Activities

Hands-on and online activities.

Hands-On Activities

The Sun in the Sky: Daily Motion

• Solar Clock - Build your own paper sundial and tell the time of day by using the Sun.
• Mount Nose - Demonstrate the spinning of the Earth and how it creates night and day

The Sun in the Sky: Seasonal Motion

• Ancient Sun Observations - Make your own Sun tracker to explore how ancient civilizations around the world studied the Sun
• Kinesthetic Astronomy - Through simple body movements, learners gain insight into the relationship between time and motions of Earth
• Make Your Own El Castillo - Build a foam core model of the great pyramid at Chichen Itza used to celebrate solar events
• Solar Alignments at El Castillo - Use a model to recreate alignments of the Sun with the great pyramid of Chichen Itza
• Seasons of Solar Panels - Use a globe and solar cells to demonstrate how solar energy reaching the Earth changes with the seasons

The Sun: Structure

• Solar Cookies - Create your own edible representation of the Sun using cookies and other baking materials
• Electromagnetic Spectrum - Create your own poster describing the electromagnetic spectrum and some everyday sources and detectors of the different wavelengths of light
• Detecting Invisible Light - Explore different wavelengths of light at stations to determine what can shield or transmit those kinds of light.

Earth

• Edible Earth - Make a model of the Earth's interior that you can eat! (AMNH)
• Invisible Light: Ultraviolet - Experiment with UV sensitive beads to find out what is an effective shield for this invisible form of light that the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will use to study Earth's exosphere
• Exploring Magnetism 2.2 - Explore how electric current creates magnetic fields
• Exploring Magnetism 2.5 - Explore how moving magnets create electric currents
• Turning the air upside down - Experiment with fluids at different temps (TeachEngineering)

Space Weather

• Sun-Earth Scale Model - Use a paper model of the Sun and Earth to demonstrate their relative sizes and the enormous distance between them
• Exploring Magnetic Field Lines - Use a compass to create a map of the magnetic field around a bar magnet.

Eclipse

• How does the Small Moon hide the big Sun? - Using physical models, learners explore how something small can block your view of something larger
• Moon Phases and Eclipse Demonstration - Video demonstration of how to model Moon phases and eclipses using a ball on a stick and a bright light source
• Modeling Meaningful Eclipses - Using a yardstick, learners can model eclipses and discover why they don’t happen every month.
• Pinhole Sun Viewer - A safe, simple, creative, and effective way to observe the Sun during a partial eclipse

The Sun Touches Everything

• "Where Does the Energy Come From?" cards. Discover the source of energy used in everyday activities

Space Science Careers

• Draw a Scientist (from California Academy of Sciences)

Online Activities

The Sun in the Sky: Daily Motion

• Stellarium - Software for desktops, mobile devices, and web browsers that simulates the sky from anywhere on Earth across thousands of years.
• Daily Motion & Moon Phase Simulator - explore how the spinning Earth creates day, night and the motion of the Sun in the sky plus how the orbiting Moon creates the phases of the Moon (from WGBH Boston)

The Sun in the Sky: Seasonal Motion

• Seasons Interactive - This simulator (from LHS SEPUP) demonstrates how the tilt of Earth’s rotation axis creates variations in daylight hours and temperature throughout the year
• Seasons Simulator - This simulator from Khan Academy demonstrates how the tilt of Earth’s rotation axis creates variations in daylight hours and sunlight intensity throughout the year

The Sun

• Helioviewer: Explore real image data of the Sun from different spacecraft

Earth

• Earthquake Map - See an interactive map of earthquakes around the world, both recent and past, from the USGS