4-H Project: The Phases of the Moon and a Planetarium Made From a Star Chart

We have a great resource provided by the local college and the 4-H council and it is educational trunks . There are quite a few of the educational trunks to use including astronomy, cooking over a campfire, birds, robotics and Legos to name a few. This meeting I wanted to have the kids use the telescope from the astronomy trunk to look at the stars, but the weather did not cooperate and it was too cloudy.  But even with the disappointment we still learned a bit about what is out there in the universe.

http://www.starpath.com

My oldest gave a speech on the Moon and this included how to tell if the moon is waxing or waning.  To do this imagine a lower case "b" or "d" covering the moon.  If the "b" is covering some white then the moon is being born or getting bigger  (waxing) and if the "d" is covering the white then the moon is dying or it is decreasing in size (waning).

http://www.sciencebob.com

Then the Cloverbuds made the phases of the moon by using Oreos.




For the older kids we first discussed some facts about stars and learned how to find the north star (Polaris).

http://earthsky.org/

Next, I had them take a copy of a star chart, paste it to some poster board and then using a thumb-tac and a nail I had them poke holes through the stars on the star chart.  This took quite a bit of time and the kids will need to finish the rest of the project at home.  When they get home they need to take a box and cut out a hole for the star chart, insert the chart in backwards and make another hole at the other end of the box to put a flashlight through. When the kids take their small planetarium into a dark room and shine the light through the poked out holes they will be able to see the stars on the wall.  (I wanted to provide a link for a star chart, but I can't find a good one.  The chart we used was included in the 4-H Astronomy Trunk.)

Place the star chart so it faces the box.

The light from the flashlight will go
through the holes and shine onto
your walls.

I suggested to the kids they could decorate their box and enter it into the fair.