Download doc - UWM

Grades 6-8: Answers to Questionnaires
After students have completed the Pre and Post-Visit Questionnaire,
discuss each topic with your class.
Ancient cultures used celestial objects to keep time. TRUE. Ancient
cultures observed seasonal movements of celestial objects and based
their calendars on them. A year is based on the time required for the
Earth to orbit the Sun once. A month is about the time required for the
Moon to orbit the Earth once. A day is the time required for the Earth to
rotate once on its axis.
The Earth’s distance from the Sun causes the
seasons. FALSE. The tilt of the Earth on its axis
and the Earth’s orbit around the Sun are what
causes the seasons on Earth. Parts of the Earth
that have the Sun appear high in the sky
experience summer and those that have the
Sun low in the sky experience winter. Spring and
fall occur when the sunlight is directly over the
equator (in the middle) so for neither
hemisphere the sun appears to be particularly
high or low in the sky. A site with excellent
downloadable videos vividly showing this
concept and many others is available at
http://www.mogivice.com/Pagine/Downloads.html
Stars are forming in the universe as you read this. TRUE. Stars are
continually being formed and destroyed. Stars are formed, or born, in
clouds of gas and dust in the interstellar medium. Gravity squeezes the
mass of these “star nurseries” so that the centers become incredibly
dense and hot. These extreme conditions allow hydrogen fusion to
begin. The outward pressure from the fusion balances the inward force
of gravity. The gas stops collapsing and a star is born.
Grades 6-8: Answers to Questionnaires
The Moon’s phases are caused by the Earth’s shadow.
FALSE. Half of the Moon is always lit, but we don’t
always see all of the lit side. Often we see a portion of
the lit side (100% is a full moon and 0% is a new moon)
depending on where the Moon is with respect to the
Sun. There are eight phases that the Moon goes
through and they always occur in the same order.
The phases of the Moon are: 1) New Moon, 2) Waxing
Crescent, 3) First Quarter, 4) Waxing Gibbous, 5) Full
Moon, 6) Waning Gibbous, 7) Last Quarter, 8) Waning
Crescent, and back to the New Moon. (From
www.coldwater.
k12.mi.us/lms/planetarium/guide/moon.html)
See and download an excellent visual on this
concept and many others at www.mogi-vice.
com/Pagine/Downloads.html.
We always see the same side of the Moon because it doesn’t rotate.
FALSE. We always see the same side of the Moon because it does
rotate. Because it takes about the same amount of time to rotate as it
does to revolve around the Earth, we always see the same side. The
side we don’t see is known as “the far side of the Moon.”
Pluto is the ninth planet. FALSE. There are only eight planets. Since 1992,
we have discovered hundreds of icy bodies like Pluto with tilted oval
orbits past the orbit of Neptune. These bodies are called Kuiper belt
objects. Pluto is one of the larger members and in August 2006 was
reclassified as a dwarf planet. As of February 2009, there are 5 official
dwarf planets, also known as “Plutoids,” (Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Haumea,
Makemake) with others pending.
Your zodiac sign is related to the stars. TRUE. Ancient people observed
that the Sun, Moon, and planets always seem to move across the sky
through a series of twelve constellations, known as the zodiac. In
particular, a person’s zodiac sign was the name of one of the 12
constellations of the zodiac that the Sun was closest to at the time of
the person’s birth.
Grades 6-8: Answers to Questionnaires
What does the solar system contain? It contains the Sun, planets, dwarf
planets, asteroids, comets, meteoroids (small debris traveling through
the solar system), radiation, etc.
In Milwaukee there are stars we can see all year
round. TRUE. Some we can see include the stars of
the Big Dipper, and Polaris the circumpolar North
Star.
What are constellations? Name three. Constellations are patches of sky
that contain a characteristic pattern of stars. The patterns are often
named after characters from ancient Greek and Roman mythology
(although individual stars have mostly Arabic names). There are 88
official constellations. Common constellations visible from Milwaukee
include the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, the Little Dipper, Gemini, Orion, Leo
and many more.
What is the difference between a star and a planet? A star is a ball of
very hot gas where nuclear fusion can occur and which produces the
light that make stars shine. A planet, on the other hand, gets its light
reflected from its companion star.
How can you tell the difference between a star and a planet in the sky?
The stars in the sky appear to be in fixed positions with respect to each
other. Planets move in complicated paths across the sky. They exhibit a
behavior called “retrograde motion” where they appear to go
backwards for a period of time relative to the background stars in the
celestial sphere as they move in their orbit around the Sun. Also, planets
almost never twinkle. Some of this information from “Curious About
Astronomy at
http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=549