School astro clubs

[Siriusmeg]

Thanks, those binoculars look good. Have ordered the book now too

[Vince1963]

Siriusmeg... Let me know how it all goes, I hope its a success, Its a good thing your doing and i would think very rewarding for the kids and you too.

[Stardust]

Here are a couple of pics of the craft projects i've done with our group

The salelite is 10 wide and the Moon craters are on a 4ft square board, all good fun.

[4lefts]

they look fantastic. how old were the kids that made them?

[Stardust]

The children were 7-9 year olds. It took them quite a few weeks, were wern't in a hurry. I think the best part was when I put the Moon scape up and got the children up for a photo. One girl said" I can't believe we've made that, it looks like something you buy"

I think they were pleased with the outcome, even if they couldn't see what was in my head for a while.

[Spikey]

Thanks for some of the good tips so far !

I'm another one who has been cajoled to go in to my kids school for an afternoon or two whilst they do projects on space.

They've just done the solar system so the toilet roll demo looks like fun. I'm also thinking of attaching my Mak with a solar filter/spc900 combination onto the projector/whiteboard and broadcasting some live sun footage.

[Siriusmeg]

Those art projects are fabulous and just what I'm looking for - I can really see us doing something similar, and it will help them to focus in on specific features on the Moon. Thanks all for your help - I am raring to go now

[Stardust]

Drop me a line if you'd like to know how we did it, happy to share.

[Ganymede12]

Just be careful how you pronounce Uranus!

[Mr Q]

Just be careful how you pronounce Uranus!

:grin:

[Siriusmeg]

Good examples of lunar sketches that look relevant to this discussion in the 'beginner's help & advice' section at the moment - we'll definitely be trying this. Then I can learn alongside them I think the thread is called something like 'Lunar sketches - yes you can!'.

[Siriusmeg]

An update on how we're getting on - great fun!! I have 12 kids in the group, aged from 6 to 11 - more than I wanted, but I asked them to write a letter to apply to join the club and I just couldn't refuse any of them. In our tiny school that's 20% of the pupils! So far we have done the solar system loo roll, then fired ballon rockets over it, experimenting with angle of propulsion (2 groups got to Neptune ) ; we made solar viewers (from the Stargazing live activity cards from last year) and solar biscuits - representing the convective zone in icing ; and today we've been doing Lunar observing and sketching. I'm shattered doing this for an hour after school on a Friday but it's the best fun you can have with 12 kids At least 3 of them have a telescope on their Christmas list now.

[Ganymede12]

Good to hear that!

I'm still gutted that my school doesn't do any Astronomy. Still, who needs school when you got SGL!