Tell me and I forget.
Show me and I remember.
Involve me and I understand.
-- Anonymous

The following hands-on activities will be used by the Sandburg Planetarium Teacher during site visits to elementary classes. It will be especially helpful if the hosting classroom teacher is familiar with (and has provisioned for) the activity before the actual site visit.

Grade Level 4 - The Sun and its Neighbors

• Astronomy BINGO!
• Using a "Dipper Finder" (Teacher's Answer Key available upon request.)
• Related Internet information resources (for activity extension or enrichment)
• Grade Level 4 Planetarium Visit Follow-Up

Grade Level 5 - Stars and Constellations

• Using a Starfinder (Teacher's Answer Key available upon request.) Using a Starfinder, Public Outreach Version also available.
• Stars & Constellations - Pattern Recognition
• Constellation Pictionary®, the game of quick draw constellation pattern recognition
• A Skywatcher's Pronunciation Guide (stars and constellations)
• How Far is a Light-Year? (Teacher's Answer Key available upon request.)
• Astronomy BINGO!
• Related Internet information resources (for activity extension or enrichment)
• Grade Level 5 Planetarium Visit Follow-Up

Grade Level 6 - The Solar System

• Cosmic Survey: What are your ideas about the Universe? - good warm-up activity before constructing a scale model of the Solar System...
• Making a Model of the Solar System (Teacher's Answer Key available upon request.)
• Solar System in a Can© - Just add Pennies! Coming Soon!
• Download Your Weight in the Solar System, an AppleWorks spreadsheet for Apple Macintosh developed by Steve Holmlund, formerly FCPS Area III Pyramid Technology Training Specialist (PTTS). Note: you may need to download StuffIt Expander (269 Kb) to decompress this file.
• What are the Shapes of the Planets' Orbits? (Teacher's Answer Key available upon request.)
• Sundials - Indirect Observation of Earth's Rotation and Revolution
  1. Educator's Guide to Equatorial Sundials - background information for teachers and students, as well as suggested teaching strategies
  2. StarDate Equatorial Sundial Teacher Guide - print Dial Face Template using cover stock; for assembly instructions, refer to "Materials and Construction" section of Teacher Guide
  3. Equatorial Sundial Activity Questions - developed by the SCSA for use with the StarDate Equatorial Sundial (Teacher's Answer Key available upon request.)
• Astronomy BINGO! Coming Soon!
• Related Internet information resources (for activity extension or enrichment)

Grade Level 3-6 - For classroom teachers, a suggested Moon-phase activity...

• Birthday Moons - It's Just a Phase You're Going Through...
• Related Internet information resources - a few selected Moon phase-related World Wide Web sites

Grade Level 4-8 - For classroom teachers, a couple of suggested sunspot-related activities...

• Happy Birthday Sunspot Plot - Sunspots and the Solar Cycle (Teacher's Answer Key available upon request.)
• Estimating the Size of Sunspots - Use the Internet to safely observe & measure sunspots (Teacher's Answer Key available upon request.)
• Related Internet information resources - a few selected Solar Maximum-related World Wide Web sites

Grade Level 8 - Earth and Space Systems (Moon phases, solar and lunar eclipses, ocean tides, and change of seasons). A few suggested activities for classroom teachers...

• Why does the Moon go through a Cycle of Phases? (Teacher's Answer Key available upon request.)
• Using a "Moon Phaser" (Teacher's Answer Key available upon request.)
• Ocean Ups and Downs - Plotting and Predicting Tides. Using data from a current tide table for Ocean City, MD, predict the eight moon phases for the month. If you're using Microsoft Internet Explorer (Version 4.0 or higher) and you have MS Excel installed on your computer, then you can use your browser to work interactively with a month of recent tide data for Ocean City, MD. See if you can correlate tidal range with moon phase (Spring Tides and Neap Tides).
• Astronomy BINGO!
  • Part A - General Astronomy, Moon Phases, & Eclipses
  • Part B - Ocean Tides, Seasons, & Night Sky
  • Part A & B Hybrid
• Related Internet information resources (for activity extension or enrichment)

• Sky Awareness Activity (SAA) - Increase your students' sky awareness by completing this activity (excerpted from The Unofficial Student Activity for Bob Ryan's Almanac & Guide for the Weatherwise), including additional sky-related questions which appear only in the SAA.
• Snowflakes - A Thematic Approach provides K-12 teachers with a flurry of ideas for using snow to deliver interesting and exciting interdisciplinary instruction perfect for the holiday season.
• Science Internet Links (excerpted from the Multimedia Resource Guide for Fairfax County Public Schools Elementary Science Program, 1997-98)
• Internet Sites to Supplement Science Kits (excerpted from the Multimedia Resource Guide for Fairfax County Public Schools Elementary Science Program, 1996)
• Windows on Science, Earth Science, Volume II videodisc correlations with FCPS elementary astronomy units for Grade Level 4 & 5

Geoscience-Related Information Servers | Geosystems in FCPS
American Meteorological Society DataStreme Project