Astronomy

[merrynl]

I teach Earth Science to mostly 10th graders in Indiana. A lot of my students don't understand how to make graphs, read graphs, or do basic math/algebra. I have several hands on activities I'd like to do with my students while we're studying Astronomy, but I've found that they struggle with the math part. If anyone out there has any great (or even good) astronomy activities that are not math intensive, I'd love them.

[Boxcar]

Okay... This is really basic... Like soemthing I do with preschoolers...

Punch stars in a piece of paper - you''d want to do constallations - and hold it over a flashlight. Presto! Stars on the ceiling.

[Frenzy]

I teach Earth Science to mostly 10th graders in Indiana. A lot of my students don't understand how to make graphs, read graphs, or do basic math/algebra. I have several hands on activities I'd like to do with my students while we're studying Astronomy, but I've found that they struggle with the math part. If anyone out there has any great (or even good) astronomy activities that are not math intensive, I'd love them.

What are you doing in your astronomy class that is 'Math intensive'?

[hweber]

Do you teach the seasons? There are some great reason for the seasons activities that are not math related at all. Also there is a clip using Harvard students explaining the reason for seasons and they are totally wrong. If you use a flashlight and a balloon and tilt the globe at 23.5 degrees they will see that the tilt is the reason. There are lots more on the internet just google or go to dogpile.com and search for the specific topic.

[merrynl]

I have one lab the other teachers in the district use to teach the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. It involves reading and making graphs. My kids really struggle making or reading graphs. I have also had the kids make scale models of the solar system (scaled to distance). I spend most of the first day explaining and re-explaining how to make the scale. I also ask them to do some simple calculations with distances are part of their lab write-up, and they struggle with that as well.