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I'm looking a possibly doing a "light" high school course in astronomy for dd. She did Derek Owens Physical Science last year and really enjoyed the astronomy section at the end.

 

She's doing biology this year, and I thought she would do algebra-based physics next year (doing Algebra 1 this year), but I foresee a time crunch, and I don't want to rush through science courses.

 

She'll still be an 8th grader, but I'm looking for a meatier course than what is commonly found in middle school. She did CPO Earth with some space in 5th (I think. I remember covering the basics of astronomy that year, and she's pretty solid on basic astronomy.)

 

Preferably a textbook, possibly supplemented with videos (my library has some limited Great Courses through Hoopla, and some of the well known "space" DVD's if you can recommend any for supplements).

 

Does this exist?

 

Thanks!

Edited by elladarcy
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Someone recommended Signs & Seasons: Understanding the Elements of Classical Astronomy to me once, and I thought it looked like an interesting curriculum.  In the end we weren't able to squeeze in Astronomy so didn't use it.  But this is it, in case you're interested!  It does have Christian content:

 

http://classicalastronomy.com/products/signs-seasons/

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My DH is looking at teaching a coop Astronomy course if there is not enough interest in a Navigation class. Googling 'high school astronomy syllabus' is helpful for seeing what textbooks are out there. (Most look like they don't use a text.) The next step is to check texts if your library has them or can get them for you. (Ours doesn't have them and our interlibrary loan is $$.)

 

DH assumes the kids have had trig, so math won't be a driver for him like it might be for you.

 

He doesn't have a text picked, but I wanted to wish you luck and share what he has tried so far.

 

Also this thread may have some text and video ideas: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/240312-earth-scienceastronomy-curricula/

 

And some interesting discussion in this thread: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/616843-astronomy/

Edited by RootAnn
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I'm doing a light Introduction to Astronomy course for my son for 9th grade. Here is what we do. Take from it what you will. :)

 

The Great Courses:

 

Understanding the Universe

Our Night Sky

 

The courses come with Course Books and each lecture has 2 or 3 questions to answer. He answers those questions after he watches each lecture.

 

Books:

 

The Stars by HA Rey (the author also wrote Curious George books, but The Stars used to be used in MIT's astronomy course, so we use it with pride.)

Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson: a series of essays he wrote for various publications

Rocket Boys: the movie October Sky was based on this book. It's an autobiography by a NASA rocket scientist and how he wanted to learn rocketry and his family was against it and pretty unhelpful, but one teacher managed to get him a book about it and he learned it on his own.

 

Activities:

 

I found 8 activities to do for fun. I'm not on the laptop so I can't get to the links, but if you're interested quote back at me and I'll look them up for you. I'll tell you what three are from memory (without links) because we've done them:

 

1. An activity that proves the moon's phases are not caused by the earth's shadow on the moon, which is what most people think.

2. An activity where you look at eggs and find the differences in them. You draw the eggs on paper and then mix up the papers and exchange them with someone. Then you have to match the papers to the egg. Why? Because a lot of astronomy is looking at little white dots in the sky and finding differences among them.

3. An activity with a calendar where if Jan 1 is the Big Bang and Dec 31st at 11:59:59 is now, when did things happen? Like the formation of the solar system, first mammals on earth, etc. My son really liked that one because he was waaaaay off. Turns out that all human history from about 6000 BCE until now took place in the last 15 seconds on the calendar.

Edited by Garga
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Teaching dd astronomy this year using:

 

The Great Courses :  Understanding the Universe  (Dad and her discuss after each viewing)

Astronomy for Dummies (She gives a oral or written narration from this)

The Stars by H.A. Rey  (A little bit of reading but mostly a good reference)

 

Her reading for now:

Great Astronomers by Sir Robert Ball

Galileo and the Magic Numbers by Sidney Rosen

will be adding to this as I can

 

Dad and her will be star gazing (dh has telescopes), going to the planetarium, and hopefully attend some events with an amateur astronomers club.

HTH

Blessings,

Pat 

 

 

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My son has watched any documentary he can find on TV. This includes cable, Netflix, and Amazon. He also watched stuff on Great Courses Plus when we had it. He also has books. I know this is silly, but the Star Trek Guide to the Universe is his current favorite. But he has other books too. There is also an observatory and a few planetariums within just more than an hour from here that we have been to. So I guess it is sort of a home grown course where he leads the way.

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Another vote for Great Courses Astronomy.  DD really liked it.  Also:

 

Astronomy: A Self Teaching Guide

https://www.amazon.com/Astronomy-Self-Teaching-Eighth-Teaching-Guides/dp/1620459906/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474738685&sr=8-1&keywords=astronomy+self-teaching+guide

 

Also Crash Course on YouTube has an astronomy course.  Just google "crash course astronomy"

 

When ready for deeper math:

A Student's Guide to the Mathematics of Astronomy  (this book was priceless! I recommend it often.)  This book is accompanied by a website showing worked solutions.  

https://www.amazon.com/Students-Guide-Mathematics-Astronomy/dp/1107610214/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474738847&sr=8-1&keywords=student%27s+guide+to+mathematics+of+astronomy

 

Website: http://www.danfleisch.com/sgmoa/

 

Edited by goldberry
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The Stars by HA Rey (the author also wrote Curious George books, but The Stars used to be used in MIT's astronomy course, so we use it with pride.)

 

I'm adding this to our book list.  We start Astronomy (with a little Earth Science) next week.  We're using:

 

Signs and Seasons: Understanding the Elements of Classical Astronomy

Signs and Seasons Field Manual

Smithsonian: The Planets

The Stars (H.A. Rey)

Cosmos series 

Smithsonian: Earth

Eric Sloane's Weather Book

Celestron Astronomical Binoculars

 

I was hoping we could read A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking...I think it might be too difficult for my kids, though.  I'm going to get it from the library and see.

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Another vote for Great Courses Astronomy.  DD really liked it.  Also:

 

When ready for deeper math:

A Student's Guide to the Mathematics of Astronomy  (this book was priceless! I recommend it often.)  This book is accompanied by a website showing worked solutions.  

https://www.amazon.com/Students-Guide-Mathematics-Astronomy/dp/1107610214/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474738847&sr=8-1&keywords=student%27s+guide+to+mathematics+of+astronomy

 

Website: http://www.danfleisch.com/sgmoa/

 

What's the assumed math level for the Mathematics of Astronomy? She'll be done with Algebra 1, which has an intro to Trig at the end.

 

Unfortunately, the Great Course is not one of the ones available through the library. How low do the sale prices go? It's at $229 right now for DVD's. I could enroll her in BYU Online High School's online class for less than that.

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What's the assumed math level for the Mathematics of Astronomy? She'll be done with Algebra 1, which has an intro to Trig at the end.

 

Unfortunately, the Great Course is not one of the ones available through the library. How low do the sale prices go? It's at $229 right now for DVD's. I could enroll her in BYU Online High School's online class for less than that.

Look into Great Courses Plus.

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Could you share the link to this activity, pretty please?

 

 

I have cut and pasted my notes on astronomy activities we will do this year.  

 

We have already done the first three.  

 

#1 is the one you are interested in.  The Khan academy link (the last one for #1) is really helpful.  You can pause the animation and then move the moon to different spots so you can study what it looks like in each place you move it. 

 

#7 is one project with three options.  We will be doing the Large scale one, where we'll walk 1.6 miles in our town, chalking in planets at the appropriate distances from the sun.

 

 

1*Phases of the moon (here's a video showing how we could do it.  Another one suggests doing it outside when the moon is visible in the daytime.)

In room with lamp one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz01pTvuMa0

Daytime one: http://astrosociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/DaytimeMoon.pdf

Phases of the moon: how you can see a new moon at night.  https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/nasa/measuringuniverse/spacemath1/p/animate-phases-of-the-moon

 

2*If the entire hx of the universe was represented as a calendar, then when did certain events occur: http://www.astrosociety.org/edu/astro/act2/H2_Cosmic_Calendar.pdf

 

3*Remember the egg.  Teaches the eye to look for variations on smooth white surfaces.  http://www.astrosociety.org/education/remember-the-egg/

 

4*Light pollution (will look at the same constellation at different places to see if they can see more of the stars when it's darker. http://www.astrosociety.org/edu/publications/tnl/44/lightpoll4.html#4

 

?*Maybe: chart how a star's magnitude gets brighter and dimmer over a month of time. http://www.astrosociety.org/edu/publications/tnl/32/starscience3.html

 

5*High school level crater demonstrations.  Just need a bunch of supplies and then can do this pretty easily.

http://www.astrosociety.org/edu/publications/tnl/23/crater2.html

 

6*How high is space?  Calculate and make a drawing to actual scale.

http://www.astrosociety.org/edu/activities/I11_How_High_Space.pdf

 

7*Show a scale of how far the planets are from each other using 1 meter of paper. (SMALL)

http://astrosociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/PocketSolarSystem.pdf

*Show a scale of how far the planets are from each other using a 200 sheet roll of TP  (MEDIUM)

http://www.astrosociety.org/edu/family/materials/toiletpaper.pdf

*Show a scale of how far the planets are from each other, bigger.  Will take 1.6 miles of length: (LARGE)

http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/solar_system/index.html

Amazon link to feet measuring wheel so know how far to walk between planets.  https://www.amazon.com/1000FT-Walking-Counter-Survey-Measuring/dp/B004L181E6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

 

8*See sunspots.  Use tracing paper to see how they change over a period of time.

http://astrosociety.org/edu/publications/tnl/05/stars2.html

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What's the assumed math level for the Mathematics of Astronomy? She'll be done with Algebra 1, which has an intro to Trig at the end.

 

Unfortunately, the Great Course is not one of the ones available through the library. How low do the sale prices go? It's at $229 right now for DVD's. I could enroll her in BYU Online High School's online class for less than that.

 

 

I got mine for $114. 

 

I'm not sure what the least price would be.  I bought it in February.  Maybe it goes on sale every Feb?  I don't know how they work it.  

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They also illustrate this in the first episode of Cosmos (it's on Netflix).

 

Yes! They do! My dh started watching that before we did the activity. He had to do some fast dodging to pause the show every time my son walked in the room. I didn't want him to spoil the activity.

 

My son was way off when we finally did it and had the telescope being invented in September. I mean, who would have guessed that all of the history we learn about in World history happened in the last 15 seconds of the year? The telescope was invented 8 seconds before the end of the year.

 

It was a simple activity, but had a big impact.

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