Educational resources in astronomy
What kinds of constellations are there in different cultures? How did they get their names? In this assignment, pupils listen to stories about constellations and can then come up with and name their own constellation.
Keywords: night sky, stories, constellation
Now it’s time for your class to shine out! Test your knowledge on astronomy and observatories in “The Universe and I” quiz.
Keywords: quiz, astronomy, space
Welcome on a trip to our neighbourhood, the Solar System! How far away are the other planets from Earth? And how small is our home planet compared to the other objects that orbit our Sun?
Keywords: Solar system, planets, scale
Become a space researcher by studying a very familiar object in the sky! Our Moon orbits the Earth and always looks different: its shape and position vary at different times over the month.
Keywords: Moon, Moon phases
In this activity, we will demonstrate and model the solar system motions with our selves as objects. In this activity, we will try to find what is the directions of motion and rotation of the the moon and inner planets. How can we “shift” our perspective of the solar system between a stationary observer and an observer standing on a rotating Earth?
Asteroids are small objects that zoom around the Solar System. See if you can find the asteroid in the photos in this assignment! Pluto was discovered using this same method.
Keywords: asteroid, photos, blinking
Why is the Sun green in a photo taken with a UV camera? We can’t actually see UV light, so the colour of the photo was just chosen to be green!
In this assignment, you can choose any colour scale for an image of space taken to capture a specific wavelength of light. This activity is about making space images more interesting to look at! Which colours make the image look the most interesting?
Keywords: colour, light, wavelength
Find out what happened when asteroids hit Finland, Norway, Latvia, Greenland and the UK. You can also study the effects of your own asteroid impact with the Down2Earth impact calculator!
Keywords: crater, asteroid, small solar system bodies
Orrery’s are fantastic tools to demonstrate the planetary motions in our Solar System, but rare since they often require an advanced (accurate) clock work to work. It is however straight forward to make one for your self with paper and scissors. The children can colour their own orrery and play with it to explore several interesting phenomena in our Solar System.
Download the pdf and print it, one per child, and follow the instructions printed on the sheet. You will need colours, scissors, split pins (split clips) and a laminator (optional). If you do not have a laminator machine, it is advisable to print the file below on the thickest paper you have available.
Keywords: children, paper, scissors, paper clips,
Every day, several tons of cosmic dust falls down onto our planet, and roof tops have proven to be the ideal place to look for micrometeorites, even in busy city environments. You can join the hunt, and if you’re lucky you might find your own micrometeorite on the roof of your school or a local warehouse.
Download these files for instructions on how to start searching for micrometeorites on your roof top.