STARGAZING LIVE Study Guide for Primary School Teachers - Look Up and Tune in to the Universe - ABC Education
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STARGAZING
Study Guide for
LIVE
Primary School Teachers
Look Up and Tune in to the Universe
STARGAZING LIVE : Study Guide for Primary School Teachers 1
About Stargazing Live
with Professor Brian Cox
Did you know that Australia is one of the best places in the world to look at the night sky?
Here we can see up to 100 times more stars than the Northern Hemisphere, because we
look directly into the vast heart of the Milky Way.
This May, renowned physicist Professor Brian Cox will inspire the nation to look up
in Stargazing Live. The three-part ABC series will be broadcast from Siding Spring
Observatory – Australia’s premier observatory, a UNESCO certified Dark Field site,
and a world leading facility in the search for planets orbiting distant stars.
It’s on ABC TV, ABC iview, ABC TV Facebook and YouTube channels on the
22, 23, 24 May 2018.
abc.net.au/stargazing
#StargazingABC
Siding Spring Observatory
STARGAZING LIVE : Study Guide for Primary School Teachers ABC OPEN contributor: Jane
2
Thousands of galaxies, image taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope
Understanding the numbers
Space is huge! The Sun is so large that the Earth would fit inside it more than a million times.
There are more than 100 billion stars in our galaxy and more than 100 billion galaxies in
the universe.
Some of these numbers are so large that they seem to lose their meaning. To help students
gain a sense of perspective, you could have a conversation about counting.
• Estimate how long it would take you to count to 1,000 – about 12 minutes.
• How long would it take you to count to a million? If you were to count at a speed of one number
per second for 10 hours every day, counting to a million would take you about three weeks.
• If you think that’s a lot of counting, to get to a billion you could count for 12 hours every day
and it would still take you more than 50 years.
100 billion? Let’s not even start...
But don’t forget that the universe is so amazingly
huge that despite the trillions of stars it contains,
it is almost completely empty. The distances
between the stars are inconceivably large and
the distance between galaxies even bigger.
NUMBER DEFINITIONS
- A million is a thousand thousands.
- A billion is 1,000,000,000 – a thousand million.
Artist’s concept of the Milky Way galaxy: NASA
STARGAZING LIVE : Study Guide for Primary School Teachers 3
Lesson One: The Solar System
then which might represent the size of the Moon.
(For a 60cm beach ball Sun, the Earth is a blueberry and
the Moon is a coriander seed or tiny bead. For a 30cm
soccer ball sized Sun, the Earth is a coriander seed or tiny
bead and the Moon a tiny piece of sticky tack.)
Venus in transit across the face of the sun 2012 : NASA
Objectives
To know that the Sun, Earth, Moon and
Planets are approximately spherical.
Ask the children to hold the Earth and the Moon stuck on
To know their relative sizes and the the end of pencils using sticky tack. Ask a third child to
relative distances between them. hold the Sun. Then ask them to stand in the classroom to
show how far apart the Earth, Sun and Moon are.
Child Friendly Outcome
(For a 60cm beach ball Sun, the Earth is 35m away and the
To describe the shape and the size of the Earth, Moon is less than 1mm from the Earth. For a 30cm soccer
Sun and Moon and how far apart they are in space.
ball sized Sun, the Earth is 12m away and the Moon is less
than 1mm from the Earth.)
For effect, repeatedly ask the child holding the Sun to move
To start
back towards the classroom door until they have to open it
Ask three or four children to tell the class an interesting
and step outside. Alternatively take the class outside, or to
fact they know about the Earth, Sun or Moon (for example
the school hall, to demonstrate these distances.
it takes eight minutes for light to reach the Earth from
the Sun). Note
Ask the children what they would like to find out The children will probably be surprised by the huge
about the Earth, Sun and Moon. Then ask them to write distances compared to the small size of the Earth. You
questions on sticky notes and stick them to a class could explain that space is called space because there is
questions poster. Read out some of the questions. so much space out there. Explain that it took astronauts
three days to get to the Moon and it would take several
Activity months to get to the Sun even in a rocket travelling at
Ask the children in groups to put the Earth, Moon and Sun over six kilometres every second.
in order of size by choosing from a range of spheres e.g.
beach ball, soccer ball, tennis ball, ping-pong ball, marble, Assessment
peppercorn, coriander seed, tiny beads. Do the children Give the children long thin strips of paper e.g. A4 cut into
understand that the Sun is larger than the Earth and that quarters lengthways. Ask them to make a quick sketch of
the Moon is smaller? the Earth, Sun and Moon. Do the sketches show that the
Earth and Moon are much smaller than the Sun and that
Choose the largest sphere and explain that it represents
they are very far away?
the size of the Sun. Ask the children to suggest which
sphere might represent the correct size of the Earth and
STARGAZING LIVE : Study Guide for Primary School Teachers 4
To finish up
Show the class the ABC Education video “Make a mini
solar system”. Bernie, the presenter, demonstrates the
scale of the solar system in a sports field. You can ask
your class the following questions:
Do you know the name of the biggest star in our
solar system?
Can you name all of the planets in our solar system?
How many are there?
The hypergiant star, VY Canis majoris, is many times
bigger than the Sun. How much bigger is it? What is the
meaning of its name?
Extension
Use our digibook to further explore the solar system.
Learn about asteroids & comets, hear from an astronaut Artist’s concept of our solar system showing a
sense of scale and distance.: NASA
and go on a mission to Mars.
STARGAZING LIVE : Study Guide for Primary School Teachers 5
Lesson Two: The Earth’s Axis
One child holds the whiteboard vertically; the other
shines the torch at the board. The first child draws a
circle round the light beam on the whiteboard. Next
the whiteboard is tilted towards the horizontal. Ask the
children to watch what happens to the size of the circle
of light – it spreads out. Ask them to draw around the new
shape. Talk with the children about what has happened to
the amount of the Sun’s energy falling on the house – it is
less when the whiteboard is tilted away because the light
is more spread out – this is like winter. When the board is
tilted towards the torch the light is more concentrated –
like summer.
Note
It is a common misconception that it is warmer because
the tilt makes us closer to the Sun in summer but
Image credit: ABC Science
in reality the distances are so great this makes no
difference. (If being slightly closer to the Sun made it
warmer then it would be warmer at the tops of mountains
Objectives
not cooler.)
To know how day and night are related to the spin
of the Earth on its own axis. Extension
To understand that the seasons are caused by the Find out more about the immense power of the sun and
tilt of the Earth’s axis. see what sunset looks like from different planets in our
solar system.
To know that the Earth orbits the Sun once a year.
education.abc.net.au/home#!/media/1567889/the-
Child Friendly Outcome immense-power-of-the-sun
To describe the movement of the Earth around the Head to NASA’s education page and find out what caused
Sun and how long these movements take.
the Earth to tilt spaceplace.nasa.gov/seasons/en/
To start
Either as a class or in small groups use our interactive
online resource to turn the Earth and find out how the
Earth’s rotation is related to night and time of day.
Answer a series of questions by experimenting with the
model. For example, when the Sun rises in New Zealand,
what is the approximate time in Sydney?
Activity
Ask the children what they know about the seasons. Are
they the same everywhere on Earth?
Ask the children to work in pairs using a torch and a small
whiteboard. Ask them to draw a small house in the centre
of the whiteboard.
STARGAZING LIVE : Study Guide for Primary School Teachers Image credit: NASA 66
Lesson Three: Telescopes
water. Why do the marbles not look larger now? Can they
predict what they might see if the glass was not curved?
The flat surface of the water is like a window, the curved
side is like a magnifying glass.
Activity 2
Ask the children to use magnifying glasses to look at
familiar objects, pencils, text etc. Ask them to look at the
shape of the lens. Can they explain that the magnifying
glass only works because the lens is curved?
Ask the children to hold up the magnifying glasses and
look through them at distant objects such as classroom
displays. This works best if they hold the magnifying glass
a short distance away from their eyes. Explain that if they
hold the magnifying glass at the correct distance from
Hubble Space Telescope: NASA their eye they should see a clear but upside down image
of what they are looking at. Ask them to imagine what
would happen if they used a second magnifying glass to
Objectives look closely at this upside down image. Can the children
suggest that using a magnifying glass should make the
To observe and explore how lenses can be used to
create a magnified image of an object. image appear larger?
To use scientific knowledge and understanding to
To finish up
explain observations.
Show the class the ABC Education video
“How Telescopes Work?”
Child Friendly Outcome
To how investigate how telescopes work.
Introduction
There are many different types of telescopes but the two
most basic and common types are reflector and refractor
telescopes. Reflectors use mirrors, whereas refractors use
lenses to gather light and magnify objects.
Refractors are amongst the earliest types of optical
telescopes. Because of their original design by Galileo
Galilei over 400 years ago, they are still known as Galilean ABC Education video “How Telescopes Work”
telescopes today.
Show the class the ABC Education video “Different Types
of Telescopes”
Activity 1
Give each group of children some marbles, a teaspoon
and a glass of water. Ask them to drop the marbles into
the glass and observe closely. Ask them to describe what
they see. What is making the marbles look larger? Can
they explain that the water is acting like a magnifying
glass? Ask them to look through the flat surface of the
STARGAZING LIVE : Study Guide for Primary School Teachers 7
Stargazing Live is being celebrated
across the ABC universe!
Keep an eye out for BtN’s Stargazing Special!
Take a look at ABC Education’s exciting astronomy topic with 22 resources for primary and secondary
students. Find videos about why stars twinkle, how much time light takes to travel through space, moon
eclipses, the sun’s weather and Earth’s place in the universe.
Find Professor Alan Duffy’s Stargazing Tips, an Indigenous Astronomy Study Guide, articles and more at
abc.net.au/stargazing.
“ Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet.
Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what
makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life
may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.
It matters that you don’t just give up.
”
Stephen Hawking
Theoretical physicist
1942 – 2018
STARGAZING LIVE : Study Guide for Primary School Teachers 8
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