Slooh for Schools Classroom Activities

Bring the wonders of the night sky into your classroom - LIVE! Slooh Online Observatory allows you to observe and take pictures of celestial objects right from your own computer. And because they have telescopes on the other side of the world, night falls on these telescopes while it is still afternoon in the US.

Slooh and the ASP have partnered to bring you these classroom activities that inspire and excite your students with technology, hands-on learning, and real science experiments using professional telescopes from your own computer.

Virtual Venus
This activity combines kinesthetic learning, active investigation, history, and of course observing to teach your students about the Solar System. Adaptable for grades 5 -12 and beyond, this activity follows Galileo's investigation into the phases of Venus.

When Venus is not visible during classroom hours, these photos taken with Slooh, including date and time, can also be used.

Here are some alternate student worksheets developed for the 2008 educator workshop "In the Footsteps of Galileo" at the ASP Symposium, by NJACE Science Education Institute.

In The Footsteps of Galileo - Observing the Moons of Jupiter
This simulation of Galileo's observations was developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science and has been adapted for IYA 2009 to bring out the process of science.

Moons of Jupiter PowerPoint Slides (standard version)
This version is suitable for most groups. It has been used extensively with participants of all ages. The simplifications are as follows:

• All four moons are always visible.
• Moons are distinguishable by color.
• The periods of the moons are altered slightly so that each makes a full revolution in a whole number of days. This makes it easier for participants to discover the periodic motion of the moons.

To find out which moons you’re seeing on any given date, take a look at Sky and Telescope’s Jupiter Moon Calculator.

Life Cycle of Stars
Students in grades 9-12 analyze characteristics that indicate human life cycles, and then apply these observational principles to various NASA pictures of stars to synthesize patterns of stellar life cycles. They are than able to take their own pictures using Slooh live online observatory. Adapted from a CERES activity.

Sign up here to be notified when classroom memberships and new activities are available.

We need your participation! Donations are 100% tax deductible and will go towards the development of freely accessible materials, workshops, a supporting website, live programming for schools, and promotion of the project. Help us advance science literacy through astronomy!

Privacy & Legal Statements | Site Index | Contact Us

Copyright ©2001-2008 Astronomical Society of the Pacific