6 replies to this topic

[Doc Willie]

I just volunteered to do a viewing night for a 2nd grade elementary school class. In case of clouds (60-80% chance in our area) I will need to do an indoor presentation. Any tips or resources aimed at 7-8 year olds would be appreciated. I am told that they have mainly been studying planets.

[tedbnh]

Hi Willie,

Send me an external email address and I will send you a link to my dropbox folder, where you can download my pre-skywatch PPT presentation. It is suitable for 2nd graders.

This really gets them interested. Get yourself a 12" beachball labelled "Earth" and a nerf ball labelled "Moon" and a piece of string 30 feet long rolled up around a piece of 1" dowel.

Have one kid come up front and hold up the earth, and then have 8 or 10 kids come up and hold the moon, standing where they think the moon orbits the earth (i.e. how far away at this scale). Keep tossing the nerf ball into the audience until you get 8 kids up front. Keep them standing at the spot they guessed. Now pick one more kid and have them take the string and unroll it until it ends. A 12" earth will have the moon's orbit at 30 feet, and nobody will be that far. It really gets everyone's attention, wakes them up, gets them involved...good results every time. Got this idea from David Woods' book, "How Apollo Got To The Moon."

Ted

[CoolHobieCat]

I do pretty much the same thing in my NASA outreach presentations, but I use a globe of the Earth that is 8" in diameter and a 2" ball for the Moon. That way 1" equals 1,000 miles, and this puts the Moon at 20 feet from the Earth.

But Ted is correct. No one will guess that the Moon is so far from the Earth, and this includes the school teachers.

As a bonus, I ask them to guess where the International Space Station is relative to the Earth. The students gasp when they learn that the ISS is only 1/4" above the Earth. The teachers do no better. http://www.heavens-a...ed&alt=0&tz=CET

[Doc Willie]

Hi Willie,

Send me an external email address and I will send you a link to my dropbox folder, where you can download my pre-skywatch PPT presentation. It is suitable for 2nd graders.

This really gets them interested. Get yourself a 12" beachball labelled "Earth" and a nerf ball labelled "Moon" and a piece of string 30 feet long rolled up around a piece of 1" dowel.

Have one kid come up front and hold up the earth, and then have 8 or 10 kids come up and hold the moon, standing where they think the moon orbits the earth (i.e. how far away at this scale). Keep tossing the nerf ball into the audience until you get 8 kids up front. Keep them standing at the spot they guessed. Now pick one more kid and have them take the string and unroll it until it ends. A 12" earth will have the moon's orbit at 30 feet, and nobody will be that far. It really gets everyone's attention, wakes them up, gets them involved...good results every time. Got this idea from David Woods' book, "How Apollo Got To The Moon."

Ted

Thanks. Got the dropbox stuff. The ball and nerf ball sounds like a good idea. One needs stuff with physical activity for this age, or it will all go supercritical boom.

[Doc Willie]

Our event went very well in spite of being clouded out. I modified one of tedbnh's PowerPoints, and did the exercise with the balls and string, and a similar one for the earth and the sun. We were well received, and distributed a fair number of flyers about the club.

[Doc Willie]

I did an event for 2nd graders only. As usual, completely clouded out. Did pretty much the same show.

Lessons and conclusions:

1. You are talking to the parents as well as the kids. One parent was quite puzzled as to why we astronomers had not found a way to see through clouds so we could observe all the time.

2. A dozen 2nd graders will fill an hour with questions.

3. Looking through a Telrad set up indoors is an exciting thing for a 2nd grader.

4. They will often be accompanied by siblings. At one end it means trying to hear over a wailing infant. At the other end, older ones may be asking about the existence of multiverses.

[Jason B]

Nice job Willie! Thanks for sharing the observations. Every time I do outreach, I am amazed at some of the questions that come up that I have never though would be asked. You think you've heard them all til the next event!