11-20 Update and Space Party Requests

Today we had a great day in class discussing Mars - the red planet. We spent time outside exploring polar ice caps with dry ice. The children learned about the process of sublimation and should be able to explain it to you. We ended our class time with a fun game to review terms and concepts studied this semester!

On Dec. 11th, we will have our last day of Astronomy class for the semester. We will have a SPACED OUT PARTY! Please let this be a surprise - I am ordering something for the kids, but wanted to ask if any parents/students would like to contribute some SPACE snacks for our day.
I know many of you are creative. However, this could be a great project for your children to do as well. Thank you for anything you would like to do to make this a FUN occasion. Here's a few fun ideas I found online, but you are welcome to create your own.

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50070 - Crater Cake http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50204 - Space Cake http://www.gamescraftscoloring.com/recipes/rocket_cake_space_party.htm - rocket cake

Of course, you can create your own - Crater Cookies, Mercury Mix, Jupiter Jam, Asteroid Apples, etc... (I'm just making up names!) Kids can create fun ideas in their imaginations!

I would be grateful to anyone who can create something for our party. Have fun with it! We will be playing some fun games to review what we have learned, and parents are welcome to attend.
Finally, all students who have not presented thus far will be presenting on Dec. 4th - in two weeks. Please e-mail me with any questions. Have a wonderful break! Enjoy your time off!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving! We have so much to be grateful for, don't we?

Class Update 11-5

The Astronomy class is going great! Last week, we learned about the levels of the atmosphere, the biosphere, and did an activity relying on the Earth's magnetophere! There were lots of words ending in -sphere! (Ha-ha) (Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Exosphere, etc...)
The class completed two pages about the atmosphere of the Earth and it's interior layers.

We then went outside for our magnetsphere activity, trusting a compass to lead us to the "treasure." I introduced the term - assumptive language - to them. This is when a scientific theory is stated as fact. Assumptive language assumes that the reader will accept it as truth. The Big Bang theory and evolution are often described with assumptive language.

This week, we are having "Presentations and Popcorn!" Yeah! Parents - as always - are welcome to come and enjoy the class with us!

Here is the order I will follow for the presentations:

Our Solar System Date to Present: Nov. 6 Assigned to: CJM
Mercury Date to Present: Nov. 6 Assigned to: KH
Mariner 2 and Mariner 10 Date to Present: Nov. 6 Assigned to: MB
Venus Date to Present: Nov. 6 Assigned to: TB
Earth Date to Present: Nov. 6 Assigned to: FB

Finally, by next week, be sure your students have read p.66-74 in the book and have them write one paragraph (at least) comparing the Big Bang theory to what the Bible says about how the Earth was created. These assignments are listed in detail on the syllabus from 10/30 & 11/6.

Update 10/28

I hope everyone is ready to return to TC this week. It was a wonderful break for our family, but this week we are getting back on schedule.

Please be sure your children are caught up on the reading. They should have read through page 64 in the book. There was not a reading assignment given over Fall Break, but several students had not read chapter 5 the week it was due. We will continue examining the Earth this week. This last chapter will fortify their understanding of the material covered in class if they are familiar with it. (Chapter 5 in the book - pgs. 52-64)

The next date for presentations is November 6th. That is 9 days from today! If your children haven't started their presentation, encourage them to begin. I e-mailed the list of presentations earlier, but if you are unsure about the date your child was assigned, please send me an e-mail.

I'm enjoying this class, and hope your children are as well!

Class Update 10/2

Here is a very brief update on yesterday. I went to a funeral after TC.

However, I wanted to touch base before I left. I returned all of the class feedback and my grading sheet to the students who presented last week. Their presentations were FANTASTIC! The students did a tremendous job presenting thier topics. I could tell they worked hard preparing. Yesterday all of the class had the opportunity to read the visual aids from last week. I am looking forward to the next set of presentations!

We watched the amazing DVD by Louie Giglio called Indescribable. He used images from space to describe the incredible, amazing beauty in God's vast creation. Some of the statistics he shared blew my mind. It's incomprehensible how enormous the universe is in size. AMAZING! Toward the end of the video, there was a picture of Christ on the cross. I realized later that this picture might have bothered some of the younger kids. I didn't pick up on that in class, but I wanted to make you aware from one parent to another. Louie Giglio's point was that God is soooo incredibly HUGE, and yet loved us enough to send his son for us. Overall, I think the children were amazed by the video and the pulsating star! (Ask them if a pulsating star makes a sound!) Or, ask them if our solar system were the size of a quarter, how large is the Milky Way galaxy?! (The size of North America) Or, ask them how long it would take to count all of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy if they counted one star every second?! (2,500 years!) Ask them what a sombrero galaxy or spiral galaxy looks like. They are beautiful, and God has now granted us the technology to be able to view their beauty out in space. Amazing!

Next week, we will discuss and perform activities regarding our second planet, Venus. This chapter is the reading assignment this week.

Last night, the funeral our family attended closed with the great hymn How Great Thou Art. As we sang the first verse, I thought about all that we are learning in class. It's a blessing to be studying and learning about God's creation with your children.
"Oh Lord my God!
Who I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made
I see the stars
I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul
My Savior God to thee;
How great thou art,
How great thou art!
Then sings my soul
My Savior God to thee;
How great thou art,
How great thou art!

PERFECT PRESENTATIONS 9-25

Today was the first day of presentations covering the first six weeks of material discussed in class. Six students shared about different assigned topics today. They set the standard for the class. The bar now sits very high! Their preparation was evident, their visual aids were neat and creative, and their understanding of the topics exceeded my expectations! I was impressed today with the efforts!

Additionally, my compliments to all of the students for their encouraging words to each other, and their respectful behavior during the presentations. Everyone listened and learned!

Our presentations began with an informative address about Stonehenge by NW. Did you know each block must have been carried by over 500 people for at least 50 miles!? Did you know there were ditches dug around Stonehenge? Did you know that bones have been found nearby indicating perhaps where the builders of Stonehenge lived? Did you know Stonehenge is made of chalk? Did you know all of this was in NW's report?

He presented a marvelous detailed presentation containing these and many other interesting facts about this curious structure in England. It was very interesting to hear the legends surrounding Stonehenge.

WP introduced the heliocentric view first discovered by Nicolas Copernicus. (Helio = Sun, Centric = Center) At a time when the entire civilized world believed all celestial objects revolved around the Earth, Nicolas Copernicus questioned this belief. He served as a clergyman in the church, and centered his own belief on God! (That is awesome!) His picture circulates on Polish currency, and he is buried at the same church where he served. WP did a fabulous presentation on this great man.

Sadly, I was so enthralled with his speech that I neglected to take pictures. His poster was informative and eye-catching. :-) I will have a picture of WP with his visual aid next week! I am sorry I missed it today! Please extend a little grace to me! I do want everyone to see his creative work!

Galileo stretched the minds of ancient times because of his belief in Nicolas Copernicus' view that the Sun was the center of our Solar System. Galileo spent many years under house arrest for not recanting his belief. ES shared these and other intricate details about his life. For instance, I learned that he kept a doctor near to his house so he could still have medical care while being under house arrest. :-) MS displayed her colorful graphic organizer to represent this man who made such an impact on our understanding of the universe.

The Latin words "umbra" and "penumbra" are not only used to describe eclipses as we learned in class. Today, ES informed us that these words are also applied to Sunspots on the Sun! (I did not know that!) She also shared that the Aztecs had a Sun God with dark spots on his face with the presumption that the Aztecs had witnessed the Sunspots. ES shared her extensive research on sunspots and solar flares teaching all of us many facts we did not know. She did a wonderful job!

The students learned a tremendous amount of information about the Sun today from PB. She shared some facts about our central star, quizzed the kids on their knowledge, discussed the different layers of the Sun, and taught about some of the positive and negative consequences of having the Sun above us! (Wear your sunscreen! Ha-ha!) She did a superb job of interacting with the class while making her points. :-) Very clever and imaginative!

The entire class was engaged when PB asked for help "labeling" the parts of the Sun. She chose people in the class to come up and place the correct name on that part of the Sun. It was very creative!

PC ended our day with a great presentation on Solar and Lunar Eclipses. We could even see where the craters of the moon were outlined by the Sun! Very cool! Did you know there is geometry during a Lunar Eclipse? (We are now learning Math and Astronomy!) Did you know the moon turns reddish/orange when there is a lunar eclipse?! Check out his visual display and you can witness a lunar eclipse from beginning to end! Whoa!

I learned so much today from these students. Today they literally taught all of us something new. It was evident they all worked very hard preparing for their presentation. Every child had researched and studied their topic! I was impressed with the content of the presentations today! The students presenting later in the semester have a hard act to follow! Every child did GREAT today!

Mercury, Craters, and Light 9/18

Today's class covered quite a bit. We reviewed the reading from the book and discussed facts about Mercury. We talked about it's speed of rotation, length of days, temperature, exterior features, type of orbit - elliptical, etc...

We then moved outside to make "craters" in flour. This was the activity suggested in the book reading. Hopefully, even with issues, they were able to see how craters are formed and some of the things that affect how craters are formed (size of object, distance, speed).

Once we returned inside, we continued to talk about Mercury's core. Currently, astronomers believe that Mercury's core is one of the largest of any planet in our solar system. It is made of iron and nickel, so it is extremely dense. Mercury's mass is very great. I passed around a heavy cast-iron skillet so that the students could grasp the dense nature of iron.

Additionally, scientists believe that the core extends out to the crust of Mercury. There are not additional layers as in Earth and the Sun. I sliced an orange and showed them that the inside resembles the core of Mercury. The outside of the orange resembles the exterior of the planet as well because it is pitted!

One question still remains for scientists; is Mercury's core a solid or liquid? The children made their own guess and ate an orange slice if they thought Mercury's core is solid and drank orange juice if they thought it is liquid. :-) (Yes, I found this idea in a book!)

We ended today's class with a short Magic School Bus video. It is called "MSB Makes a Rainbow" and it is the best source I have found to explain color to children. Last week, they were amazed by the color spectrum refractions, so I thought we would "go a little deeper" with it. They were able to see how all of the colors separate out of white light and combine to make white light.

For extra focus on Mercury, have your child play the game in the link below! It's really neat!

Don't forget next week begins the presentations! Yeah! I'm bringing popcorn! Parents are welcome to join us for presentations! We would love to have you!

Great Interactive Mercury Game

Here's a great link for your children to try. As they answer questions correctly, it will compose a photo of Mercury.

http://members.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/activities/radiobuttonquiz/Mercurypz.shtml