Stellarium Project

• What did you learn about Stellarium or Celestia?
• I learned that Stellarium can be used in a very similar manner as one would used a planetarium. I really like how you can adjust the sky for different locations and change the dates. I also like how you can do a time lapse of the sky.

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  Section of the Night sky on day that I was born. Includes a few of my favorites in Draco and Ursa Major and Ursa Minor,

  
  
• What instructional problems could you use this technology for?
• I use Stellarium to complement a unit on astronomy. I would use Stellarium to teach about different constellations and navigation in the night sky. I would also take time to point out some of the stars that are the brightest and explain why they are so bright. 
• What are 2-3 activities you could use this technology for in your own teaching? List the instructional standards and a detailed explanation of how you would conduct the activity (e.g. the order of events that you or your students would do to be able to accomplish the learning objective)



A view of tonights sky that includes my favorite winter constellation, Orion



A view of the far off planet of Jupiter

• One item that I would use this technology for would be to teach students navigation using the night sky. One of the common misconceptions that I would seek to correct is that the constellations change given the season. I would give my students time to explore the nighttime sky using Stellarium with a list of constellations to learn and be able to distinguish. I would break the constellations up using the seasons. Then I would test my students by bringing up the night time sky and pointing out a constellation for them to identify.
• Another item that I would teach my students would be the motion among the night sky.  I would want them to be able to observe the movements of the planets. I want for my students to understand that the word planet actually means wanderer. This is because planets have an irregular motion in the nighttime sky. To teach my students about this, I would have my students plot a planets location at the same time each night and form a plot of the planets position and discuss the meaning of it.