Astronomy activities with the Cubs

spaceman_spiff · January 26, 2018

Hi all,

I just finished running some activities with the cubs so I thought I would share them here for anyone else who is interested I have attached the worksheets and instructions as well. I did 5 activities each lasting about 10mins then the kids rotate to the next activity. Luckily the cubs are already split into 5 groups.

Activity 1) I show my computer-controlled scope tell them the different parts (tripod, mount, and OTA) and show pictures I have taken, I then take the kids outside and show them how to focus and look through a telescope. Last night the Moon was peaking through the clouds so that was a great bonus.

Activity 2) Make your own Telescope! You need five 40cm long 5cm diameter cardboard tubes (cut lengthways in half), five converging lenses (around 30cm focal length), five cheap 20-25mm eyepieces (I got them from astroboot) and blu-tak. Get the kids to securely stick the eyepieces into one end of the tube and then put the converging lens in the other side. Adjust the position of the converging lens to get focus. Warning - Kids find this activity quite difficult and also tend to drop lenses and eyepieces so they need to be supervised. However when it works kids really enjoy this activity.

Activity 3) Draw your own constellations. I made worksheets with stars and the kids connect the dots to make their own constellations according to their own hobbies and interests.

Activity 4) Crater creator. You need 3 plastic bowls, flour (about 4cm deep), marbles and rulers. Kids drop marbles into the flour from three different heights and then measure the width of the crater. I got them to repeat the experiment 4 times and write down the results.

Activity 5) Crater locater and drawing craters. You need 30 ping pong balls and felt-tip pens. I have worksheets with a big Moon maps and kids have to match the close-ups with the numbers (see the work sheets). After this the kids draw different craters on the ping pong balls - they already have pictures of moon craters to work from.

The activities need 3-5 helpers to supervise everything, but the kids absolutely loved it!

Dan. :happy7: