by Jane Houston Jones
October 10 was my annual date with the third graders at a local elementary school in the San Francisco bay area. Mrs. Pollock and I are a Project Astro team. She's the school science teacher and I am her astronomer. Together we have been developing astronomy curriculum for her science classes each year for the past 3 years. She reviews the California State Science Standards to determine which grades can benefit from a special astronomy activity and I wait for school to start so we can plan the new years activity.
The third grade educational standards for physical sciences include teaching about light, energy, sun and earth. They include teaching about blocking sunlight to create shadows, and how light is reflected from mirrors. The standards for earth sciences include teaching that objects in the sky move in regular and predictable patterns. They also include teaching the way the moon's appearance changes during the lunar cycle, and that telescopes magnify distant objects in the sky. Students learn earth is one of the planets that orbit the sun and that the moon orbits the earth, and that the position of the sun changes during the course of the day and from season to season. The standards call for investigation and experimentation. Students repeat observations to improve accuracy, differentiate evidence from opinion, use numerical data to describe and compare objects, predict outcomes and collect data in an investigation. Each state and country will have its own standards, and this is what the State of California Department of Education requires. http://www.cde.ca.gov/board/
I arrived at school with some of the materials, and but many activities had already been underway for several weeks. All six third grade classes have been studying the Sun and planets of our solar system and the constellations. They have been studying the phases of the moon, too. All over the walls of the science classroom were constellation drawings and drawings of "what does an astronomer look like". I was heartened to see many drawings of women, along with men and other aliens. :-) There were planets, stars, galaxies, meteors, moons, planets, and books on the drawings too, alongside the astronomers, working with cameras, computers, telescopes on hilltops and within domes.
We started by explaining how my red 6 inch reflector works and letting the students see the image of their faces reflected in the mirror. We then did a group activity called Planet Picking where groups of students work together and sort planet feature cards in different groupings. The cards have images of features on and of the planets. Features captured included hurricanes on earth and Jupiter, dry rivers on earth and Mars, craters on moon and Mercury, ice on Mars and earth, clouds on Jupiter and Venus, etc. The activity is available from the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, http://www.pacsci.org/public/education/astro/order_form.html
Then we asked the classes if they had noticed anything in the sky before class. Quite a few students in each class mentioned they had looked up to see the last quarter moon on the way to class! I took the red telescope out on the pavement and class after class took a 60 power look at the moon. The students then compared their view with the moon globe, and then to the lunar map which was taped to the science class wall right next to the telescope. I was also able to hold the moon globe in my outstretched hand between the real sun and the students (earth), and explain the phases, while the real moon was in the sky.
I liked the view of dark Grimaldi and the glimpse of Montes Cordillera and Rook the best. Students seemed to enjoy Kepler and Copernicus and bright Aristarchus most. It was a fun day, especially eating lunch in the teachers lounge, and listening as the third grade teachers planned the next project: observing phases and features on the moon. Using a daily lunar observing record, the students will make a daily record of the moon observations over the next month. An activity like this can be found in the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's "Universe in the Classroom" workbook, available here (ask about discounts to teachers and members): http://www.astrosociety.org/education/astro/astropubs/universe.html.