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Module 3 – Lesson 5

Lesson 5: Constellations

Overview

The Touch the Stars Braille book contains a number of the well known constellations, plus guidelines on finding the North Star, the Ring Nebula, and the Orion Nebula, to name just a few.  In this lesson, the students will work in developing an overview of constellations in discussing what they know, what constellations meant in the past, and what the difference is between a star and a planet.

Learning Outcomes

  • List the differences between day and night time skies.
  • Discuss the various ways constellations have been used and defined throughout history.
  • Create an individual constellation and tell its story.
  • Examine 5 different constellations and state 1 interesting thing about each one.
  • State the difference between a star and a planet. 

Materials

  • Touch the Stars Braille book by Noreen Grice

Pre-assessment Questions and Discussion

Q. What do we mean when we talk about constellations?
A. Patterns of stars, mythology, specific region of the sky

Q. What constellations have you heard about?
A. Big Dipper (asterism), Orion, the Bull, Lion

Text 

Students read about constellations in Touch the Stars, p. 1 – 29. Break the reading into sections; this is a lot of material for students. Following is a listing of the sections and 1 or 2 suggested questions for each one. 

  1. What Does the Sky Look Like?
    1. 1.List as many things as you can that tell how the day time sky differs from the night.
  2. The Constellations
    1. 1.What cultures created many of the constellations we use today?
    2. 2. How many named constellations are there today? These are the ones astronomers use.
    3. 3. Why do we say that constellations are “connect the dots” pictures?
  3. Legends About the Stars 
    1. 1.Which legend did you like the most?
    2. 2. If you were to create your own pattern of stars (your own constellation), what would it look like? What story would you tell about it?
  4. Some Famous Star Patterns 
    1. 1.Ursa Major: Look at the pattern of the Big Dipper. What do you think it is picturing?
    2. 2. Ursa Minor and Polaris: Explain how we locate Polaris and Ursa Minor (the little bear) by using stars in the Big Dipper.
    3. 3. Lyra and the Summer Triangle asterism: What three stars make up the asterism known as the Summer Triangle?
    4. 4. The Ring Nebula: Describe what you see when you look at the Ring Nebula picture.
    5. 5. Orion and the Orion Nebula: Compare what you saw in the Ring Nebula (a star that has died) with that of the Orion Nebula, where stars are being born. Are there differences?
    6. 6. Is it a Star or a Planet?: How many differences can you list between stars and planets? 

Follow-up Questions on Reading 

Included in the sectional reading above. 

Reinforcing Hands-On Activity

Modeling:

From the University of Texas at Austin – Constellations
“Students were given a set of coordinates representing the brightest stars of a few familiar constellations without identifying them. They used tactile graph boards to recreate the groupings, and were asked to guess how to connect the points, that is to make their own constellations. Some students with vision recognized the patterns. In the case of Cygnus they came close to the usual representation, but most of the time did not. Through this exercise they learned that the constellations are arbitrary forms, though often based on mythology. These images aided our ancestors in remembering the sky, thus enabling them to observe the motion of the planets, or use stars for navigation and telling time before maps and clocks became widely available.”

Summary and Post-Assessment Questions

    1. Summarize how this activity changed your view of the day and nighttime skies.
    2. Discuss how creating your own constellation and inventing its story helped you understand what constellations have meant to humans.
    3. Relate what you found most interesting about one of the five constellations we examined here.
    4. We noted here that a planet changes its position when measured against background stars. Hypothesize as to the reason the stars don’t change their positions as much. 

Relevant Information and Links 

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