Topic: Stars and galaxies

Supplementary material for use in lessons in the group of natural sciences (nature, biology, chemistry, geography, physics), additional classes, science clubs. It can serve as a resource for expanding knowledge, preparing students for science competitions.

Target group

4th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

Grade IV

General requirements

II. Skills and application of knowledge in practice.

3. Analyzing, describing, comparing, classifying, using various sources of information (eg own observations, research, experiments, texts, maps, tables, photographs, films, information and communication technologies).

Specific requirements

I. Ways of learning about nature. Pupil:

2) gives the names of instruments used in cognition of nature, determines their purpose (magnifier, compass, tape measure).

General aim of education

Students explain what galaxies are and what they are built of.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• define the concept of the galaxy;

• discuss the construction of the Milky Way;

• explain what astronomy deals with;

• describe at least one device used to conduct astronomical observations.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers;

• binoculars or the simplest telescope - one piece per class.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students get acquainted with the content of the abstract. They prepare to work on the lesson in such a way to be able to summarize the material read in their own words and solve the tasks themselves.

Introduction

• The teacher explains the aim of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

• The teacher gives the topic of the lesson. Students write it in notebooks.

Realization

• The teacher brings the size of the Milky Way closer to students, presenting the following reasoning: in order to travel from the Sun to Earth, the light needs 8 minutes; to travel the Milky Way at its widest point, the light needs 100,000 years. The teacher writes an equation on the board:
  100,000 years = 100,000 x 365 days = 100,000 x 365 x 24 hours = 100,000 x 365 x 4 x 60 minutes = 525,600,000,000 minutes
  Then he explains that after dividing the above result by 8 minutes, we find out how large the diameter of the Milky Way is from the distance of the Earth to the Sun:
  525 600 million 000 minutes / 8 minutes = 6 570 000 000 = 6.57 billion.
  Thus, the distance between the two most distant extremities of our galaxy is almost seven billion times the distance from Earth to the Sun. The teacher makes the students realize that the size of the entire universe is even bigger, because there are many galaxies in the universe..

• Students, working individually or in pairs, carry out interactive exercises to check and consolidate knowledge learned during the lesson. Selected people discuss the correct solutions for interactive exercises. The teacher completes or corrects the statements of the proteges.

• The teacher presents and discusses the interactive illustration. He then divides the students into groups and recommends that each of them carry out an in‑depth analysis of one of the points presented in the diagram, based on available sources of information (e.g. internet, atlas or encyclopedia). Students present the results of work in groups. Each team ends their presentation with the wording of the conclusions.

• Work of the whole class team. Students stand in a circle. The teacher encourages them to play: throws a ball or mascot to one of the students, saying the English word or notion learned in the lesson. The student gives the Polish equivalent, mentions another word in English and throws a ball or mascot to a friend or colleague.

Summary

• At the end of the lesson the teacher asks: If there was going to be a test on the material we have covered today, what questions do you think would you have to answer? If the students do not manage to name all the most important questions, the teacher may complement their suggestions.

Homework

• Develop a lap book containing issues learned during the lesson and bring your work to the next class.

• Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Stars and galaxies

The Universe was created nearly 14 billion years ago as a result of the Big Bang. Throughout that entire time, it kept constantly expanding and changing to reach its current size and structure. It has to be mentioned that we still know very little about the Universe and the knowledge we have is not definitive.

The Sun is one of millions of stars comprising a large system of stars. Such system of stars is called a galaxy. The galaxy in which our Sun is located is called the Milky Way. We can observe a part of this galaxy from Earth in the form of a brigther streak across the sky. Galaxies are unimaginably large in size – light would need 100,000 years to travel across the entire galaxy it at its widest point. For comparison – light needs only 8 minutes to travel the way from the Sun to Earth (i.e. 150 mn kilometres).

Galaxies are large systems of stars in which we can distinguish hundreds of millions of glowing objects using telescopes and other devices! Next to individual stars, planets, rocks and other objects, they form part of the Universe, i.e. everything that physically exists. The study of these remote objects falls under the purview of a branch of science called astronomy. In their work, astronomers use such devices as telescope that allow them to observe even the most remote stars and galaxies.

• The Sun is one of millions of stars comprising a large system.

• Stars group together into large systems called galaxies.

• The system of stars in which our Sun is located is called the Milky Way.