Astronomer

General Details

You are going to produce a project. This will be at least 3 pages long and will contain a mixture of text, pictures and diagrams. You must try to use your own words and not just ‘copy and paste’ information. This is really important – you need to understand the information in your project and you may be asked questions about it. The project is to be handed in by 30^th March. It can be done in a file, an exercise book or ‘loose’ pages. You can type it, or write it. Staff will then mark the project and decide whether it is a ‘merit’, ‘graduate’, or ‘honours’  pass. Good luck.

Some information you may like to include:

You might want to include some, or all, of the following information.

1. Show what you know about the night sky and why the pattern of stars
   changes, night by night, throughout the year.
2. Create a ‘Fact File’ about a planet in our solar system. Learn the order of the planets
3. Learn the meaning of the terms celestial, equator, poles, circumpolar and zodiac.
4. Build a model of the Solar System using everyday materials found in the home, such as different size fruit or sports balls. Use an outside area to scale the Solar System. You will need to include a photograph of this in your project
5. Explain how the moon affects the tides. Create your own ‘map’ of the moon.
6. Observe three constellations on a clear night and record what you saw.
7. Read a star map. Compare the differences between using a star map and a normal map.

Honours

If you want to try for an Honours pass in this project, you may be asked questions about the sections in red.

Review of Websites (this may be really important if you want to achieve an ‘honours’ pass)

Find 2 or 3 ‘child friendly’ websites about this subject (eg.www.kidsastronomy.com) Review some of these websites. Which has been the most useful for you? You may want to explain this by including ‘screen shots’ of your selected websites. As always, if you do not have your own computer, please feel free to go to our ‘study club’.