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Leocea
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| Posted: Jan 02 2008 at 7:23pm | IP Logged
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Our Summit Academy co-op is studying planets this month.
Does anyone have any great ideas? We have some plans, and a model set for the planets. I am wondering about some things to do outside, even though it is COLD here,brr. Any favorite things?
I know where Orion is, but that is it so far. I am amazed at my lack of education sometimes, lol.
I have learned more from homeschooling than I ever did in school.
In Christ,
Leocea
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MacBeth
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| Posted: Jan 02 2008 at 8:01pm | IP Logged
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Hey Leocea!
I have an Astronomy page that might help as a launching point...I'm sure other folks have some great tried-and-true ideas, too.
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God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Jan 02 2008 at 9:14pm | IP Logged
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How many kids and what ages? What is your timeframe?
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Theresa
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Rachel May
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| Posted: Jan 03 2008 at 7:29am | IP Logged
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Great timing because I want some ideas too! For 10 down to 5 and we'll only spend a week formally, but that's all we'll do for the whole week.
By the way, we watched Star of Bethlehem last night. This man's theory is that the Star is actually Jupiter which goes into retrograde around Regulus 3 times (explaining how a star both moved and stopped and stayed), but he has a lot more to say than that. It's for an older crowd--high school?
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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Leocea
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| Posted: Jan 04 2008 at 9:49am | IP Logged
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Theresa,
The unit is technically for the month of January. I have a ninth grader, fourth grader and kindergartener.
I am looking for mostly things to do with our own family, not at the co-op, to clarify.
We were in the car last night, and we think we saw planets, but we aren't sure what is and what isn't. I have a few charts from books, but I have a hard time picking out the constellations, too.
One video said that you can see the rings of Saturn with binoculars?!?
Thanks!
In Christ,
Leocea
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Jan 04 2008 at 10:37am | IP Logged
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Ok, I see.
I highly recommend the book 365 Starry Nights. We have used it in the past and have started it over again this year. It goes through the calendar year, starting Jan 1, and points out what you will see night by night. Very clear and easy to follow, with enough meat to keep your 9th grader interested. You can jump in any time of the year, so don't worry if you don't start at the beginning.
Planets are a different story, as far as spotting, as they are ever changing.For that I think the website stardateis a great place to go find out what is happenening out there each night.
They also have some teacher resources and lesson plans, mostly for high school, I believe.
For some excellent resources and lesson plans for all ages, I highly recommend you explore the NASA site. Tons of excellent stuff there on the educator pagesincluding full units with great activities. Almost overwhelming the amount of stuff there.They also have student pages, again, tons of good things there.
I've never been able to see Saturn's rings with binoculars, but mine are not high powered or very good at all, really. I think you could with an excellent pair. We definitely can see them with our telescope, though.
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Theresa
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MaryM
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| Posted: Jan 10 2008 at 1:23am | IP Logged
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You mention it being cold - do you have snow? An idea I had is to make snowballs of differing sizes (small to very large) to represent the planets and their relative sizes. Then arrange them in order and relative distance from each other in a big open area. You could use spray bottles of colored water to color them so they represented the planets and stood out from the white snow. A nice big visual representation of the solar system.
This is a book I've recommended here several times for astronomy study. The Way the Universe Works from DK Publishing is a thorough book on things related to the universe. I like that it has everything in one place - solar system, individual planets, stars, galaxies. The illustrations are colorful and engaging (include both photos and drawings). Each page is a mosaic of information - explaining different aspects of the universe, properties of space, technology, and space veiwing in small chunks (also includes some and biography) - typical of the DK formats. What really impressed me was the great experiments and demonstrations that dovetail with each topic. There are 60 demonstrations/experiments in the book. All are pretty straight forward using equipment from around the house. It's one of the best collections of experiments I've seen - very visually appealing.
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Heliodora
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| Posted: Jan 10 2008 at 2:10am | IP Logged
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There is a nice online application here that teaches you how to identify Orion, Betelgeuse, Big Dipper, Little Dipper and Cassiopeia, as well as how to tell which direction is north.
There is also a great free program called Stellarium which you may download to your computer. It will give you the night sky for ANY day or time past, present, or future, and has tons of tools to use to identify the night sky. It is really easy to use. It even has a night mode so you can take it out on your laptop to help you view the stars. We love, love, love it.
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stacykay
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Do you live near any colleges? We have a community college less than 1/2 an hour away with an amazing planetarium. Another at a major university, which is a half hour drive. There are also two observatories in our area. So, I guess I am suggesting to check out your local colleges. 
Oh, the observatory idea would entail a late evening, but as a once in a blue moon thing, it would be exciting to stay up late and see cool things. We have done that for August meteor showers, driving far out to the country to avoid city lights. Always a thrill. 
God Bless,
Stacy in MI
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organiclilac
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| Posted: Jan 10 2008 at 1:53pm | IP Logged
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Ds and I had a lot of fun helping real astronomers classify galaxies at Galaxy Zoo. You have to take a tutorial and a test, and after than you can classify as many as you like.
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Tracy, wife to Shawn, mama to Samuel (4/01) and Joseph (11/11), and Thomas (2/15)
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marihalojen
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| Posted: Jan 11 2008 at 7:26am | IP Logged
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We try to watch Jack Horkheimer's Star Gazer every now and again to get a quick and easy to understand heads up on what is going on over our heads at night.
Weekly updates, in 1 or 5 minute versions so you can fit to the attention spans in your family! 
Can you believe Jack has been doing this for 25 years? He's won the Classic Telly Award now! If you're ever in Miami a visit to the Miami Science Museum will probably net you a glimpse of the man, we've met him a few times and he is nice, BIG with a personality that fills the room, but nice. He'll squat down and talk to kids on their level and has no patience for rowdy behavior during a lecture (we were there during summer camp once and he sent the disrupters out of the auditorium  ) The material he handed out to the Upper Elem. level was fabulous, not dumbed down at all. 
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Planet/astronomy unit ideas?
