Ideas on Learning About Space & Stars for Children

Learning about space and stars motivates students.

Teaching the topic of space and stars gives teachers an opportunity to inspire students. Learning about the solar system and the vastness of space can have a profound effect on students. An article in the "International Journal of Research and Method in Education" calls this promoting the WOW factor, the wonder of the world. A positive learning experience that inspires awe can have a huge impact on a student's attitude toward learning.

Create Your Own Solar System

This needs to be done outside on the school grounds. Assign each student a planet, star or moon from our solar system. Older students can research facts about their planet, star or moon and find out the distances between them. If your students are younger, you will need to find this information yourself.

Go outside and become the solar system, working out a scale to show the distances and positions of planets, stars and moons. Students need to place themselves in the position that their planet, moon or star would be in relation to the other planets, moons and stars. This helps children to learn the order of planets. It also helps children to get an idea of the sheer distances involved in space, which can be awe-inspiring.

Find Out the Facts

Use the Internet to find facts.

Again, assign each student, or a group of students, a planet or a moon. Students need to produce a report on this planet or moon to present to the rest of the class. Older students could produce a PowerPoint presentation. Students find out as many facts as they can, using books and the Internet to research. This helps to develop their independent learning skills. Provide guidance to keep them on track: a list of things they must find out, for example planet size, distance from Earth and temperature.

Starry Night Sleepover

Have a sleepover at school.

If your school and parents will allow it, and if other staff members will help, have a sleepover at school. This takes some organizing, but it is a wonderful, motivating and fun experience for students. Students come to school in the evening in their pajamas with sleeping bags. When it is dark, go outside and look at the sky. Do this in small groups if you have enough adults to help. To really make the experience memorable, get hold of a telescope or even have an astronomer work with the students. This activity provides a memorable, positive experience for students.

Links to Other Subjects

Develop students' questioning and thinking skills.

Work out distances between planets in math. Calculate how long it would take you to travel to Mars or the moon. Students enjoy working with big numbers; using practical math skills to engage with a subject such as space connects math with the real world, giving it a context. Link to literacy through writing adventure stories about space or time travel. Read fiction books about space. The sense of awe and wonder that students feel when thinking about space and the universe can be used in developing their thinking skills and higher-level questioning. Encourage students to consider their place in the world. Get them thinking about their sense of identity, relationships with others and with other planets. Ask questions such as, Is there other life in the universe? If so, how does that affect me? If not, how does that make me feel?

References

• "International Journal of Research and Method in Education"; The WOW Factor: Spiritual Development Through Science; 2002
• PBS: Activity -- TimeTravel to the Edge of the Universe and Back
• Enchanted Learning; Writing a Planet Report
• "The Teaching of Science in the Primary School"; Wynne Harlen, et al.; 2007