from a twinkling little dot, a star is a wonderfully controlled nuclear holocaust in continuous action. Looking at sunspots in white light just can’t tell the story nearly as well as the hydrogen alpha telescope, something that just a few years ago was way out of reach financially of the average amateur or school. Now you can purchase a “Personal Solar Telescope” for about $500. While the number of instruments available will mean students will have to take their turn – more than a glimpse is necessary – this kind of observing can at least be fit into the school day schedule. Of course it should be tied to studies on the Sun and other stars.
Make ample use of scale model building.
One of the biggest problems with getting a handle on astronomy is the numbers. They’re huge, but you can make a dent in some of them by building scale models. I think it’s a meaningful exercise for students not only to build such models, but to look up the necessary data and do the calculations themselves. The math is strictly mutiplication and division. A few examples:
Build an Earth/Moon model. A basketball works for Earth, a tennis ball for the Moon. But how far apart should they be? That’s the shocker. No drawing in a textbook can put this in perspective.
Build an Earth/Sun model. Use a soccer ball for the Sun, a glass bead (about 2mm in diameter) for the Earth. When you figure out how far apart they should be, try to imagine the incredible volume of empty space where the only objects are this ball and glass bead – then calculate where the next soccer ball – the next nearest star – should be.
Build a solar system walk. Design it so that the size of planets and Sun – and the distances between them – are all the same scale. This is a nearly impossible task and you’ll need to come up with two scales in the end, but let the students discover that for themselves. Then actually step off such a model on school grounds – or the football field. We need to get things into perspective.
Some models can be built just in your head and on paper. Ask students what’s the fastest they’ve ever traveled? The top for most will be 65 mph in a car, or 550 miles per hour in a passenger jet. Have them calculate how long it will take by their chosen method of transportation to cover the distance to the Moon, Sun, or nearest star.
Team up with local amateur astronomers for an observing night.
The local astronomy club makes a point of working with schools and other groups to hold public observing sessions, and they are now working with UMass Dartmouth to hold monthly ones there.
You could organize such a session for a class, or the entire school, where – of course – students come with their parents. One tool that I like to use in such sessions is a video camera. This goes into the telescope’s eyepice and delivers live images to a video screen so several people can observe at once and we can discuss what they are seeing. The camera sees deeper – delivers a better view – than the eye alone can.
The contact for the local club, the Astronomical Society of Southern New England, is:
Bruce DiDucca
I also am available to work with classes, night or day. The best way to initiate contact is through email: gstone@umassd.edu