The Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary - February Class


Stars

Exploring the night sky.  We will have a presentation that discusses the history of "star gazing", the life cycle of stars, and the five Northern Circumpolar constellations.

The workshop for this program consists of 2 parts:

For project number 1 - The children trace, cut and paste materials together to construct their own star wheel chart.
These materials are all provided by the sanctuary.

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First they cut out the pieces of the star chart.

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   Then they trace them onto a stiffer paper

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The finished project is then fastened together.

For project number 2 - The children trace the pattern of their favorite circumpolar constellation.  It is then taped to the bottom of a can on which the star pattern is hammered out.  Upon completion, they test their new "projector" with flashlights on our classroom screen.
Each child must bring an empty tall Pringles Chip container (these work the best) in order to do this workshop.

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First they trace the constellation of their choice.

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Next they place it on the end of the Pringles can and using a nail and hammer, nail holes were the stars are.
light.JPG (43170 bytes) Now they are ready to see their constellation. In a dark room,  hold a flashlight at an angle, just a little ways into the can, and project it onto a flat surface.

   A great Website to check out is: http:www.fourmilab.to/cgi-bin/uncgi/Yoursky