in Astronomy 
in Astronomy
Elementary
and Middle School Students
High
School Students
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The
following labs are from the University of Gettysburg's Project Clea-Contemporary
Laboratory Experiences in Astronomy. They are suitable for high
school and college astronomy classes. The software to run the programs
can be downloaded from the University
of Gettysburg's home page website free of charge.
The Revolution of the Moons of Jupiter
Radar Measurements of the Rotation Rate of Mercury
The Flow of Energy Out of the Sun
The Classification of Stellar Spectra
Photoelectric Photometry of the Pleiades
Center for Educational Resources (CERES) Project
Through funding from NASA, faculty at Montana State University and classroom teachers from across the nation have developed an extensive library of on-line and interactive K-12 science education materials for teaching astronomy. Closely aligned with the NRC National Science Education Standards, these web based lessons make maximum use of exciting on-line NASA resources, data, and images. In addition to classroom ready materials using contemporary teaching strategies, CERES has developed several on-line NASA data search engines and two graduate level distance learning courses, available over the internet to K-12 teachers. The following activities were taken from this website for PWCS teachers and students to use. They are grouped according to grade level but the activites may apply to more than the grade level specified, based on teacher evaluation!
Grades
K-4 
Birthday
Moons
Students
become familiar with lunar phases by locating and then graphing the moon
phase of their birthdays. After listening and discussing lunar myths and
legends they create
their
own Birthday Moon Story.
Sky
Paths
Studying
the Movement of Celestial Objects Grades k-4 By using these
activities in K-4 students will have the concrete experiences of observing,
organizing, comparing, and describing the movement of objects that they
observe in the sky.
Learning
Planet Sizes
In this
activity, learners use the concepts of greater than, less than, and equals
to classify student height, object size, and planet size. They will build
scale models of the planets based on their discoveries of planet size.
MoonQuest
Students
explore Moon legends and data by forming expert teams and sharing knowledge.
Grades
5-8 
Investigating
the Changing Polar Ice Caps
Students
explore seasonal changes on Mars and Earth by analyzing images of the polar
ice caps in summer and winter.
Planet
Paths: Studying Planetary Orbital Paths.
This
activity is designed to help students understand that planets travel in
nearly circular orbits around the sun and that planetary motion obeys laws
defined by Kepler and Newton.
Polar
Caps: Image Processing Tutorial
In this
step-by-step tutorial, students learn to use computer image processing
techniques.
Changing
Faces: A Study of Solar and Planetary Rotation Rates
Students
examine images of the Sun and planets to determine their rotation rates.
Mars
Quest
Students
team up to create a travel brochure to Mars describing the Martian atmosphere,
climate, topography, and mythology.
How
Much Do You Weigh on Distant Planets?
Students
study the effects of gravity on the planets of the Solar System
Digital
Images: From Satellites to the Internet
Students
create digital images from binary data sets and design information transfer
systems.
Analyzing
Meteorological Data From Mars
Students
compare real-time Earth and Mars weather measurements for temperature,
wind speed, humidity and atmospheric pressure by accessing Internet data
resources from NASA.
Grades
9-12 
Sun's
Impact on Earth's Temperature
Students
manipulate graphical computer models to determine the effect of distance,
albedo, and greenhouse effectiveness on planet temperature.
The
Expanding Universe
Students
create a balloon model of the expanding universe and review Hubble Space
Telescope measurements that are refining estimates for the age of the universe.
Galactic
Inquiry
Students
view NASA images of galaxies and develop a galaxy classification scheme.
Students then compare and contrast their classification scheme with that
developed by Edwin Hubble.
Life
Cycle of Stars
Students
analyze characteristics that indicate human life cycles, and then apply
these observational principles to various NASA pictures of stars to synthesize
patterns of stellar life cycles.
Mountain
Quest
Students
divide into five research teams to make recommendations for building a
new observatory for NASA.
Searching
for Protoplanetary Disks
Students
will download NASA Hubble Space Telescope views of star-forming regions
in nebulae and look for evidence of planetary systems forming beyond our
own solar system.
Astronomy With a Stick--Daytime Astronomy for Elementary and Middle School Students
AWS Unit One Introduction Tracking A Moving Shadow
Activity
One
Objective:
To observe the movement of a shadow and its changing length over a period
of time.
Activity
Two
Objective:
To construct a compass rose and find directions.
Activity
Three
Objective:
To use a compass rose to determine azimuth of the sun.
Activity
Four
Objective:
To show that the sun reaches its highest altitude at solar noon.
AWS
Unit Two Introduction The Rise and Fall of Daylight Hours 
Activity
One
Objective:
To compute the change in the amount of daylight from day to day.
Activity
Two
Objective:
To construct a line graph showing the changing times throughout the year
for sunrise and sunset at your location.
Activity
Three
Objective:
To construct a 24-hour clock to be used as a pie graph to show daylight
verses nighttime hours.
AWS
Unit Three Introduction Making and Using Models
Activity
One
Objective:
To construct a longitude-latitude grid on a sphere.
Activity
Two
Objective:
To demonstrate the effect of the inclined angle of the Earth's equator
with respect to the plane of its orbit on the distribution of daylight
on the Earth's surface.
Eyes
on the Sky, Feet on the Ground (From
Havard University)
Teachers
should evaluate each activity to determine which activities would be appropriate
for each grade level.
Chapter
One The Earth's Rotation
Activities
Within Chapter One
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Activities
WIthin Chapter Two
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Chapter
3 Time and the Calendar
Activities
Within Chapter Three
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Activities
Within Chapter Four
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Activities
Within Chapter Five
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Activities
Within Chapter Six
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