Activity Book of Contents (refers to table of contents in the pdf version) About EU Universe Awareness Introductory Note About Universe in a Box Objectives & Goals Audience Approach Handbook Materials Keys Training Credit Module 1: Our Fascinating Moon Introduction 1.1 Fact File on the Moon 1.2 Distance to the Moon 1.3 Lunar day 1.4 Lunar Landscape 1.5 Reflecting Moon 1.6 Lunar Phases Visualised 1.7 Lunar Phases Box Model 1.8 Lunar Phases in Action 1.9 Multicultural Moon 1.10 Moon Storytelling 1.11 Mini Research Project: Revolution of the Moon and Phases Module 2: The Earth, Our Home Planet Introduction 2.1 Spherical Earth 2.2 Up or Down 2.3 Our Home Planet 2.4 Day and Night 2.5 Seasons 2.6 Solar Eclipse 2.7 Lunar Eclipse Module 3: The Sun, Our Home Star Introduction 3 4 5 5 5 5 6 7 7 8 8 9 10 13 15 17 19 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 39 40 43 45 49 51 55 61 65 67 68
3.1 Apparent Size 3.2 Invisible 3.3 Sun’s Shadow 3.4 Sun’s Path and a Sundial 3.5 Varying day lengths 3.6 Solar Surface 3.7 Mini Research Project: Sun’s Rotation for incorporating the Sun into subjects Module 4: Our Solar System Introduction 4.1 Know Your Planets 4.2 Solar System Model 4.3 Seeing Planets 4.4 Asteroids 4.5 Planetary Orbits 4.6 Distances and Paths 4.7 Journey to Planets 4.8 Lighter or Heavier Related Subject Ideas Module 5: The of Constellations Introduction 5.1 Visibility of the Constellations 5.2 The Zodiac and Planetary Movements 5.3 Planisphere: A Turnable Star Map 5.4 Constellation Shapes 5.5 Viewing Constellations through Stories Appendix 71 75 79 81 87 91 95 99 101 102 105 111 113 117 121 125 129 133 137 139 140 143 147 149 153 157 161 About EU Universe Awareness EU Universe Awareness (EU-UNAWE) uses the beauty and grandeur of the Universe to encourage young children, particularly those from underprivileged communities, to take an interest in science and technology and to foster their sense of global citizenship from an early age. In its few years of existence, the UNAWE network is already active in over 54 countries and consists of more than 500 astronomers, teachers and educators.
1.2 Distance to the Moon Brief Description Use a to-scale model of the Earth and Moon. Learn to understand the relative distances between them. Keywords • Moon • Earth • Distance Materials • Globe (Box) • Moon sphere (Box) • Folding rule Learning Objectives about the relative distances of the Earth-Moon system. The Moon and the Earth circle around each other at an average distance of 384,400 kilometres. In many artist’s impressions, this length is pictured as much too small in relation to the sizes of both bodies. In reality, there is a lot of space between them: about 30 times the size of the Earth. Credit: ESA / DLR / Freie Universität Berlin Picture of the system, taken by the Mars Express in 2003 Full description Ask the children to compare the Moon and the Earth: How large is the Moon relative to Earth, and how distant are they from each other? Let them use a globe and a model of the Moon. We use a scale of 1:100,000,000 where a distance of 1 cm corresponds to a real distance of 1,000 km. The Moon is 384,400 km away from Earth, which corresponds in our model to a distance of 384.4 cm = 3.84 m. That seems surprisingly far apart! The reason for this is that the Moon is depicted as
Materials • Clay • Brushes • Paint Learning Objectives Learn about the characteristics and location of asteroids, and how planets and asteroids form. Background Science Asteroids are boulders orbiting the Sun, with sizes ranging between some hundred metres and several kilometres. Credit: NASA / JAXA / Arecibo / NSF / ESA An asteroid is called a meteorite if it hits the Earth. If it completely evaporates in the Earth’s atmosphere before crashing on the surface, it’s called a meteor. People usually refer to meteors as ‘shooting stars’. Most meteorites are predominantly composed of silicates or a mixture of iron and nickel. In the past, some huge meteorites have struck the Earth. Sixty-five million years ago, almost 90% of animal species were eradicated (among them the dinosaurs) when a meteorite hit Yucatan, Mexico. Luckily, this happens very rarely! We owe this to Jupiter, which attracts many asteroids with its gravitational pull. Many asteroids form rings or belts around the Sun. There are two asteroid belts in our Solar System: the main belt (or simply called asteroid belt) between Mars and Jupiter, with thousands of asteroids (see picture below), and the Kuiper belt, named after its discoverer, a disk-shaped region that extends outside of Neptune’s orbit and contains countless asteroids and many dwarf planets, of which Pluto is the most famous. Credit: UNAWE / C.Provot Full description Ask the children to take a piece of clay the size of their fist. Let them divide it into small pieces and place these fragments on a table. Now ask them to squeeze all the pieces together to form one large asteroid, without kneading it. Let them hit the clay chunk with the knuckle of a finger a few times. After washing their hands, they can paint the asteroid.