Elementary Science

Star Update - S4E1

We received an excellent question about the movement of stars.  It is a question we have gotten more than once, so I decided to share the question and response.  Hope it helps.  :-)

"What should our students be learning about stars, star movement, planets and planetary movement, constellations, and technology used in the night sky? Does it only include the information from the standard S4E1?  A concerned parent was wondering if I should have mentioned that the galaxy in fact does move and is in constant motion. I referenced the standards with her and acknowledged that the galaxy is in fact in motion.  Should I have covered anything more, if it was not an inquiry made by the students as a whole?"

1) the easy, and proper answer is that the stars do not APPEAR to move

The problem (a good problem) is that many 4th graders are quite sophisticated and you do well to work with that student on the side

2) If a student is an astute observer, they will notice that the stars appear to move relative to each other between any 6 mo period, because we are on different sides of the sun in those 6 months--most of us miss this, but a 4th grader might ask

3) Because the earth wobbles on its axis, our north star changes over a period of thousand of years (one wobble cycle is 26,000 year). So Ancient Greek did not use a star in Ursa Minor (Little Dipper, Polaris is the star) to find north, but used a star in Draco, if memory serves correctly--, which was another dim star--so from earth over hundreds and thousands of years the stars appear to move

4) each star is in its own orbit around the center of the Milky Way, pulled by local stars, so they are all moving a bit, relative to one another--from earth this will be another 1000 yr change. So in 1000 years or so, from the Earth, the Big Dipper will look like a stretched out soup spoon, not the hearty "big dipper"

Maybe more than you wanted, & but for most of your students, "stars appear not to move from our observations on earth"--this will not get them into any trouble.

 

 

Here's another great link from Dave Eichler at Tritt about White Dwarf Stars... enjoy!

http://www.wired.com/science/space/multimedia/2009/02/gallery_dwarf_stars

GSTA Presentations

 Thanks to all who attended the sessions at GSTA.  Below you will find copies of the presentations, as promised.  Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

Download GSTA3-5BudgetFriendly2009

 Download GSTA Assessment 2009

Visit www.cobbk12.org and click on PICASSO to find more information about Standards Based Report Cards. 

A copy of the session information from Jamie Lattimore & Amanda McLain also from Cobb county can be found on this site.  

http://www.teacherweb.com/GA/BrownElementary/Lattimore/photo4.stm  

PICASSO Update & FYI...

Hey!  Hope you are enjoying the new look and feel of PICASSO.  It has come to our attention that some people are getting a restricted error message when they try to open some PICASSO word files.  Sue Brown, PICASSO Consultant, has created this helpful hints document to resolve the problem.  This is only an issue if you're using Firefox as a browser.  :-)  Sally

Download RESTRICTED FILE Error Message