Using a Starfinder
Appendix D. Interactive Planetarium Presentation
With the cooperation of the classroom teacher, groups of students will be
assigned to research the mythology associated with numerous prominent
constellations (one or two constellations per group). In the planetarium,
students should be prepared to use a starfinder (which we will construct
and learn to use during the Planetarium Teacher's class visit) to locate
their assigned constellation(s). They will be asked to show the class
their constellation(s), identify the brightest star(s) in the
constellation(s), and spend a couple of minutes presenting the associated
mythology. A student activity, Stars and
Constellations - Pattern Recognition, is available online to help
students prepare for the audience participation piece of the Grade Level 5 Planetarium Visit Agenda.
Pointers to related Internet
information resources are provided at the Sandburg Center for Sky
Awareness Web site (URL:
http://www.wsanford.com/~wsanford/exo/grade5.html).
For those teachers interested in using HyperStudio with students to
prepare interactive multimedia presentations regarding stars and
constellations, teacher
notes are provided courtesy of Joanne Goodwin, Technology
Resource Teacher, Churchill Road School (URL:
http://www.wsanford.com/~jgoodwin/misc_help/hyperstudio/stars_project.html).