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Doing Science activities with bare basics

This project, nicknamed SEE-SAW, is meant to provide opportunities for any student in any school to do science. Even for schools in the poor...

Saturday, December 28, 2019

Astronomy or Physics Activity - It can be as simple as looking up (in a night sky) for Meteor Showers

This particular activity does not require any lesson plan. It is really a reminder for us to not forget to every so often step back, take a deep breath, and enjoy and stand in awe of the natural world. But this includes looking up at night to observe the vastness and wonders of space.

For those teachers who want to ever do anything with astronomy, and have occasional access to the Internet at training sessions or other venues, this link will allow you to observe the earth in its orbit and see dates when we will have meteor showers. The site shows the earth as it passes through dust and rock clouds that are also in orbit around the sun, and intersect earth's orbit.

Take a look if possible, and write down/keep track of dates in the next year, and then you can suggest those evenings to students so they can go out in the evening and try to search for meteors! They can try to count how many they see, and also track which direction they are moving. This opens conversations and discussions in class as to what meteors are, why we have showers on occasion (and even if you do not have computers in your school, sketch out for students what you saw on this site so they understand why we have meteor showers as we pass through the clouds), the nature of orbits of countless objects around the sun besides the planets, the nature of air friction and why even rocks form 'fireballs' because they move so fast in the air and generate so much heat, and even how the solar system formed.

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