Daily Archives: November 22, 2008

astronomy

What Do Kids Want to Know?

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Astronomy and Space Piques Their Interest

Children in Venezuela celebrate astronomy. (Courtesy UNAWE.org)
Children doing an astronomy exercise in Venezuela. (Courtesy UNAWE.org)

I’ve been asked to give talks next year at a several places (including some cruise ships) and I’m using those experiences to help people celebrate the International Year of Astronomy. In addition, I’m creating some podcasts for the IYA’s ongoing 365 Days of Astronomy activity, which should be very cool.

One of the venues where I’m speaking asked me to come up with a program for kids, basically to answer their questions about space and astronomy. Those are always a lot of fun because it’s amazing what questions children will ask. Generally I make a little opening statement, show some really cool pix (and/or animations) from the latest space and astronomy news stories, and then open the floor to questions.

The International Year of Astronomy begins January 1, 2009. Planning for its events has been going on for several years.
The International Year of Astronomy begins January 1, 2009. Planning for its events has been going on for several years.

So, I pretty much know what sorts of questions I’ll get, and I can prepare for those. I went online and did a search on “questions from kids about astronomy” and found some really, really helpful sites. So, for those of you who teach astronomy and/or give talks to the young’uns about those subjects — or, if you ARE a young’un and want to see what other young’uns are asking, here are a few of the ones I ran across. (NOTE: these comprise a very tiny sampling of what’s out there, so I encourage you to Google for yourself, too.)

  • The University LowBrow Astronomers of Ann Arbor, Michigan, has a nice reprint of a 1998 article by Mark Deprest called Questions by Students and Teachers.
  • The folks at Cool Cosmos have the ever-popular Ask an Astronomer for Kids page, chock full of all kinds of great info.
  • NASA’s Starchild learning center online is a great source for questions and answers!
  • My friend Phil Plait (also known as The Bad Astronomer) has a great set of Youtube videos where he answers questions from kids. Check ’em out.
  • And then there’s Curious about Astronomy, the outreach effort from Cornell University.
  • Want to test your knowledge in astronomy (and other sciences)?  Check out the Explorit online science center.
  • Finally (for this round of links, anyway) there’s the Homework Help page at Amazing Space, the outreach effort at Space Telescope Science Institute.

Chances are I’ll be poking around some more as I prepare my talks for IYA, and who knows what other great sites I’ll run across as I do!