THREE-DIMENSIONAL ASTRONOMY FOR MIDDLE SCHOOLS

Many students at the middle school level are still concrete learners. Few are able to conceptualize outer space in three dimensions. This project is designed to facilitate that transition.

After accomplishing a series of activities to discover the nature of stars and their relationships within constellations, students each select one constellation from a list of 74. Students use multimedia resources to determine various attributes of each of the major stars in their constellations. These attributes include the star's catalog number, its Flamsteed-Bayer designation, apparent and absolute magnitudes, spectral class, Right Ascension and declination, distance from our sun in light years, and the star's name, if any.

Using a diagram of their constellation as a guide, students then construct a three-dimensional model. Stars are fashioned out of Styrofoam; are sized according to apparent magnitude, and are colored according to spectral class. Stars are then suspended within a cardboard box, properly aligned with the diagram, and spaced from the front of the box using a scale of 1 mm=1 light year.

Removing the sides of the box allows students to view their now familiar constellations from different angles, and demonstrates how differently their star field would appear when viewed from any other perspective.

I have found that this project lends itself nicely to all learning levels - from the profoundly learning-disabled, to the academically gifted.