CMIS Evaluation

Google Moon for Apollo11 Anniversary

As part of the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Google developers have extended the Google Earth  application to include an extensive coverage of the Moon. Users can explore the surface of the moon and many well known features and also tour the sites where the astronauts from all Apollo missions worked.

Another very interesting website is the Newseum which has a special 40th Anniversary exhibition which includes information about the specialised requirements of the Television camera used to take the historic ‘First Step” pictures.

For a very “spacey” week the CMIS Theme page on Astronomy is a good starting point. There are links to many different space related websites, including the Australia Telescope at Parkes which played a role in the 1969 Moon landing.

With winter in the southern hemisphere making star gazing a little difficult, the “Tonight’s Sky” movie on the Hubble Telescope site gives a great viewing opportunity for anyone interested in the stars.

As a lead up to National Science Week, check out AstronomyWA - they have some interesting articles and Moon related items.

I’ve been out most evenings this week looking to the heavens to catch sight of the International Space Station as it passes over this part of the world. It really is worth seeing. I was surprised at how bright it is.
Predictions – generally pretty accurate – about the passage of the space station can be found at the Heavens Above website.

Teachers and students will find masses of information on many different subjects included on other parts of the site.

The CMIS Astronomy theme page is a good place to start a Space Study to incorporate the International Space Station.

For a picture dictionary with a difference, check out NASA’s Picture Dictionary.  Featured are words associated with NASA’s program supported by photos or illustrations.  Clicking on the word or picture links to a page that defines the word and uses it in two sentences.  page also provides links to webpages that explain the concept in more detail and in terms a Middle Primary student could understand.  This would be a handy reference resource for Space or technology topics.

“The Universe, Yours to Discover”

February 15th marks the 445th birthday of Galileo Galilei – the father of observational astronomy and telescopes. The design principles developed by Galileo are still applied to telescopes today. The International Year of Astronomy has been designated to observe the 400th anniversary of Galileo turning a telescope to the sky. The Year has been endorsed by UNESCO and will be a year-long, worldwide celebration of astronomy for all.

We’ve gathered together a few interesting website and links to help you on the way.

For information on everything you ever wanted to know about Galileo, and to celebrate his birthday, the first stop should be the Galileo Project.

400 Years of the Telescope - Primarily dedicated to a film about the development of telescopes, this site contains amazing pictures of the universe.

The CMIS Theme page on Astronomy is a another good starting point, especially for primary school, where teachers and students can access information from a variety of sources such as NASA, The Australia Telescope at Parkes and WA Astronomy.

If you cannot arrange a night field trip to observe the heavens, a very good substitute is Google Sky. Here students can see stars and other heavenly bodies, many photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. For teachers the Educators section has lots of ideas for using the Google Sky feature in the classroom.

Paul Floyd’s Night Sky online gives users a comprehensive look at southern skies and includes a newsletter with classroom ideas for Term 1 2009

For teachers wishing to extend their knowledge further – the Science Teachers Association of WA will be holding the 2009 Primary Science Conference -“Science and the Stars” conference in April.

Happy stargazing!