Teaching Astronomy to Kids

Over the past several years, I have taught an "astronomy minicourse" at some of the local grade schools. Additionally, I've used variations and parts of this minicourse for in-school presentations as well as presentations for other groups.

This page provides links to related websites and a file you can download that contains the materials I use for the course - INCLUDING a detailed lesson plan. I hope you will find it useful. Feel free to steal anything you see and/or email me if you have any questions or comments.

Materials and Links

  • Minicourse Materials - A zip file containing the following items:
    • Astronomy Minicourse Lesson Plan.doc - MS Word document describing the materials used and the three lessons that make up the plan. THIS IS A MUST READ. It describes the lessons in detail.
    • seasonal_constellation_tour.sts - Stellarium script that looks at some constellations and astronomical objects. OPEN THIS FILE AND READ the comments at the beginning of the file to understand how to use it and how it works.
    • planisphere_kit.zip - File containing MS word compatible RTF files that can be used to make a planisphere (i.e. constellation finder). See the lesson plan for more details.
    • telescopes.ppt - Slides showing how telescopes work and different kinds of telescopes.
    • astroimages.ppt - Slides showing different astronomical objects.
    • Astronomy Projects and Resources.doc - MS Word document that can be handed out to give students some things to look at and resources to use.
    • solar observing log sheet.doc - MS Word document to record solar observations.
  • Stellarium - Stellarium is a very impressive opensource (and thus free) planetarium program used to present constellations.
  • Telescope Kits - A telescope kit the kids get to build and take home. (Kids love taking home stuff!)
  • Instructions for Making Solar Projection Scope - Parts list and instructions for adapting an 80mm f/5 refractor for solar projection. Approach borrowed from the "Sun Gun" described here: Scientific American or Sun Gun Site
  • Teaching Astronomy to Kids Presentation - MS PowerPoint slide package describing the minicourse. This was used to present the material to my astronomy club.