Use Chocolate or marshmallows to measure the speed of light at home!

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/waves_particles/lightspeed_evidence.html

http://www.physics.umd.edu/icpe/newsletters/n34/marshmal.htm

History of Christmas Lights and Santa

http://www.unmuseum.org/electric_xmas.htm

http://www.unmuseum.org/santa.htm

Songs to Teach the Elements

OR





OR





OR


OR

Odd Sea Life

http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/scitech/2009/12/28/odd-antarctic-sea-life-spotlighted-deep-sea-survey?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a4:g4:r3:c0.000000:b0:z5

Astronomy: History of The Telescope

http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations/groundup/

Cool History Blog

http://blog.aurorahistoryboutique.com/

Learning Styles

Useful information to know about your students.

http://www.learning-styles-online.com/

Links for Homeschooling Parents

http://www.uniquelygifted.org/especially_for_parents.htm#_Homeschooling

For Gifted Kids

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/hoagies_kids.htm

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/links.htm

Complete Curriculum Wiki--wow!

Pretty cool stuff here:

http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/

awesome video series from MIT

http://mitworld.mit.edu/browse

Astronomy Course Online

http://www.polaris.iastate.edu/

Click on North Star, Morning Star, or Evening Star for three different college-level courses.

How chocolate is made

http://www.hersheys.com/discover/chocolate.asp

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0073051500/327046/chocolate.html

Math Across the Curriculum Materials

http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/~matc/eBookshelf/index.html --higher level

http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/~mqed/K-12eBookshelf.html -- K-12

Computer Programs Illustrating Chaos Theory

http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/faculty/rucker/chaos.htm

College level course: Geometry in Art and Architecture

Click on Syllabus and the text is all there.

http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.geometry/

Webschool

From Utah, internet lessons. Some of these are text-dependent, but some are not.

http://webschool.wash.k12.ut.us/

425 Web Portals for kids

http://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index.html

Massive History/Social Studies Resource

http://mrdonn.org/

Lessons on Ancient Mesopotamia

http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/menu.html

Learn about Ancient China

http://china.mrdonn.org/lessonplans.html

http://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/16-history/252-ancient-china.html

http://www.cultural-china.com/

Astronomy Timeline

This is a thorough, relatively kid-friendly timeline of the history of Astronomy (NOT of the Universe). I spent weeks finding links to each item, including what else was happening in the world that year. So go and explore. See the first photo of the moon or Buzz Aldrin's own website. I don't think I repeated any links, so click on "Mars", for example, every time you see it and find something new to explore.  I chose the links partially for their value as a source of information on the subject at hand and partially for their value as a starting point in further exploration. All of the websites are free; I apologize for the overabundance of advertising on some of them (that's how we pay for the free things we use!).


Enjoy!


 http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddssdqrh_51ckspbnhf

Using Leftover Christmas Wrapping Paper: Making Papier Mache

Don't throw the torn wrapping paper away! Try this instead:

http://www.everydayart.com/mache.html

http://craftingagreenworld.com/2009/07/31/recycled-crafts-make-a-paper-bowl-tutorial/ --keep in mind on this one that you DON'T have to cook the paste. You can just mix the flour and water and use it. It works just fine.

Here is a video discussing different pastes and showing kids making bowls: http://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/video/video_pop.html?clip=interstitials/115B&title=Making%20Paper%20Maché&ar=16:9&filetype=wmv&bandwidth=_hi

And another site with video instructions: http://www.monkeysee.com/play/11544-how-to-make-a-paper-mache-bowl

Now that you have those links, this is what we are doing:

We are going to take the leftover wrapping paper and make papier mache all kinds of things--bowls, ornaments for next year's tree, jewelry boxes. I'm letting the kids decide what they want to make. We are not planning to paint ours. We are going to just use the leftover Christmas wrap, which is plenty colorful.

I've always successfully just mixed flour and water into a thin paste and used that, but this year the kids REALLY want to try the papier mache paste recipe they found on pbskids.org/curiousgeorge (from the video above), so I'm going to humor them.

Everyone got balloons in their stockings, so we might try covering them completely with paper mache, letting them hang dry overnight, and then popping the balloons and cutting the paper mache balloon in half tall-wise to make Egyptian Masks for Humanities. (You can also leave them whole and use it as a pinata.) We had gold wrapping paper this year, so we're probably going to be making some gold dishes for our upcoming Ancient Egyptian Feast we've planned for Humanities.

The videos all use either balloons or real dishes as molds. We'll try this, but we're also going to be using small cardboard boxes (leftover from gifts) and things like paper plates as permanent frameworks for the papier mache: instead of relying on removable molds (which can be difficult to remove), we're going to take cheap paper plates (or even just cardboard disks) and small boxes and cover them, both sides (one at a time, letting them dry in between), in papier mache. You could also use inexpensive disposable dishes (cups, bowls, platters, etc) for this. Keep in mind that your finished creation is NOT WASHABLE.

There are dozens of site with instructions, recipes, hints, and tips on papier (or paper) mache. Do a google search and then go all out and recycle that old wrapping paper!

Art Lessons for Homeschoolers from a Professional Artist

http://www.everydayart.com/curriculum.html

Homeschooling Quotes:

"Homeschooling is highly recommended for kids classified as ADHD! "

" Some kids may miss the social atmosphere of the public school, or want to be in a "normal" environment.    Depending on where you live, there may be many opportunities for your child to socialize.  I was able to sign Ryan up for Youth Soccer, classes at our local Community Center, swimming lessons, and the Boys and Girls Club.  He also made friends with local homeschoolers, in addition to his old friends from the public school.  All in all, he is socializing more than his friends who attend public and private schools.


"ADHD kids with social difficulties may benefit from homeschooling.  Studies have shown that homeschooled children behave better around other children, significantly better.  Social contact is more often in controlled situations with a small number of children, rather than in near chaos on the school bus, recess or the lunch room.  When children are placed in large groups, like at most schools, they begin to adopt crowd or group behavior, establishing a pecking order just like in the story "Lord of the Flies."  This is just what ADHD kids DO NOT need!"


http://www.borntoexplore.org/addsvs.htm

Housekeeping Update

If you haven't checked out the Click List and Watch Something links on the sidebar recently, you should. They've been growing and include TONS of great links for homeschoolers on dozens of topics, from math to science to the humanities. Lots of fun and useful material is linked there.

Also, check out our re-vamped subject links, which  now appear in lists on separate pages to clean up the sidebar some.

Our goal is to make it easy for families to find and share the great resources out there, so these index and links pages are stand-alone documents. That means you can share links to them or connect to them from your blog, facebook page, website, or via email if you want.

Also, you can find us now (and get updates and share lessons with your friends) through facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Learning-Lynx/244319781396?ref=ts) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/LearningLynx), so if you want to get notification when we post new lessons through either of these sites, you can.  Also, don't forget you can subscribe via email and have lessons and links delivered right to your inbox. We also have a YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/learninglynx.  Finally, we have a new email address: LearningLynx@gmail.com. You can send comments, suggest links, or report broken links there.

If you like what you see here, feel free to share it with your friends!

Christmas Tree Links for kids

Real Trees 4 Kids

Christmas Trees

Christmas Tree Fun Stuff

History of Christmas Trees

Famous Christmas Trees

How to Make a Gingerbread House

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/stuff/contentmgr/files/7512947c75dd4ce76f3a611041c1fe40/miscdocs/gingerbread.pdf
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_a_gingerbread_house/
                 
and some samples:
http://zinke.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/gingerbread-village-2009/
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2009/12/23/gingerbread-mansions/

Mr. Dowling's World History Online Classroom

Online world history lessons with downloadable/printable worksheets. "Next" links at the bottoms of the pages are often broken, but the links at the TOP of the page to the next lesson work.

http://www.mrdowling.com/index.html

Humanities: Ancient Egypt: Environment: Animals, part 4

Now play this game:

http://www.clevelandart.org/kids/egypt/houndjacks.html

Humanities: Ancient Egypt: Life in Ancient Egypt: Read this Time-Travellers' Adventure!

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-time-travellers-ancient-egypt.htm

Humanities: Ancient Egypt: Type in Heiroglyphs!

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-games-hiero-writer.htm

Humanities: Ancient Egypt: Awesome Activities

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/egypt/activities.htm

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0210200/ancient_egypt/online_activities.htm

Humanities: Ancient Egypt: Environment: Animals, part 3

Play this game:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-games-pelmanism-egyptian-animals.htm

Now do this worksheet:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-print-egyptian-animals.pdf
(answer key here: http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-print-egyptian-animals-key.pdf)

And then check out the site they send you to:
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/egypt/animals.htm

Humanities: Ancient Egypt: Environment: Animals, part 2

First, a song about Egyptian Animals: http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-songs-ancient-egypt.htm
Do the activity, then listen to the song, and then be sure to click on "Print some activities" and do the worksheet (you don't have to print it--just use a dry-erase marker on your computer screen--but only if the screen is made of glass!)

Now look at these sites:

http://www.kingtutshop.com/freeinfo/Ancient-Egyptian-Animals.htm

Here are some pictures of artifacts from Ancient Egypt that show us some of the animals:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/animal_gallery.shtml

There's a movie here:

http://www.all-about-egypt.com/ancient-animals-from-egypt.html

Make some flashcards of Ancient Egyptian Animals:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-flashcards-ancient-egypt-1.pdf
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-flashcards-ancient-egypt-2.pdf
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-flashcards-ancient-egypt-3.pdf

Humanities: Ancient Egypt: Environment: Animals part 1

Read here about the plants and animals people used in Ancient Egypt:
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn//egypt/environment/animals.htm
http://www.clevelandart.org/kids/egypt/animals/index.html
http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/egypt_animals.html

Strange Plants

http://webecoist.com/2008/11/19/exotic-endangered-plants-flowers-trees-forests/

Strange Animals

http://webecoist.com/2008/11/24/weird-strange-amazin-animal-species/

Animal Camouflage

http://webecoist.com/2008/11/11/examples-of-amazing-animal-camouflage/

Wonders of the Natural World by WebEcoist

http://webecoist.com/2008/10/27/52-elemental-land-water-fire-and-sky-phenomena/

Artifacts to complement US History Courses

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/idealabs/ap/index.htm

Lessons on dozens of topics (plus a 30-year archive of lessons!)

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/resource_library/publications.html

Go to a Museum!

Family-friendly exhibits across the nation:

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/families/at_the_smithsonian/in_the_spotlight.html

Before you go, check out these tips on visiting museums with kids, and on helping them make their own!

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/families/at_the_smithsonian/make_the_most.html
and here: http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/families/time_together/encourage_learning.html

Complete World Folk Music Course

http://www.folkways.si.edu/tools_for_teaching/lessons.aspx

Include links to sound samples and more information, activities, etc. VERY good resource from Smithsonian.

Don't forget to check here for free resources on iTunes. Click "iTunes U" about half-way down.

http://www.folkways.si.edu/tools_for_teaching/introduction.aspx

Index to TED talks

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?utm_campaign=ted&hl=en&utm_medium=on.ted.com-twitter&utm_source=blog.ted.com&key=0AsKzpC8gYBmTcGpHbFlILThBSzhmZkRhNm8yYllsWGc&utm_content=site-basic?1

How a homeschooled African Kid changed his world

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/kamwamba-windmill/

An Octopus Builds a House, with video

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/octopus-tools/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wired/index+(Wired:+Index+3+(Top+Stories+2))

Research applicable to Homeschoolers

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/13/home-schooling-socialization-not-problem/

Online Art History Lessons/Text

Thanks to Rachel, who brought this to my attention:
http://www.smarthistory.org/
"This site is being developed by Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker as a dynamic enhancement (or even substitute) for the static Western art history textbook"


Includes art, video, lessons....well worth exploring.

Really Cool Art Site for Kids

http://www.nga.gov/kids/kids.htm

There is some really good stuff here that I could spend hours playing on as an adult!

There are also some VERY GOOD lessons on art. For example, click on any of the pictures at the top of the screen, or just look here: http://www.nga.gov/kids/kandinsky/kandinsky1.htm . The sideways triangles at the top and bottom of the screen navigate from one activity to the next, teaching kids all about art. In my opinion, these lessons actually are superior to the ones I tried (and loved, and my kids loved) on two different for-pay online curriculums.

National Gallery of Art Homeschool Page

http://www.nga.gov/education/homeschool.shtm

History of Astronomy...and it's tools

People's knowledge of astronomy grew as their access to better and better tools for looking at the sky increased.

Learn more here:

http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal111/

Primary Documents and Lessons for Teaching US History

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/

Fun Science Tricks

For Parents: Helping your child learn math

http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/math/index.html

For Parents: Helping your child learn science

http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/science/index.html

For Parents: Helping your child learn to Read (free e-books)

http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/reader/index.html
http://www.ed.gov/parents/earlychild/ready/preschool/part.html
http://www.ed.gov/parents/read/resources/readingtips/index.html
http://www.nifl.gov/earlychildhood/earlychildhood.html
http://www.nifl.gov/childhood/childhood.html
http://www.nifl.gov/adolescence/adolescence.html
http://www.nifl.gov/adult/adult.html
http://www.nifl.gov/publications/publications.html

For Parents: Tools for Better Teaching

http://dww.ed.gov/topic/?T_ID=19

Great Tool for Producing Bibliographic Citations

http://www.noodletools.com/login.php

A Research Guide for Students

http://www.aresearchguide.com/1steps.html

Critical Evaluation of a Website

A worksheet to help students evaluate websites:

http://manila.pasadena.k12.ca.us/files/WilsonLib/webstieevaluationform.pdf

Real Life Mysteries/What do you think?: Ancient Egyptian Ear

This ear is located in the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada. Nobody knows what it was for or why someone made it. What do you think?

http://images.rom.on.ca/public/index.php?function=browse&action=result&filter=aa_coll&catid=117&areaid=2&sid=&ccid=

More AWESOME Math Links

Thanks to Chastity Wilson for these, too.

Wonderful Examples of Model-Drawing for Math

PDF file on Model-Drawing to use in Math 4-6

Other Math Links:

Math Magicians: See how many problems you can answer in five minutes!

Basic Skills Practice Games: Order of operations drills on Funbrain and other sites.

Math Zones: Interactive multiplication drills and flash cards aimed at 7-11 year-olds

Math Cats: Thinking games and drills

Number Bonds!

ArithmAttack: How many problems can you solve in 60 seconds?

Math Playground: Give your brain a workout with this site for elementary and middle school aged children

Online Base-10 Blocks: Explore Whole Decimal Numbers, Place Value, and even Algebra with Base 10 Blocks. Site includes bases other than 10, such as, 2, 5, 8, and 16.

Kids Kount: This Netherlands-based site has enough puzzles and games to keep students thinking all year.

Cool Math  An amusement park of math

Black Dog's Math Activities: Flash cards, games, drills and puzzlers

Tangrams: Seven interactive tangram puzzles (it has a lot of ads in the sidebars)

Matchstick Puzzles: Get out your own matchsticks and try it!  (Dan would probably enjoy these a lot)

Puzzle Playground: This treasury of classic and modern puzzles has interactive and printable activities.

Math Fiction: A list of mathematical fiction.  Find the books at your local library.

Math Dictionary: From abacus to zero, it's all here!

The Bead Unbaffled: Speaking of the abacus, here are directions on how to make and use a Chinese or Japanese abacus.

Math Counts: Preparation Drills for Math Counts

Graph Paper

Brookman Elementary School's Math Links

Fun Math Tricks/Mayan Multiplication:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVPOSvPNn28

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bhOCJ8eijU

And, finally, Varsity Tutors has a lot of free math content--include placement tests.

• ACCUPLACER Elementary Algebra: http://www.varsitytutors.com/free-accuplacer_arithmetic-resources
• ACCUPLACER Elementary Algebra: http://www.varsitytutors.com/free-accuplacer_elementary_algebra-resources
• Algebra: http://www.varsitytutors.com/algebra_1-practice-tests
• ACT Math: http://www.varsitytutors.com/act_math-practice-tests
• ACT COMPASS Math: http://www.varsitytutors.com/compass_math-practice-tests
• Advanced Geometry: http://www.varsitytutors.com/advanced_geometry-practice-tests
• All 120 Subjects: http://www.varsitytutors.com/practice-tests

Tools for helping model math problems

http://www.thinkingblocks.com/Model_It.html

Math Apprentice--cool "real [virtual] world" math games

http://www.mathapprentice.com/

Math and Science from the Khan Academy

http://www.khanacademy.org/

All videos covering various math and science topics.

Video Math Lessons (Singapore Math)

Singapore Math is a nice complement to Saxon Math.  Thanks to Chastity Wilson for these links!

An elementary school teacher using Singapore Math

Model Drawing in 4th Grade

Singapore Lessons:

Singapore Math: Grade 3a, Unit 1 (part 1)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a Unit 1 (part 2)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a, Unit 1 (part 3)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a, Unit 1 (part 4)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a, Unit 1 (part 5)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a, Unit 1 (part 6)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a, Unit 1 (part 7)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a, Unit 1 (part 8)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a, Unit 1 (part 9)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a Unit 2 (part 1)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a Unit 2 (part 2)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a Unit 2 (part 3)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a Unit 2 (part 4)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a Unit 2 (part 5)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a Unit 2 (part 6)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a Unit 2 (part 7)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a Unit 2 (part 8)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a Unit 2 (part 9)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a Unit 2 (part 10)

Singapore Math: Grade 3a Unit 2 (part 11)

Cooking for Kids Lessons

http://spatulatta.com/

Astronomy: Meteor Shower Alert

Subject: The 2009 Geminid Meteor Shower
NASA Science News for December 8, 2009
The annual Geminid meteor shower has been intensifying, and researchers say 2009 could be the best year yet. This year's display peaks on Dec. 13th and 14th.
FULL STORY at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/08dec_geminids.htm?list709873
Check out our RSS feed at http://science.nasa.gov/rss.xml!

Astronomy; What we know now.

Ancient Egypy Physical Geography

To better understand the people, culture, and history of Ancient Egypt, we need to understand the place they were living. We already looked at the maps. Now we're going to read about the land during that time.

http://www.rom.on.ca/programs/activities/egypt/learn/environment.php

Now read this page and do the activities (there's a game!)

http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/geography/home.html

More Ecology Lessons, focusing on Trees

http://www.americanforests.org/resources/kids/a_tree_for_every_child/AForestsLearningGuide.pdf

http://www.realtrees4kids.org/

Fun Botany Unit

http://www.treetures.com/Meet/Descriptions.html

You can also click here for lessons by topic instead of by "character": http://www.treetures.com/Meet2.htm

Flora of North America Lesson Plans

http://www.fna.org/Outreach/lesson_plans

Complete Unit of GPS, Maps, And Compasses

Also, free classes in Denver Area:
"Special Note for Denver-Area Residents: The USGS offers a free GPS, map, and compass class each month at the Denver Federal Center. Arrangements can be made for instructors to travel to other venues for large group presentations. If you live outside the Denver metropolitan area, all instructional materials are available for download. Call 303-202-4689, or e-mail gpsworkshops@usgs.gov for information or reservations."


http://www.cr.usgs.gov/gpsworkshops/index.php


http://education.usgs.gov/common/lessons/gps.html

Fun site for Art

http://sketch.odopod.com/

Astronomy Tools: Infrared Telescopes

http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/sitemap.html#cosmicclassroom

Free Soil Science Curriculum

http://www.nutrientsforlife.org/leaders/teachers/curriculum/

Earthquake Lessons and Teacher Resources

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/classroom.php

http://www.iris.edu/hq/audience/educators

http://www.teachingboxes.org/earthquakes/#extraRev

Awesome, Cromprehensive Volcano Links

Including educational materials (TONS of them) on Volcanoes:

http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/

Scroll down the left side and click on "links"

WOW.

Online Unit on Volcanoes

http://edc2.usgs.gov/pubslists/teachers-packets/volcanoes/

Geology lessons from USGS

Schoolyard Geology

http://education.usgs.gov/schoolyard/index.html

and other Earth Science Educational activities and resources
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/about/edu/index.php

This Dynamic Planet/ Volcanoes

"This Dynamic Planet" is an e-book on plate tectonics, complete with online teacher's guide. It is published by the US Government and is available here:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/ (Click "contents")

and the teacher materials are here:

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/about/edu/dynamicplanet/

There are more teacher materials from the USGS on Volcanoes here:
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/about/edu/index.php

What are Click List and Watch This (on the side bar)?

My children are required once a day to spend half an hour on something they find on the "click list". This is a list of educational links intended to expose them to new and different areas of education. 

It's turning out to be an awesome list (there are SO MANY good resources out there!).

I thought I'd post the link here:

http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddssdqrh_40fg8nv65j

Fridays, my children are also required to "watch something" for half an hour or more.

Here is the list of educational videos I've made available to them:  

 http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddssdqrh_52fnc9c5cn

You can also subscribe to LearningLynx at YouTube.com, and they will send you an email every time I add a video to our list of "favorites".

Place the States Geography Game

http://www.history.com/states.do?action=detail&contentType=State_Generic&contentId=54610

Astronomy: Play with this Site!

Interactive Universe --http://www.history.com/content/universe/interactive-universe

Astronomy: the Tools of the Trade

Learn about the history of the Telescope here:

http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/esplora/cannocchiale/index.html

and here:

http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/museum/esim.asp?c=500145

The History of Astronomy: How'd they do that math?

http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/esplora/compasso/index.html

The History of the Microscope

http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/esplora/microscopio/dswmedia/storia/estoria1.html

The History of Astronomy Part 5

Astronomy has come a long way, in mostly thanks to the new technologies that have been invented. We'll be talking more about technology and astronomy next.

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/23316-the-history-of-astronomy-modern-technologies-video.htm

For now, here is a timeline to give you a more in-depth look at the History of Astronomy (or to help you review).

http://learninglynx.blogspot.com/2009/12/astronomy-timeline.html

The History of Astronomy Part 4

Galileo and Newton are some of the most famous names in the history of Astronomy. Here is a movie about what they did:

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/23315-the-history-of-astronomy-galileo-and-newton-video.htm

Read more about Galileo here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/cosmostar/html/cstars_galileo.html

Read more about Newton here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/cosmostar/html/newt.html

The History of Astronomy Part 3

One of the great mysteries the ancient people struggled with was how the things in the sky related to the earth. Did the sun travel around the earth? Why did the stars move the way they did? How did the moon fit in?

They came up with some ideas:

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/23313-the-history-of-astronomy-the-greeks-and-mayans-video.htm

Unfortunately, some of their main ideas, like the earth being the center of the solar system, were really wrong. Fortunately, some people started to figure that out:

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/science-channel/29275-100-greatest-discoveries-theory-of-copernicus-video.htm

To learn more about Copernicus, read here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/universes/html/coper.html

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/23314-the-history-of-astronomy-laws-of-planetary-motion-video.htm

To learn more about Kepler, read here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/cosmostar/html/kepler.html

Kepler, one of the men who figured out what was going on with the planets, was not only a great scientist, but also one of the first science fiction writers. He got this book from his teacher, Tycho Brahe, and it helped him with his theories. You can see a scanned copy of the actual book here: http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/HST/Brahe/brahe.htm

The History of Astronomy and the Calendar

Eventually, the people figured out that they could, at least, use the sky to help them tell time. So they invented the Calendar. It took a long time to figure out how many days to put in the year in order to keep the seasons happening during the same months every year. 

"The origin of the Calendar is tough to pin down. We know that many ancient peoples had their own calendars. 


"Many primitive cultures used a four-day week, possibly in honour of the four directions. Central American peoples used a five day week; Assyrians (an ancient people who lived in what is now Turkey) had a six day week; pre-Christian Romans in the 1st century BC had weeks of eight days called nundinae.

For many centuries, ancient Greeks - like Babylonians (ancient people who also lived near what is now Turkey and Iran) and Egyptians of the same period - divided their 30-day months into three "decades" of ten days. (Egyptians called their ten-day period decans.)

"The biggest change in calendars was brought about by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. Caesar, taking advice from an astronomer named Sosigenes, extended that year (46 BC) to a total of between 443 and 445 days. He then extended future calendars to 365 days a year. The 365 day calendar is called the Julian Calendar in his honour.

"Julius Caesar also added an extra day in February (making a “leap year”) every four years, without exception. As it turned out, this was too much – it added almost eight more days than necessary in each thousand years. As the years passed, the calendar became further and further out of phase with the seasons. As time went on, the summer season started in October!

"In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII did two things to correct this problem. First, he shortened October of 1582 by ten days. Then he ruled that any year whose number ended with 00 must also be evenly divisible by 400 in order to have a 29-day February. Confusing? What Pope Gregory essentially did was re-adjust the calendar so that the seasons would always match up to the months they were supposed to." 

( http://www.cbc.ca/kids/general/the-lab/history-of-invention/default.html)

Go to this site and explore some. The Lakota were a native American people who kept records, including some about astronomical events, on their yearly calendars.

http://wintercounts.si.edu/index.html

The History of Astronomy Part 2

"Astronomy has been practiced for as long as humans have been looking at the sky and wondering what it all means. Early civilizations, for example, Harappans, Mayans, and ancient Chinese used astronomy to keep track of time, orient their cities, and to try to predict the future. Early astronomy was a mix of careful observation of the positions and motions of the heavenly bodies, religion, and astrology." (http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/history.php#questions)


All around the world and through time, people have tried to figure out what they were seeing.

Notice in the video that it showed pictures the Chinese drew to represent comets. The pictures looked like balls with broomsticks coming out of them.

How would you draw the things you see in the sky? Can you make a picture that distinguishes between the different object (since all of them could be drawn as circles, I suppose)? Take a few minutes to make pictures of how you would show what's in the sky. Include at least the sun, a star, a comet, a planet, and a moon. You could also include a shooting star, a satellite, or any of the other things you can see in the sky.

For more, you can watch this (starts boring)

http://www.hulu.com/watch/63308/cosmos-the-backbone-of-night?c=News-and-Information#x-0,vepisode,1

The History of Astronomy Part 1

People have always looked up at the sky and tried to figure out everything they could about it. Now we have tools to help us learn more (we'll learn more about these tools later). In the past, people didn't always have tools to help them figure out what was going on in the sky. They just had their eyes.

Talk about it: If you didn't know anything about the sky except what you could see, what are some explanations you might make up for why things in the sky are the way they are? For example, what was happening when the moon changed shape night by night? What made the stars twinkle? Why does the sun move like it does?

After watching for a long long time, and keeping records of what they were seeing, people started coming up with ideas about what was actually happening up there.


For example, here are some ways people thought about the earth and its shape:
http://nfo.edu/astro/models.htm


Watch this short movie, and then the long one.

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/science-channel/29279-100-greatest-discoveries-the-planets-move-video.htm

http://www.hulu.com/watch/63319/cosmos-the-harmony-of-the-worlds?c=News-and-Information#x-0,vepisode,1

Science: Astronomy: Some cool facts about space

Let's take this quiz and see how much we already know about space:

http://funschool.kaboose.com/globe-rider/space/space-quiz.html