Hi folks:
My Celestia educational Activities are getting a good amount of traffic and have been well received. I am working on a formal Educational Website to put them on, with some good looking backgrounds, flash animation, etc. Stay tuned.
The Activities were originally designed for a middle and high school audience, with a time line of perhaps 1 - 2 hours per Activity. As such, they are general tours only, introducing a student or user to the topic via the visual spendor of Celestia, but not being a comprehensive teaching tool. That is of course, a limitation.
I have, therefore, decided to fix that limitation and have begun writing an expanded and advanced version of some of the Activities. For example, I have just completed an enhanced version of Activity 3.2, which tours the Sun and inner solar system. The document has increased to 32 pages and takes the visitor on a comprehensive tour of the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, the Moon and Mars. I explain the origins of each body, many of their key features, some of the spacecraft that have visited them, etc. Celestia is used extensivly for demonstrations, flybys, eclipses, alignments and orbits, etc. The Question Worksheet has jumped from 2 pages to 5 pages of questions. In short, the Activity by itself, could provide a teacher all that is needed to describe the key features and characteristics of the planets visited. It has become a lot more than a short tour and requires about 3 hours to complete now (2 - 3 class sessions).
I will be posting it soon, along with an enhanced version of the outer solar system. Look for them on my website within the next 10 days.
I expect to also enhance Activity 1.2 and 2.2, which tour the universe. I want to focus even more on the size and scope of the universe. Selden has designed some new tools for doing so that I want to incorporate.
I am also still working on Activity 8.2 - the spacecraft of the solar system, which details many of the craft that have visited the planets, plus some of Hollywood's more famous spaceships.
Keep tuned.
Frank
Enhanced Educational Activities coming soon
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Topic authorfsgregs - Posts: 1307
- Joined: 07.10.2002
- With us: 22 years 5 months
- Location: Manassas, VA
Selden:
Thanks for your suggestion. That's a heck of a good idea. For example, for more advanced students, I could borrow an Activity from one of our forum members who also teaches Astronomy and has his students create their own solar system. He gives them a set of planet textures from some of the great add-ons on the forum and some basic instruction in ssc files, and then asks them to design their own solar system. They really enjoy playing "God" so to speak and they learn a lot about solar systems.
Another idea might be to assign students the task of researching and finding the "most impressive" set of multiple moon eclipses they can locate. For example, while writing the outer solar system activity, I was setting up a view of Europa in front of Jupiter when all of a sudden, Europa started to be eclipsed by another moon. It turned out to be Io. I was delighted and incorporated the cel:url in the Activity. It started me wondering. I presume there is such a thing as a triple eclipse, where three of Jupiter's moon line up and eclipse each other so to speak. I'm not sure where to find out if/hen that occurs, but it would make a great Extra Credit assignment (with 160 students all searching for the answer, maybe one of them would find it). Likewise, while on Mars, I discovered quite a conjunction, with 5 planets, two moons and Vesta all lined up within 3 or 4 degrees of the Sun. I would love to know how often that happens (do you know of a website that predicts eclipses and conjunctions from any viewpoint?).
I would love to receive anyone's suggestions for extra credit assignments. I will put them onto the Education website as soon as I can get it up and running.
Thanks for your suggestion. That's a heck of a good idea. For example, for more advanced students, I could borrow an Activity from one of our forum members who also teaches Astronomy and has his students create their own solar system. He gives them a set of planet textures from some of the great add-ons on the forum and some basic instruction in ssc files, and then asks them to design their own solar system. They really enjoy playing "God" so to speak and they learn a lot about solar systems.
Another idea might be to assign students the task of researching and finding the "most impressive" set of multiple moon eclipses they can locate. For example, while writing the outer solar system activity, I was setting up a view of Europa in front of Jupiter when all of a sudden, Europa started to be eclipsed by another moon. It turned out to be Io. I was delighted and incorporated the cel:url in the Activity. It started me wondering. I presume there is such a thing as a triple eclipse, where three of Jupiter's moon line up and eclipse each other so to speak. I'm not sure where to find out if/hen that occurs, but it would make a great Extra Credit assignment (with 160 students all searching for the answer, maybe one of them would find it). Likewise, while on Mars, I discovered quite a conjunction, with 5 planets, two moons and Vesta all lined up within 3 or 4 degrees of the Sun. I would love to know how often that happens (do you know of a website that predicts eclipses and conjunctions from any viewpoint?).
I would love to receive anyone's suggestions for extra credit assignments. I will put them onto the Education website as soon as I can get it up and running.
The author of Guide has several Web pages of information about mutual events. One of his lists is at http://www.projectpluto.com/mut_pln.htm.
Selden