American Museum of Natural History
What is Astronomy?
Go study the universe. Pupils learn seven aspects about astronomy and astronomers. They begin to learn about constellations; distance and motion between objects; gravity; the electromagnetic spectrum; dark matter and energy; and teams of...
Curated OER
Sky Watchers: Ancient Astronomers
Students close their eyes and picture the sky. They are asked to brainstorm things they may see in the course of a night and day, such as the movement of the sun, moon, and stars. Students work in groups to coduct their research. They...
EngageNY
How Far Away Is the Moon?
Does the space shuttle have an odometer? Maybe, but all that is needed to determine the distance to the moon is a little geometry! The lesson asks scholars to sketch the relationship of the Earth and moon using shadows of an eclipse....
Curated OER
Solar Systems Models Foldable Question Sheet
In this solar system worksheet, students use foldable models they made of the planets to answer questions about each planet. They answer questions about the theories and predictions made in our history about the solar system and answer...
Curated OER
The 'Solar' System Past and Present
Students identify cardinal and intermediate directions, recognize that models changes due to new or improved observations and technology, identify the major characteristics of the planets including their positions in the solar system,...
Curated OER
The Solar System
In this solar system worksheet, students complete a word puzzle by determining the terms associated with the 10 statements about the planets.
Curated OER
How Distant Is The Moon?
Students discover how Aristarchus, a Greek astronomer around 230 BC, used a simple observation of the eclipse of the Moon, plus clever reasoning, to deduce the distance of the Moon. They practice the same calculation technique.
Curated OER
May The Earth Be Revolving Around The Sun?
Students trace the beginning of the heliocentric theory of the solar system--the idea that the solar system revolves around the Sun--to an observation by the Greek astronomer Aristarchus, which convinced him that the Sun was much bigger...
Curated OER
Sky Stories Curriculum
Students investigate the stories told by ancient cultures about the constellations. They listen to stories told by the Greeks and Romans. The classroom should have posters of constellations for the lesson and the teacher performs...
Curated OER
Location
Students explore the tools used by Columbus to chart his latitude. They study the change of a location over time.
Curated OER
The Stellar Magnitude Scale
In this stellar magnitude scale instructional activity, students use a scale showing the magnitude of objects in the sky to answer 5 questions about the brightness of the moon, the planets and stars.
Curated OER
Power Functions: A Question of Magnitude
For this power functions worksheet, students read about determining the brightness of stars using a magnitude scale. Students solve 4 problems including finding the magnitude differences of stars and determining equivalent magnitudes.
Curated OER
The Wanderers: Planets of Our Solar System
In this planets worksheet, students read a detailed 3 page text about the planets in our solar system. Students then complete 21 true/false and multiple choice questions about planets.
Curated OER
Flyby with Juno
Use literature for interdisciplinary instruction with NASA's mission to Jupiter.
Curated OER
Age of Exploration
In this world history learning exercise, students utilize a word bank of 10 terms or phrases to answer 10 fill in the blank questions about the Age of Exploration. A short answer question is included as well.
Curated OER
Practical Illustrations of Astronomical Concepts Relating to the Solar System
Eighth graders are introduced to concepts related to the Solar System. In groups, they participate in an experiment in which they must describe a ray of light and how it travels. They draw a diagram of the electromagnetic spectrum and...
Curated OER
How Distant is the Moon?--2
Young scholars examine total eclipses of the Sun and their limited regions of totality. They explain that this limited view occurs because the Moon is close enough to us for different points on Earth to view it differently.
Curated OER
May Earth be Revolving around the Sun?
Ninth graders explore how Aristarchus used the position of the half-full Moon to estimate the distance to the Sun, and how he made a great error, but still figured out that the Sun is much larger than Earth.
Curated OER
Star Magnitudes
In this stars worksheet, students use a chart comparing the absolute and apparent magnitudes for different stars to complete 4 fill in the blank and 2 short answer questions.
Curated OER
Astronomy
In this astronomy worksheet, students read a detailed text about our solar system. Students then answer 15 questions about the information presented.
Curated OER
Eratosthenes
Students examine what Eratosthenes is and the history behind him. In this earth lesson students complete a hands on activity to repeat Eratosthenes' experiment.