Astronomy

This evening was packed full of activities to engage the students in learning about astronomy. One activity had the Naturalist throw a bunch of beans on a cement walkway. From there, the kids had to see if they could identify any patterns, such as the patterns in the sky forming constellations. In their field books, the students drew a "constellation" they saw in the beans and created a story to explain the importance of this pattern. Another activity had students playing "poker" using cards to create a planet that would be suitable for human life. Later, the kids had a chance to look at the moon through the telescope and observe the craters. Then, off to the beach to dig for "stars" in the sand! Actually, they were digging and finding dinoflagellates (marine plankton) that light up in the sand and look like stars! But now, your "little stars" are cozy in their beds as day 3 has come to a close.