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Ancient Observatories Timeless Knowledge

Sun-Earth Day Presents: Ancient Observatories, Timeless Knowledge

Educators
9-12 Lesson Plans

Timeless Knowledge Lesson Plans

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Sun-Earth Day 2005: A Special Day In Your Classroom

This activity is an opportunity to explore observations of the Sun in the past and present. You will be introduced to a variety of images, ideas and the new NASA Connect program, "Ancient Observatories, Timeless Knowledge". This particular NASA Connect program is not just about math! It also includes Science, Geography, History, Cross-Cultural Connections and Technology.

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Technology Through Time Bulletin Board Activity

This bulletin board activity is designed to focus student attention on the role that sun watching has played in humankind's survival through time. As part of this display you may wish to use your own world map ordownload one we have created for you.

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Ancient Observatories: Timeless Knowledge Activities

These activities are designed to help you make connections between events in your life and the seasons of the year. One major connection relates the concept of the seasons to past observations.

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Sunspots

This resource will allow you to explore the nature of sunspots and the fascinating history of our efforts to understand them. Included here are interviews with solar physicists and archaeoastronomers, historic images, modern NASA images and movies, and a sunspot research activity.

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Astronomy of the Americas: Volume 11 Planetarium Activities for Student Success (PASS)

There are hundreds of Native American cultures, each with distinctive views of the heavens. In this program, students visit five cultures: the Hupa people of Northern California, Medicine Wheel in Northern Wyoming, Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, the Mayan people and the Incan people.

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Sunwatchers of the Southwest

Visit this site to download the free activity guide, "Sunwatchers of the Southwest". This guide focuses on the ancient Chaco Canyon culture and the solar observation activity their skywatchers apparently engaged in. Please note that this is the pilot version. It will be updated pending piloting feedback.

 

General Sun-Earth Connection Lesson Plans

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All About the Sun

From NASA's Quest's Learning Technologies Channel (at NASA Ames) and the Stanford Solar Center, learn more about the sun from this impressive archive of video clips and materials from past webcasts.

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Magnetic Field Activities for the High School Classroom

This unit is designed to acquaint the student with the magnetic field. The assumed average student has some familiarity with the uniform gravitational field of classical Newtonian dynamics and kinematics lessons. This is not required however. The unit is meant to introduce the idea of a field through investigations of magnetic fields as produced by various common magnetic materials and direct currents.

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