Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
This activity will form the main part of the lesson. It is a ‘How science works’ task.
Outline
The main objective is to sort the milestones in astronomy into chronological order and then
to use the information this provides to propose positions on the timeline for an additional
selection of developments in astronomy.
This can be carried out as a whole class activity or students can be divided into groups.
You may need to discuss the terms ‘years ago’ and ‘AD’ to enable students to construct
and understand the timeline.
Print out the milestones on pp.2-4 below and the pictures on the accompanying PDF. Cut
them up so there are 30 cards in total. They could then be laminated to use again.
Set up a washing line in the lab/classroom. Depending on the group, you could add
markers to show each five hundred years, AD and BC.
Hand out one card to each student. Get them to look carefully at their cards and to think
about what it is referring to, e.g. what era, ideas, event it is representing? Students then
have to find the person with the matching card and use a paperclip to join their cards
together. They then decide together where on the timeline their milestone fits and peg it
up.
Then the developments can be displayed and, working with partners, students decide
whereabouts on the timeline each should go. Alternatively, groups of students could be
given one development to put in place. They will need easy access to the washing line.
Students have to be able to explain and justify their decisions.
Each group has a copy of all the milestones and pictures. They match the milestone with
the correct picture. They then construct a timeline and fix each milestone to it. A long strip
of graph paper or a washing line could be used for the timeline. The groups can compare
their timelines.
Then the group works together to assign the developments positions on the timeline. They
should be able to explain and justify their decisions.
Moving on
The most recent developments in astronomy can be discussed and added to the timeline.
Students could choose a milestone and write/describe how this has changed people’s
understanding of Earth and space or how it altered people’s beliefs. What do they think
the future holds? What changes in technology need to occur to help us to progress our
understanding?
1054 AD
4 000 years ago
Chinese and Arab astronomers
recorded the explosion of a
Stonehenge may have been
supernova. It was so bright that
designed as an astronomical
it shone five times more brightly
instrument. It lines up roughly
than Venus and could even be
with the position of the rising
seen in the daytime!
sun on the longest day of the
year (summer solstice).
The remains of that explosion
have formed the Crab nebula.
1609 AD
1931 AD
Galileo saw craters on the
moon and some of the moons Jansky discovered radio waves
of Jupiter, and he described coming from outer space.
Saturn as having ‘ears’.
1969 AD
1925 AD
1675 AD 1543 AD
1872 AD
Developments in astronomy
2. The Space Shuttle sets the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit above
the Earth’s atmosphere. It can see 50 times deeper into space than
any telescope on Earth.
6. Knowing that lenses disperse and refract light, Sir Isaac Newton
experiments with concave mirrors. He constructs the first reflecting
telescope. Astronomers are now able to view the solar system in
more detail.
Answers
Images
Developments in astronomy