manna momentJeremiah 10:2 “Thus says the Lord: “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, For the Gentiles are dismayed at them." Historically, comets have been seen as omens of evil when in fact they came with the Creation package on Day 4 when the Lord made the Sun, Moon and Stars. Jeremiah warns us that we are not to fall into superstition and become dismayed. We are to trust the Lord who made all things. Even today, we hear all sorts of information about space especially now with the new James Webb Space Telescope. We assume that those that are in direct contact with the data collected from this telescope think like us so then what they see and how they are interpreting the data should be true. This is not always the case. Worldview of astronomers shapes their interpretation always. Be wary and always seek out what is truth from God in His word. Jesus promises in John 8:31-32 that if we abide in His word, we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. We are free as believers to not succumb to every idea that our culture throws at us. Thank You Jesus for Your truth. Lets take some notes Through this lesson we learned about:
Comets, Asteroids, Meteors oh my! Taking the information from the note taking sheet, we applied what we learned to this foldable where the students can keep all the different kinds of space rocks separate.
Making a comet Comet models are a relatively easy thing to make and each part allows us to review what a comet is, its parts and what it is made of. Materials:
Instructions: 1. Grab your styrofoam ball which represents the nucleus of the comet. The nucleus is made of frozen ice mixed with rock and dust. 2. Cover your nucleus with foil representing the coma. The coma is a small atmosphere around the nucleus that is reflective When you are covering the nucleus with foil, you might have excess and can form the excess into a tiny tail that sticks out of the ball. From here you can take your silver and gold ribbon and tie them to the ball. 3. If you covered the nucleus with foil and it is flush with the ball, then grab a thumb tack and attach the ribbon to the ball using the thumb tack. You will need to secure the thumb tack with clear tape otherwise the tails will fall off easily. 4. Finally, place the comet on a bamboo stick and the students can zoom around with them.
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Manna Moment Psalm 104:19- "He made the moon for the seasons." God made the moon to mark the seasons. Many people still follow a lunar calendar for celebrating major holidays. One example of this is the Jewish celebration of Passover which is always on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan. Jesus was crucified following the Passover meal which is why Christians and the Western world will move the celebration of Easter to whichever Sunday follows the Jewish Passover celebration. Because the holiday follows the lunar calendar, Easter always falls on a full moon. Planet Research Presentation For weeks 9 and 10 of this unit, I am having the students research a planet and present on it. Here is the Planet Presentation rubric that I am using to evaluate them. This includes all the information that I expect to have in the presentation along with points to give for each objective reached. At the bottom of the rubric there are directions on how to write a bibliography. Phases of the Moon Card Game Instructions for playing: For every 2 players, you will need 3 ‘decks’ of cards or 3 sets of the eight phases of the moon.
Characteristics of the Moon Note Taking Guide My favorite part of this note taking sheet is the bottom image. It is a great picture of what is happening to the Earth's tides as a result of the moon's gravity. It isolates everything but the movement of the earth so that you can see how we have two high tides and two low tides a day. Other topics included in this guide are:
Craters of the Moon Model This is a great explorative activity. The goal of this activity is to find out what factors affect the size and shape of craters that form when speeding objects strike the surface of the moon Materials Included:
The students were to smooth out a surface of flour, measure their marble and then decide on a height to drop their marble from. After they dropped it, they were to measure the width of the crater as well as the diameter of the ejecta that splattered at impact. They were to document this data and then choose if they wanted to try this at different heights with the same marble OR they could pick different shaped rocks that were lying around outside where we were and drop it at the same height.
 This is a plug for our Route 104 Mobile Science Classroom. It is no coincidence that our scripture for today's lesson comes from Psalm 104, the namesake of our mobile science classroom.
manna moment: A light worth reflectingPsalm 8:3-4-"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? The moon is different from the Sun in that it is not a star and does not produce its own light. We can see the moon because it reflects the light from the Sun. In the same way, we as Christians should reflect the light of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The light we shine does not come from us but from the Light of the World! Just as the moon can be seen at different phases depending on its position relative to the Sun and Earth, the light we shine is relative to our position before Jesus and among the people He created. What are the Phases of the Moon?The irony that the moon goes through eight phases during one orbit around the Earth, yet we only see the one side of the moon always. Would this be evidence for intentional and intelligent design by a Creator God? Here in our note taking guide, I had the students walk along with me through the different phases. As we did, we filled in the chart on the notetaking guide
Some of the points that we learned from the note taking guide were that the moon moves through a very predictable pattern The eight phases of the moon begin with a Waxing Crescent- Waxing means growing First Quarter- Means that the moon has made it one quarter of its orbit around the Earth Waxing Gibbous- Waxing, of course, means growing and Gibbous means 'hump' Full Moon- While this is full to us, the moon is actually only halfway done with its orbit around the Earth. Waning Gibbous- Waning means 'lessening' and Gibbous means hump Third Quarter- The moon is three quarters of the way done with its orbit Waning Crescent- Waning is lessening New Moon- The moon has completed its orbit around the Earth and is now between the sun and the moon so it isn't visible to Earth. Why do we see the same face of the moon?There is short activity that you can do to demonstrate this idea. Try it out with a friend. Get ready to walk forward following a circular path around your friend. Point your elbow towards your friend. Did you rotate 360 degrees? What side of your body did they see? Here is a YouTube video that explains it as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZIB_leg75Q Phases of the Moon Card gameHere are some cards that go with this game. You will need 3 'decks' or 3 complete sets of cards for every two people.
Manna MomentPerspective is how you see something. The activity that we did today was about perspective. We built a model of the Big Dipper as we view it from earth. In our model, we included a view that was not from earth to allow us to see that the stars don't look like a big dipper from anywhere else in space but from our point of view. Often, we are so used to seeing things from our perspective that we forget that God's perspective is completely different. God's thoughts are NOT our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). This also reminds us to strive to think on things that are above as stated in Colossians 3:1-2. "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth." making a model of the Big dipper Here are the instructions for making this model of the Big Dipper that you can view from several different perspectives. First we plotted the Big Dipper on grid paper and taped it to the end of our cardboard box.
 Next, we used either a compass end or a file to poke holes through the cardboard box where the stars of the big dipper were located on the grid paper taped to the box.  We took some thread and made sure that it was longer than the length of the box and cut it.  Next, we threaded a needle. We used the threaded needle to go from the outside of the box to the inside of the box and taped the thread to the outside of the box. While the thread is in the box, we threaded it through a loosely crumbled piece of foil. Then, we went through the middle stars of the big dipper on our grid paper first and taped the thread on the outside of the opposite side of the box. We did this 7 times to complete the model  A completed model  Seeing the Big Dipper from our hole in the cardboard box representing our view from earth. There is also a hole on the side of box that lets you view the stars from outside the earth. Galaxies and Can Stars Sing Note taking Guide I focused our class time on making our model but these are the notes that I gave my students to read and do at home.
Included are two videos. Here is a video on how stars sing And this is a video on how the stars, whales and us can all worship God. Its amazing!!! Manna MomentGod created the the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day of creation (Genesis 1:16). We’ve already looked at the many ways God uses the Sun to provide for life on Earth but did you know that the Sun is only one of the multitude of special stars that God created and named? Review of the Sun To test the student's knowledge of the parts of the sun, I gave them this diagram. Seasons and Orbit of the Earth
What is a Star Have you heard the classic lullaby Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star? Here is a science version I found on Adcouncil.org It goes like this: Twinkle, twinkle little star You're a ball of gas that's far 32 light years in the sky 10 parsecs which is really high Hydrogen and Helium Fuse to make our starry friend When it enters supernova stage it explodes with bursts of rays And if the star's mass is big and bold It will become a black hole Throughout our note taking guide today, we defined what many of these terms and learned about what a star is, what are constellations and what asterisms are. We learned that God has named all the stars and we have tried to name them according to the categories they fall into. First of all, stars are balls of gas that are really far. Hydrogen and Helium are gases that fuse within a star and create a thermonuclear reaction that powers the star. This is the same with our sun. Scientists categorize stars by their color/temperature, their brightness and their approximate diameter. Scientists use these letters in this order to tell us how hot a star is O B A F G K M I challenged the students to come up with an initialism to remember these letters as the O is the hottest star that is blue/violet while the M is the coolest star at red. Our sun is a G on the temperature scale and it is a yellow star. We came up with: Oh Boy Astronomy Feeds Great Kind Minds There is a spot on the note taking sheet for you to come up with your own initialism. A star's brightness is based on a number scale where the smaller the number, the brighter the star. How big a star is, is categorized by roman numerals with roman numeral I being a supergiant like Betelgeuse. Constellation versus asterismIn 1930 there was an Astronomical Society that decided to categorize all the stars into 88 constellations. Therefore there are only 88 constellations. A constellation is a region of the sky with stars. The stars don't have to be part of a picture to be within the constellation. Should a group of stars create a picture like the Big Dipper, it would then be called an asterism. However, constellation is used interchangeably for Big Dipper and Ursa Major. This is probably fine, I just found it interesting the difference. How do you find the North Star? I drew this picture on the board to help show the students how to find the North Star, Polaris. First you would locate the Big Dipper and find the stars Merak and Dubhe. These two stars will point straight to Polaris which is on the handle of the little dipper. I had the students draw this on black construction paper with white map pencils. I gave them star stickers to put in place of the stars if they wanted.
Manna momentGenesis 1:16- "Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day..." Great is God's faithfulness! Since Creation, the Sun has never ceased to shine upon the Earth with the exception of a few supernatural events in scripture. Even in the darkest night, the Sun is shining on another part of the world. This reminds me of how our God never sleeps and is always taking care of us. Great is His Faithfulness! sun basics
There are many kinds of waves that form the electromagnetic spectrum. The only part that we can see with our unaided eye is the visible light section of the spectrum. It is from studying these wavelengths that we are able to figure out the composition of stars, planets, comets, and galaxies.  How do we know anything about the sun? Its so bright and Hot!!There is a Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) that orbits the Sun in the same line as the Earth. It was first launched in 1995 but has been extended several times and will, at this time, remain until 2025. One of the purposes of this mission was to acquire knowledge of the structure of the interior of the sun. While no one can observe the interior, the information gathered from SOHO has been incredibly helpful. For more information about this mission visit here. Parts of the Sun ModelI gave this to the students to do on their own to review the parts of the sun. You can check it out here.  My students are awesome and their parents are amazing!!! Way to get after this homework on a day when the sun isn't out! How large is the Diameter of the sun?Our in class investigation today was to see if we could find the diameter of the sun. The only materials needed are:
Procedure: The students were to first draw a 2mm circle on one of their index cards. Then in the other index card, they were to poke a pin hole into it. We went outside on a bright, sunny day and used the pin hole to try and match the size of the 2mm circle. When that happened, a partner was to measure the distance between the two cards in millimeters. We then divided 186,000,000 by our number in millimeters to get the estimated diameter of the sun. To see how accurate your number was, you can then divide your number by 864,000 to get a percentage. The closest to 100% is how well you did your measuring and calculating. We made an investigation sheet based off the experiment in the 77 Fairly Safe Science Activities for Illustrating Bible Lessons by Donald B DeYoung. This is one of my favorite books for getting science activities from. There is a scripture, explanation of the activity, the science behind it and a biblical application.
 A 2mm circle is very hard to draw. It is soooo small. They did a great job though. 
 They are to match the size of the light going through the pin hole with the 2mm circle.  Once they matched the light from the pin hole with the 2mm circle, they are to measure the distance between the index cards.
They will use this number in the division problem mentioned above. Genesis 1:3-4 -"And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness." Opening activityUsing the information from the Astronomy timeline last week, I had the students get together and put in order the different pictures of the men that made discoveries in astronomy since the beginning of time. There are numerous women that have made significant contributions as well, and I can't wait to add them in at a later time.  A study of light note taking guide In this note taking guide, you will find several properties of light. And as we were going through the information, I would pause and do a demonstration with that property of light. Light behaves like a particle and a wave. Place a teaspoon of milk powder in a glass pan filled halfway with water. This will make the water cloudy. Shine a red pointer throughout the room and make an observation. Could you see the path the light traveled in? Did it travel in a straight line? Now place the pointer on the side of the glass pan and shine the red light through the cloudy water. Could you see the path the light traveled in? DId it travel in a straight line?  Another property of light is that it travels fast. Light travels 300 million meters per second and slows down slightly through materials of different density. Light is bright. We use lumens to measure the brightness of light. The Sun is 35 octillion lumens which is 35 with 27 zeros after it (35,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) Light travels in a straight path but can change directions depending on the type of material the light encounters. During class, we used mirrors to reflect the light of the flashlight and demonstrate how the light can change directions. Many large telescopes and satellites use different types of mirrors to study the night sky.
 Science Facts versus science ideas In order for something that we read or hear about in science to actually be a fact, it must be observable- meaning that any person could reasonably make the same observation, measurable- describable with a level of consistency or with a calibrated instrument. and/or repeatable- meaning that if the same conditions are present, the phenomena could be observable again with the same range of results. Science ideas, however, are rooted in the person or people's shared worldview. If we believe that God created the Sun, Moon, and Stars on the fourth day then our interpretation of data will align with our worldview of creation by God. However, if we don't believe God is Creator then our interpretations will be void of God and His creation. As you can see, the creation of the world is NOT observable, therefore both of these are simply science ideas based on different worldviews. One of my favorite places to check facts I read in the news is the Institute of Creation Research (https://www.icr.org/ ) or Answers in Genesis. Both of these align with my worldview that God created the universe in 6 days and are backed by creation scientists with the same worldview.  Mitten investigation To test and see how light and heat can be absorbed, here is a mitten investigation. You will cut out a white mitten and a black mitten. You can cut out all the colors of the rainbow mittens if you wanted to and see which colors absorb the most light and heat. This can be measured using a thermometer.
For the next 12 weeks, we will be studying what God created on the fourth day of Creation, the sun, moon and stars. opening activityOur first activity for class was putting together different puzzles of significant people who have made a considerable impact on what we study today in Astronomy. I picked the puzzle activity because it seemed to me as I researched the history of astronomy that each significant person had one piece of the puzzle that is coming together even more today. Discovering how our world 'hangs' in space, moves in space and exists compared to other celestial bodies is very fascinating. When you look at the timeline of discoveries in Astronomy, at the beginning, these men and women had to wait hundreds of years for the next 'puzzle piece'. Even so, there is a plumb line through all the discoveries and miscalculations even and it is God and His Word. While science changes everyday, God and His Word do not change. I am so thankful that the Word of God is not a science textbook. If it were, it would need to be updated and changed frequently as our textbooks. Rather, in God's Word on multiple occasions has spoken to us about space, the stars, our planet with truths that were proved much later in history.
Science Changes But God and His Word Does Not .Although the Bible is not a science textbook, it is a testimony of who God is and what He has done. There have been several instances in our history where scripture revealed a truth before scientists discovered evidence to support it. For example, God used Isaiah (Isaiah 40:22, 700 BC) to describe the Earth as a round object 200 years before Pythagoras first proposed it was a sphere. Likewise, God used Job (Job 26:7, 2,000 BC) to poetically describe how the Earth hangs on nothing–almost 4000 years prior to Isaac Newton’s formal law of gravitation was formalized. God also revealed through Isaiah that the heavens are stretched like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent–a truth about the expanding universe that Edwin Hubble wouldn’t observe evidence for until the 1920s. In all these ways and so many more, God has planted seeds of truth about Himself and His creation in His word that we might be encouraged that His Word is Truth and we can build our lives and our understanding of the universe around us on it. If you would like to listen to a 13 minute podcast by Dr. Jason Lisle about these topics, he explains these and a few others here light in space investigationWhile Astronomy is the study of celestial objects, space and the physical universe as a whole, much of Astronomy is actually the study of light. Using the information that we know about how light works, we are able to understand the composition of stars and how far away they are from us. Light travels in a straight path, however some materials make the light stop traveling and be absorbed, change directions and appear diffused or pass right through. We are going to investigate the adjectives to describe these different kinds of materials. Transparent- objects that are transparent allow light to pass through so that objects are clearly seen through it. Translucent- objects that are translucent allow only some light to pass through but detailed shapes cannot be seen through it. Opaque- objects where no light can pass through are called opaque. For our investigation, we used a page protector, some tissue paper and a piece of cardboard to figure out if it is transparent, translucent, or opaque. This is a relatively simple investigation where the student will be experientially knowledgable of the three vocabulary words above. The investigation is organized in the scientific method to expose students to the process of how to find answers to their science questions. Some of the data analysis questions will really make you think. For example: If we can see stars at night, what does that tell you about space? You can find this investigation sheet here. 
 observation JournalWhat does the sky look like at night? Can you identify some of the stars and planets? What time does the sun rise and set? Can you see a moon? What phase is it in? Hopefully after making a habit of checking on the sky, the students will become more familiar with the sun, moon and stars. Here is an observation journal sheet to get them started.  |
Lead LearnerWelcome! My name is Nicole Fleming and I have been leading science learning in the Bryan/College Station homeschool community for over 10 years. ArchivesCategories |
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