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Astronomy for Educators Daniel E University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Open Educational Resources 1-30-2019 Astronomy for Educators Daniel E. Barth University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/oer Part of the Elementary Education and Teaching Commons, Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching Commons, Science and Mathematics Education Commons, Secondary Education and Teaching Commons, Stars, Interstellar Medium and the Galaxy Commons, and the The unS and the Solar System Commons Recommended Citation Barth, Daniel E., "Astronomy for Educators" (2019). Open Educational Resources. 2. https://scholarworks.uark.edu/oer/2 This Activity/Lab is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Educational Resources by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. 1 Astronomy for Educators Daniel E. Barth, PhD Assistant Professor of STEM Education University of Arkansas, Fayetteville © 2018 Special Thanks to the Editors: Anne Dalio, Fullbright College, University of Arkansas Thomas A. Mangelsdorf, CV-Helios Worldwide Solar Observing Network, Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers Unless otherwise credited, all photographs and illustrations are © 2018 by Daniel Barth. This text is licensed under Creative Commons. This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. Disclaimer. You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. Notices: You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation. No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material. 2 Table of Contents: 5 Introduction 7 How This Book is Organized 11 Unit 1: Starting our Journey of Discovery 12 Activity 1: Building a Solar Clock & Calendar 21 Unit 2: Lunar Phases – A Simple Scientific Model 22 Activity 2: Making a Moon Phase Map 34 Unit 3: Modeling Earth and Moon Together 35 Activity 3: Making a Scale Model of the Earth-Moon System 42 Activity 4: Exploring the Lunar Orbit 48 Activity 5: Rotation and Revolution 55 Activity 6: The Lop-Sided Moon 63 Unit 4: Measuring Time in the Sky 64 Activity 7: The Earth Clock 73 Activity 8: Moonrise and Moonset 81 Unit 5: Measuring and Mapping the Sky 82 Activity 9: Altitude and Azimuth – Finding Your Place in the Sky 88 Activity 10: Measuring the Nightly Path of the Moon 95 Activity 11: Measuring the Moon’s Orbital Motion 102 Activity 12: Measuring the Earth with Eratosthenes 108 Activity 13: Mapping the Constellations 116 Unit 6: Exploring Gravity 117 Activity 14: Galileo Explores Gravity with Pendulums 125 Activity 15: Hooke’s Pendulum 130 Activity 16: Galileo’s Falling Bodies 136 Activity 17: The Acceleration Ramp 144 Activity 18: Einstein’s Gravity – The Curvature of Spacetime 3 152 Unit 7: Proving the Heliocentric Model Correct 153 Activity 19: Modeling the Moons of Jupiter 161 Activity 20: The Phases of Venus 171 Unit 8: Understanding Big Numbers – Size and Scale in our Solar System 172 Activity 21: Million, Billion, Trillion – Exploring Big Numbers with Money 180 Activity 22: The Thousand-Yard Solar System 190 Unit 9: Orbital Dynamics – Planets and Moons in Motion 191 Activity 23: A Working Model of the Lunar Phases 202 Activity 24: Aristotle’s Flat Moon 209 Unit 10: War of the Worlds – How Impacts Build Planets 210 Activity 25: Modeling the Moon’s Surface in Clay 221 Activity 26: Dynamically Modeling the Moon’s Surface in Flour 228 Activity 27: Exploring Crater Rays in Detail 235 Activity 28: Dynamically Modeling the Lunar Surface in Plaster 243 Unit 11: The Four Seasons – Two Competing Models 244 Activity 29: The Elliptical Model of the Seasons 252 Activity 30: The Tilted-Axis Model of the Seasons 261 Unit 12: Safely Observing the Sun 262 Activity 31: The Pinhole Camera 268 Activity 32: The Binocular Projector 273 Activity 33: The Tree Projector 277 Unit 13: Solar and Lunar Eclipses 278 Activity 34: Modeling a Solar Eclipse 285 Activity 35: Modeling a Lunar Eclipse 290 Activity 36: Why are Eclipses so Rare? 297 Glossary & Supplemental Materials 4 Introduction: Transitioning from being a science teacher to a professor of education who trained new teachers was one of the greatest challenges in my career. I opened my first Astronomy for Educators class by telling the students that I had been an astronomy teacher for more than 30 years; a student in the class immediately raised her hand and said: “I haven’t.” That blunt comment convinced me I needed to change my priorities for my class; I wasn’t there to teach pre-service teachers science, rather I was there to convince them that they could teach science, and then give them the tools to do so. My state, like many nation-wide, was mandating new initiatives for STEM science from elementary through high school – and my pre-service elementary teachers were worried about achieving these goals in their classrooms. Most of the young teachers in my class were more than worried about this, many were actually afraid of teaching science. “I’m not a science person!”, “I don’t do math!”, and “I’ve avoided taking any science class since freshman biology in high school!” were all typical comments. I told the teachers in my class that I was sure that they could teach science in the K-8 classroom. I told my young teachers that they knew almost everything they needed already, and the rest they would discover along the way with the children in their classrooms. The same is true for you! You don’t have to be a math whiz, or have a science degree to teach STEM activities – and you don’t have to have deep pockets either. I taught in high-poverty districts for many years, my district could not afford expensive equipment, and neither could I; my students and I built our own models and equipment for pennies, often using materials scrounged from around the house or garage. I know many teachers supply materials and equipment in their classrooms out of their own pockets – all of the activities in this book cost less than $1 per student to set up and perform. Making your own models and then working with them in the classroom brings a hands- on authenticity to your classroom that engages almost everyone. These hands-on projects have proven very effective with ESL students, helping them to acquire vocabulary and fluency in a natural, conceptual way that has been substantially more effective than worksheets or vocabulary exercises. Special needs children also often find the hands-on classroom to be more congenial than a traditional educational environment. I have often seen special needs students begin to learn about astronomy conceptually, and demonstrate their knowledge physically with simple models long before they acquired the vocabulary skills to express what they knew. Our students need to be prepared to take on the challenges of a technology-rich and science-dependent 21st century economy. If we are to empower them to address these future challenges, it is time we began to change the way we teach science starting in elementary school. We have spent years teaching science as a collection of facts, 5 teaching children what we know instead of allowing them to discover things for themselves. It is critical that the children in our classes understand how science works, both its strengths, and its weaknesses. I believe that children can only do this effectively by participating in science activities, getting their hands dirty and seeing how science works, and why science sometimes fails. None of this needs to be complex or expensive – you can do it in your classroom too! Each unit of this book is centered on fundamental science concepts. The learning process is based around activities. I’ll show you what you need to know, and help guide you through each activity, explaining not only what you and your students will learn about the Earth, Moon, stars and planets, but explaining what each model we will make teaches us about the strengths and weaknesses of science itself. Each activity is easily scalable, younger children can explore the activity conceptually while older or more advanced children can add math and dig deeper into the topic with additional activities. I am a firm believer in the Constructivist school of thought; I discovered in my own classroom that hands-on, open ended activities where students discover concepts and facts for themselves have been more effective in terms of teaching academic content than reading textbooks or doing worksheet activities. Students find these activities more engaging, memorable, and enjoyable as well. Even in high-poverty schools, I never had a problem filling my activity-based classes, not even for subjects like physics and astronomy. Students took these classes because they were fun and exciting.
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