Curriculum Ideas

Even though these are in a table, the order isn't really set. Think of it as an enumerated set of ideas. This is a place holder to show what I hope to do and I'll shuffle them around a bit as I get more ideas (suggestions welcome!).

#	Title	Topic	Comments
1	Constellation Myths	Orion, the Milky Way, the Big Dipper	Myths are often used to communicate cultural values. Cover a classical Greek myth (Orion and Scorpius) and a couple of Native American myths.
1	The Night Sky Now (March 20)	Orion, the Dogs, Gemini, Leo, Mars, Saturn	Mars will be hard to see a month from now, and Saturn is always a winner, so we cover a lot here.
2	The Night Sky Now (April 10)
3	The Night Sky Now (May 8)
4	The Night Sky Now (May 29)
5	Its a Dizzy World!	Days, Months, Seasons, and Years.	It's all about geometry. We'll also cover lunar libration. This is a good one for both photo sequences and simulations. Need A/V equipment in the class.
6	Craters!	How craters form, Mercury, Moon, Mars and Earth	Look at pictures of craters in various planets. Talk about how they form then practice! Activity is plopping hard candies into chocolate pudding with a powdered sugar topping. This reveals both crater shape and the "rays" that can be seen around some craters such as Copernicus on the Moon. And we get to eat it at the end.
7	Inner Solar System Planets	Terrestrial Planets	Similarities between Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Talk about geometry that causes Mercury and Venus to alternately appear in the morning and evening sky and why the have phases like the Moon.
7	Inner Solar System Planets	Terrestrial Planets	Good opportunity for computer simulation showing Venus move around the Sun with the view of its phases as seen from Earth.
8	Inconstant Star	The Sun	Space storms, magnetic fields and aurora. This can be a talk, but I really need some A/V props, probably NASA video "Blackout" (19 minutes).
			Possible activity: magnetic field lines with iron filings (have to build acrylic holders to keep the mess down).
			Sunspot activity tracking. If we can get Solarscopes, we can do this as a short outdoor activity for 2--4 weeks. Will require good luck with weather this time of year. Probably can't go outside and back and get the children to draw pictures in less than 30 minutes. As an alternate, we can print a series of pictures from SOHO to track sunspots. The idea is that the children can detect and measure the rotation of the Sun. If we're really lucky, they can also detect the differential rotation of the polar vs equatorial regions.
9	What Makes a Star	The Interior of Stars (and our Sun).	Learn about fusion inside stars and the layered structure of the interior. Types and sizes of stars, temperature and color. Good chance to use Blackbody Physlet for illustration.
9	What Makes a Star	The Interior of Stars (and our Sun).	Decorate cookies to mimic the sun's structure. Need BIG cookies (well, maybe 6-inch diameter).
10	Outer Solar Sytem Planets	Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus	With apologies to Pluto, we'll only cover the gas giants. Talk about rings (they all have rings!) and gravity, the first lander on Titan and places we might find life and why scientists are so interested in trying to find life outside of earth.
11	Space Debris	Dwarf Planets, Minor Planets, Comets, and Dust	Pluto and friends. The make your own comet craft works here. Can I do the dry ice demo? This might be a good place for a video of the Deep Impact mission.
12	Extra-solar Planets		First we need to talk about the distance scale. The children need to develop a gut feel for just how far away stars are. Okay, even I don't really have a gut feel for that, but the idea is impress on them just how hard it is. Then we ask, wow can we "see" planets around other stars.
			Demonstration of the Doppler effect? Any change I can get a sound recording of either a car horn or a train whistle as it passes by an observer? The Doppler Physlet is a possible resource, but it needs to be bigger.
			To go along with Doppler effect, we need to understand spectral lines. I've got one spectroscope and a bunch of diffraction gratings. Can we make home-made (uncalibrated) spectroscopes? Find cost of additional calibrated ones. One for the whole class makes it unusable.
	Great Galaxies!	The Milky Way, the Local Group, the Virgo Supercluster	What makes galzxies stick together (gravity). When galaxies collide, do stars collide? Cosmic structure, dark matter, dark energy, the Big Bang.