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"I would rather be a meteor,
every atom of me in magnificent glow
Than a sleepy and permanent planet."
- Jack London (1876-1916)

Visit the Sandburg Sky Poetry Web page, including CSMS student-authored sky poems.
Sandburg Center for Sky Awareness
A Fairfax County Public Schools Planetarium

What's New?

04 May 2001

    Published Sandburg Sun-Earth-Moon Day 2001, a special report highlighting Sandburg Planetarium's local celebration of National Sky Awareness Week and Astronomy Week/Day.

13 February 2001

    Published "Explorers" Explore Exploration, a special report highlighting one outcome of an ongoing partnership between the Explorers Club Washington Group and Sandburg MS.

29 July 2000

    Unveiled prototype of SCSA "State of Sky" (SOS) information kiosk.

18 July 2000

    Upgraded Internet connectivity to T1. From fast Internet connections, Web users should see noticeable improvement in access times for SCSA products and services.

23 May 2000

    Published The Year in Review - A Special Report Highlighting the Activities of the Sandburg Center for Sky Awareness for 1999-2000.

21 April 2000

18 April 2000

16 April 2000

    Constellation Pictionary® added to the suite of activities which support Stars and Constellations, the FCPS Grade Level 5 astronomy unit.

15 April 2000

    Added extensive revisions to the Zodiac Web page, including hyperlinks to associated mythology.

15 March 2000

    Added "The Best of Team 4" to the CSMS Seventh Grade English Class Student-Authored Sky Poetry Web page. Scroll down to 1999-2000 Sky Poems.

18 January 2000

    The Sandburg Center for Sky Awareness is pleased to announce that The Unofficial Student Activity for Bob Ryan's 2000 Almanac & Guide for the Weatherwise is now online.

    A "scavenger hunt" in which students use a weather almanac to search for the answers to weather-related questions, the activity is a great way to teach weather & climate (and of course, astronomy) as well as applied mathematics (don't worry, the math is fairly simple!) plus there are a few interdisciplinary questions related to Language Arts and Social Studies. The activity has been used with great success by many teachers who have touched base to let me know how their students "really got into it!"

    All you need is a class set of almanacs [minimum 15 copies (one for every two students)] and photocopies of the activity (use your Web browser to print a photocopy master). Almanacs are available at Giant Food stores [$1.49 each (all monies donated to local charity)]. For younger students, you may want to divide the activity into smaller sections (to avoid overwhelming them!). A teacher's answer key is available upon request.

03 January 2000

    Added "The Best of Team 3" to the CSMS Seventh Grade English Class Student-Authored Sky Poetry Web page. Scroll down to 1999-2000 Sky Poems.

05 December 1999

    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 (despite recent above average temperatures!). Happy Holidays from the Sandburg Center for Sky Awareness!

01 December 1999

    In addition to weekly updates of the WoW! Web page (hey, it's called "Website of the Week" for a reason!), we just added a bunch of new stuff to the Special Events Web page.

14 November 1999

08 November 1999

    Added links from the Themes for 1999-2000 Web page to "Today's sunspot number" and real-time sunspot imagery; added links from the What's Up in the Sky?" Web page to a variety of data regarding the Sun and Moon.

26 October 1999

17 October 1999

    Added November Constellation of the Month, featuring Andromeda the Chained Princess, Cassiopeia the Queen, and Pisces the Fish.

04 October 1999

01 October 1999

25 September 1999

13 September 1999

03 September 1999

30 August 1999

24 August 1999

28 July 1999

12 June 1999

    Added Item Analysis - '98-99 Grade Level 4, 5, and 8 Planetarium Program Evaluation Teacher Surveys. Teachers, thanks for your feedback!

18 May 1999

    Added New Links related to the upcoming 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

20 March 1999

    Added Item Analysis - '98-99 Grade Level 4, 5 and 8 Planetarium Visit Exit Surveys. Very impressive results!

19 February 1999

06 February 1999

01 January 1999

23 December 1998

21 December 1998

06 December 1998

02 December 1998

18 November 1998

30 October 1998

    Added Astronomy BINGO! activity for Grade Levels Four, Five, and Eight, and Teacher's Answer Keys for several site visit activities.

24 October 1998

    Updated the Special Events page to include information about the first freeze of the Fall season.

19 October 1998

20 July 1998

09 June 1998

    Added link to Science Internet Links, (excerpted from the Multimedia Resource Guide for Fairfax County Public Schools Elementary Science Program, 1997-98)

21 May 1998

8 May 1998

7 May 1998

    Added Windows on Science, Earth Science, Volume II videodisc correlations with FCPS elementary astronomy units for Grade Level 4 & 5.

25 April 1998

    Rolled out "new look" for SCSA Web site.

17 April 1998

7 April 1998

2 April 1998

  • Added What's New? page - listing additions/revisions to Sandburg Center for Sky Awareness Web site
  • Added What's Up? page - providing pointers to online sky guides

1 April 1998

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