Date: July 24, 2009
Title: Astronomical Arts and Crafts for Kids
Podcaster: Amy Bowen
Link: Amy Bowen’s website
http://amybowen.wordpress.com/
Description: In today’s episode, we’ll learn about two astronomy-inspired creative projects that the podcaster did as a child, and one that she did while in college. We’ll find out how she did them, and what suggestions she has for parents and educators who are interested in doing these projects with their kids.
Bio: Amy Bowen is an aspiring science-fiction and fantasy writer and podcast novelist who has made guest appearances on several podcasts about sci-fi, fantasy, and entertainment. She grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, California, and is currently living in Lake Worth, Florida, for a year of national service.
Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by Damian Handzy.
Transcript:
Hello, everyone. I’m Amy Bowen, and this is the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast for July 24th, 2009. In the last episode I contributed to this podcast, back on June 2nd, I reviewed my favorite book about science that I’ve ever read, Sky Above and Worlds Beyond by Judith Herbst. Today, I’d like to share my memories of the artistic and craft projects that the book inspired me to do when I was a kid, as well as another craft project I did later on, and offer some tips on how you can do these projects with your kids.
Sky Above and Worlds Beyond had three passages in particular that inspired me to creativity. The first passage was a set of instructions for making a scale model of the solar system. When I started working on this project, I took an empty cereal box and a pair of scissors and cut out a sun and nine planets. (Yeah. It was a different era then.) I used construction paper, markers, and glue to make my sun and planets colorful – bright-yellow sun, bright-red-and-orange Jupiter complete with Red Spot, blue-and-green Earth, red Mars, and so on. I made them rectangular, though, because the instructions had said to. When I had my sun and planets all done, I started measuring and cutting the string to tie them together. The scale for this scale model was “half an inch of string equals a million miles of space.” It was easy to measure the few feet and inches between the sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, but after that, it got tedious. I can still vividly remember spending seemingly endless minutes crawling back and forth on the living room floor, measuring string five or six feet at a time with a measuring tape laid out flat, and being amazed at just how much string I was using. Of course, that was the point of the project – to show kids just how far it is from one planetary orbit to another. I learned that lesson quite well from this project. I confess, I never did finish it. I think I stopped when I got to Saturn, because I was tired of measuring all that string and didn’t want to waste so much of it on this one project. If you and your kids decide to take on this project, I recommend figuring out how much string or yarn you’ll need before you start, and making sure you have that much available. I also highly recommend measuring and marking off a distance of 10 feet on a wall or a sidewalk, and using those markings as a yardstick to help you measure the longer stretches of string more efficiently. As you measure, wind the string and planets up into a ball. When you’re done measuring string and tying or taping your planets to it, take the finished product out to a very large space, preferably a park, and unwind your ball of string all the way. You and your kids will be amazed at just how far apart you end up when one person is holding the sun and the other is holding Pluto… or Neptune, if you decide to stop there. You’ll see that this stuff really is far!
The second passage from the book that inspired me to do something creative was one of the science-fiction short stories that are integrated with the text. This story was a vivid description of what it would be like to ride on an asteroid as it entered Earth’s atmosphere, becoming a meteoroid, and impacted with the surface. I’m proud to say that my magnum opus in the medium of sidewalk chalk was a drawing depicting each phase of that asteroid’s journey. My masterpiece took up our entire driveway and the entire floor of the interior of our garage. I chose that site as my canvas because its features correlated well with the trajectory of that fictional asteroid-rider’s journey, which began with a spaceship launch from the surface of Earth. Since the driveway sloped upward and, to a child, space is up, I drew the surface of Earth at the very bottom of the driveway, and the asteroid belt in the back of the garage. I drew the spaceship taking off, the asteroid belt, the meteor falling, and the meteorite after impact. I probably also drew indicative environmental details like grass and background stars. I drew arrows to connect my drawings in sequence, and when I was finished, I walked along the path the arrows made, imagining myself on the journey. Your kids can enjoy using sidewalk chalk to create an imaginary journey to space, too. All they need is the chalk, somewhere to draw, and imagination. If you have a sidewalk, a driveway, and a garage, those work really well because your journey can go up into space and then come back down to Earth, like mine did. If you don’t have a space like that, an empty parking lot or basketball court will do just fine. You might want to provide the kids with pictures of space shuttles, space stations, orbiting telescopes, planets, and other destinations. They can arrange the pictures in any order they like to create a customized travel itinerary, then use them as a guide for their drawings. Don’t forget your space helmet!
My final suggestion for an astronomical craft project is to make a sextant. I had to make one for a homework assignment for my astronomy class in college, but it’s easy enough for kids to do as well. All you need is a protractor, a drinking straw (preferably an opaque one), a thin piece of string, some tape, and a small, heavy weight that you can tie to the string, like a nut or washer. First, tape the drinking straw onto the straight edge of the protractor. Ideally, it should be taped right on the narrow edge, not on either side. Then, cut a piece of string about 9 to 12 inches long. Tape one end of the string to the “zero” point in the center of the straight edge of the protractor, or if there’s a hole there, tie it through the hole. Tie the weight to the other end of the string. When you hold the protractor horizontally with the straight edge up, the string should line up with the 90-degree mark. When it’s time to put your sextant to use, tell your kids to pick a particular object in the sky, look through the drinking straw at that object, let the string hang down next to the protractor, then pinch the string to the curved part of the protractor with their fingers and look at the angle indicated by the string. The number of degrees between the string and the 0 or 180 mark, whichever is closer (so there may be some math involved), is the number of degrees that the object you just looked at is above the horizon.
But wait. What about the third passage from the book? What else did I create based on it? Well, that’ll be the topic of my next episode, “The Environments of Jupiter’s Moons,” which is due to go out on August 30th. Until then, this is Amy Bowen, signing out.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the New Media Working Group of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow…goodbye.
Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind, ‘Amy “let’s talk about me me me” Bowen’ should never again be allowed to self-indulge her self-centred drivel on this excellent series of podcasts, her contributions while perhaps motivated with good intent have been dire, dreadful, appalling, terrible, and in the end a complete waste of bandwith. The first one was bad enough, (every second word was “MY” but this one was even worse, Amy, you are not interesting, you can’t write entertainingly or speak entertainingly and you know damn all of interest to anyone – you’ve brought the whole tone of the series down. Sorry, but it’s completely true.
Kenny, thank you for your opinion. Upon reflection, I think I probably should have kept my contribution to just one episode. I’m aware now that I am far out of my league on this show. I’m still learning the ins and outs of podcasting, and sometimes we do need to be put in our places.
Amy, I did not expect you to reply, I hope your feelings wweere not to badly dented.
But please don’t give up as a writer, we all have to learn. But do avoid biographic details in anything you write that is not a biogrpahy, try writing from a simple universal point of view about the subject, rather than what the subject contribtes to your life. Never use the word ME until it is indispensible. Good luck!
Hi Amy!
I’m a bit behind on my 365 days of astronomy (due to my computer being sick), but I wanted to tell you that I loved your post, and will be using some of your projects with the astronomy class I teach at our local school’s after-school program. Thanks for the great ideas!
CelticGoddess13