Although I explored most of the science/math technologies that were available to explore through the class website the one that struck me as the most interesting was called "Stellarium." I really enjoyed exploring this application because I have always been a huge fan of the solar system and stars and astronomy. It was fun to review what I already know about the constellations and their names and also interesting to see stars that I had not seen before because the night sky in Provo is very dim. The program shows the stars and planets seen in the sky but it also has the options to display the names of the constellations and their maps. I was still able to recognize Orion, Orion's Nebula, Betelgeuse and Polaris among a few others. I liked that I could also search for stars, planets or constellations by their names and the program would locate it in the sky and mark it. Since nighttime field trips are not necessarily realistic to do in a classroom, using this program would help teach students about astronomy and spark an interest of the subject in them.
stellarium is a really cool program - especially because you can speed up time and look at things up close and without cloud cover etc.
ReplyDeleteHave you explored google sky before?