ASTRONOMY:
Our View From Earth

©

Click here for full size image (18K)

Unit Concept:

The relative changing positions of the Earth, Moon, Sun and Stars produce and give clues to daily and annual changes on the Earth.

A Preliminary, Draft version
of a 6th Grade Earth/Space Science Unit
for Project Storyline, U. C. Irvine

October 1994 Version

Written by:
Cory Wisnia, Linda Brennan, Bob Miller, Doug Day, Tony Ryan

For further information regarding Project Storyline Units, Phone:
Kathy DiRanna, U. C. Irvine, 714-856-7809
For information on this particular unit, e-mail, phone or write
Cory Wisnia, PO Box 421, Mendocino CA 95460
cwisnia@mcn.org 707-937-0564/937-0113

Download Astronomy Unit Intro
Microsoft Word 5.1 for Mac sea (40K)

Download Astronomy Unit
Microsoft Word 5.1 for Mac sea (800K!)

Download binhexed 2.1 Hypercard stacks to accompany this unit (440K)

Grade Level Concept

6 The relative changing positions of the Earth, Moon & Sun (and Stars) produce and give clues to changes on the earth..

Storylinks for Astronomy Unit

As students begin their study of Astronomy, it is important to find out what they already know, and allow them to share their common knowledge. The pre-assessment activity allows students to display, discuss and collaborate with each other in determining class "base-line" information and knowledge.

Humans have always tried to explain common events seen daily in the sky. In Ancient Models students are challenged to invent their own illustrated explanations of these phenomena, sharing their ideas with others, in order to gain an appreciation of how early cultures began to try to make sense of their environment and celestial phenomena they observed. Historically, many cultures passed their knowledge of (or explanations for) common events on to their successors through stories. In Native Peoples Cosmology students read and act out stories about the sun from various cultures, and compare these to ones they have devised themselves earlier in Ancient Models. While early accounts and beliefs were often interesting and useful stories, they were not usually true science as they often failed to change with the acquiring of new observation or data. The historical change in our understanding of our cosmos is the focus of Maria's Friends: a Timeline and Play. In this lesson, Astronomers from various diverse periods of time "meet" and have conversations regarding their discoveries.

As the sun was often the focus of early peoples search for knowledge, due to their reliance and dependence upon (and even fear of) its warmth, What is the Sun? focuses on that celestial body, with students gathering learned or known information and sharing and displaying it for all to learn and see. The sun exerts a large influence on most living things. In the lesson How the Sun Affects Plant Growth students grow seeds testing the influence of sunlight upon germination. The sun warms the earth during the day and its absence allows for needed cooling. It heats the earth, air and water and land. This process is necessary conditions for the survival of living things. In Sunny Side Up/Hot Spot students measure the affect of sunlight on various non-living media and graph warming and cooling information.

In the next series of lessons, students become involved with the development of the TOOLS of astronomy, from early times until more recent. Ancient cultures often used the sun to indicate the passing of time; hence in the lesson The Traveling Shadow of the Sun students create sundials to learn how the sun's shadow can be used as a time finder, or clock, for measuring longer periods of time. Over a period of several months students also build a preliminary observatory, based upon the changing position of the sun over longer time. This lesson, Building an Observatory, may take the entire year to fully complete and begins to ask the students to predict future events regarding celestial movement. Since the telescope was one of the most important tools used to determine new information about our cosmos, the lesson Making a Simple Telescope allows students to play with lenses and see how the first telescopes were created.

The unit of time known as the month is directly related to the changes in the moon as it circles the earth. In the next series of lessons, the moon and its changing position with respect to the earth, and the concept of how those changes affect our lives is explored. In the lesson Changing Faces students build a model which shows how the position of the moon changes over a 28 day period. In so doing they learn about the gravitational pull that the moon exerts during full and new phases. In the following lesson, A Month of Ups & Downs they graph/plot the monthly tidal changes along with the phases of the moon to look for correlations of phases and tidal changes. Many farmers use literature which encourages a planting cycle which takes the phases of the moon into consideration. In an open-ended experiment, A Matter of Lunacy: Does the Moon Influence Plant Growth? students plant seedlings during various moon phase changes and conjecture as too whether there is any possible correlation in this regard.

The way in which ancient peoples knew of the changing hours, months & seasons during the year involved not only the position of the sun in the sky as seen from the observation-building lesson above, but also the changing positions of star groups or constellations in the night sky. The next two lessons are purposeful but optional extensions to this unit which bring in a preliminary look at constellations and how they have been used by peoples in the past, for both calendars and for navigational needs. These lessons are of particualr interest to students who live in areas where the night sky is quite visible, and may be left out of those programs where air conditions (fog or smog) make night sky viewing difficult. In Star Clocks the North Star (Polaris) and the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) are used to determine the evening hour by observing the movement of the Dipper over hourly increments. Monthly changes with the Dipper are also noted. The circumpolar star constellations, including the Big Dipper, have often been used for navigational or pathfinding needs by explorers of many cultures, as well as by slaves in using the "underground railroad" during the civil war.

In Constellation Carousel students build and use a model to learn how the various constellations of the Zodiac appear to move throughout the sky during the year, thus telling what month of the year it is to observers on earth. They also learn how observations of the cycles of these constellations led to the development of a 12 month, year-long planting and harvesting calendar, as both the sun appeared to "pass through" these constellations and as different constellations appeared to "rise" and "set" at sunrise and sunset throughout the year. They are also introduced to the greta constellation Orion and to the Winter Triangle, used by navigators throughout history both on sea and land. The cycle of events that occur in the sky often influence actions of people and animals, both historically and through the seasons. In the lesson The Seasonal Game the students play a game which shows how the Monarch butterfly is influenced by the change of the seasons and migrates through the state of California annually, as part of its lifecycle. This game also includes a variety of other information and may be used as a post-assessment for the entire unit.

You can send comments or questions to: cwisnia@mcn.org

Click here to get:

Back To Wizard's World

back to MMS home page

back to The Mendocino Community Network Home Page