This project is my part of a group effort to create teaching tools for elementary to middle school students. Our groups topic was Astronomy, with my tools focusing on the Stars and Constellations. I created two tools and a poster.
The first tool is a map of the Northern Hemisphere's night sky and the major stars in it. The tool comes with a transparency of the map, a constellation answer key for the teacher, and 36 constellation identification cards. The class would be split up into two teams, the teacher would have one volunteer from each team to come up and take a constellation identification card, then race to the board and identify the constellation by drawing it out by connecting the stars with a dry erase marker. This tool provides a fun way to help students memorize the constellations.
The second tool is a survival guide card to help the students use the stars and constellations to navigate out in nature. The card is approximately 2.5"x3.5" which is small enough for the students to carry it in their pockets if they go camping or spend some time outside at night or to keep in their backpacks. Some of the information included is that Orions belt points east to west, how to use the light of the moon to determine east/west and using a two sticks to determine north/south/west. It's a tool that contains important information that could be used for survival situations or fun outdoors, in a compact size to take with anywhere.
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