Laboratory Title: The Glittery Milky Way



The Glittery Milky Way

Daphne Pickett

Concepts Addressed: Astronomy: Galaxies and Space

Lab Goals: Students will be able to recognize a spiral galaxy, and will become familiar with our galaxy and its components.

Lab Objective – Students will:

▪ Describe what a galaxy is made of

▪ Recognize and draw the Milky Way Galaxy

▪ Discover where their place is in the Universe

▪ Identify different types of galaxies

▪ Utilize creative writing skills and story development

Benchmark(s) Addressed: (Grades 1-3)

Grade 1

1.1P.1 Compare and contrast physical properties and composition of objects.

1.3S.1 Identify and use tools to make careful observations and answer questions about the natural world.

1.3S.2 Record observations with pictures, numbers, or written statements.

Grade 2

2.3S.1 Observe, measure, and record properties of objects and substances using simple tools to gather data and extend the senses.

2.3S.3 Make, describe, and compare observations, and organize recorded data.

2.4D.1 Use tools to construct a simple designed structure out of common objects and materials.

Grade 3

3.1P.1 Compare and contrast the properties of states of matter.

Materials and Costs:

List the equipment and non-consumable material and estimated cost of each

None

List the consumable supplies and estimated cost for presenting to a class of 30 students

Black Construction Paper pack of 50 sheets at Staples $1.49

Glitter at Craft Store $1.39

Paper for story at school free

Old newspapers to work on (recycled) free

Pencils (or white crayon) at school f free

Estimated total, one-time, start-up cost: $2.88

Time:

Preparation time: 30 minutes to gather materials and go over power point

Instruction time: 1 Lesson ~ one hour

Clean-up time: ~15 minutes to clean supplies

Assessment:

Option 1:

Give quiz asking questions about what was taught in the power point slides. Quiz difficulty will vary for different grade levels. Here is an example of a quiz for 2nd or 3rd grade:

1. The Milky Way Galaxy is a barred ________________ galaxy.

A. Elliptical

B. Spiral

C. Irregular

D. Round

2. The Milky Way Galaxy consists of ___________ and ____________.

3. How many arms are there in the Milky Way Galaxy?

A. 7

B. 6

C. 5

D. 4

4. Our Solar System is located on what arm of the Milky Way Galaxy?

5. What did you enjoy most about the lab?

Option 2:

Show pictures of the different types of galaxies, and have students identify which ones are spiraled, like the Milky Way.

Background

[pic]

The Milky Way galaxy viewed at night from Death Valley California.

The Milky Way is simply the common name for the galaxy that encompasses our solar system. It is a barred spiral galaxy that is part of the Local Group, a smaller group of 3 large and over 30 small galaxies, and is the second largest (after the Andromeda Galaxy M31) but perhaps the most massive member of this group of galaxies. It is one of billions of galaxies in the observable universe. The Milky Way is believed to be more than 13 billion years old, which is estimated to be virtually as old as the entire Universe itself.

The Milky Way galaxy, as viewed from Earth, is situated on a spur off one of the spiral arms of the galaxy, and appears as a hazy band of white light in the night sky arching across the entire celestial sphere and originating from stars and other material that lie within the galactic plane.

The stellar disk of the Milky Way galaxy is approximately 100,000 light-years (9.5×1017 km) in diameter, and is believed to be, on average, about 1,000 light years (9.5×1015 km) thick. It is estimated to contain at least 200 billion stars and perhaps up to 400 billion stars. The Earth’s solar system is believed to exist very close to the Galaxy’s galactic plane, due to the fact that the Milky Way essentially divides the night sky into two virtually equal hemispheres.

Our Galaxy is classified as Sb or Sbc by most sources. Newer investigations have brought up more and more evidence that the Milky Way probably has a bar, or bar-like structure, in its central region, which would modify its classification to become a barred spiral of type SB, or intermediate type between barred and "normal" spirals, SAB. "SAB" means that the Milky Way has (probably) a less evolved central bar structure - "SA" would be a "normal", barless spiral, "SB" a barred spiral galaxy.

Our galaxy has three main components: a disk, in which the solar system resides, a central bulge at the core, and an all encompassing halo. The Galaxy consists of a bar-shaped core region surrounded by a disk of gas, dust and stars forming four distinct arm structures spiraling outward in a logarithmic spiral shape (see Spiral arms).

The halo, which is a diffuse spherical region, surrounds the disk. It has a low density of old stars mainly in globular clusters (these consist of between 10,000 - 1,000,000 stars).The halo is believed to be composed mainly of dark matter which may extend well beyond the edge of the disk.

The disk of the Milky Way has four spiral arms and it is approximately 300pc thick and 30kpc in diameter. It is made up predominantly of Population I stars which tend to be blue and are reasonably young, spanning an age range between a million and ten billion years. The spiral arms of our Milky Way contain interstellar matter, diffuse nebulae, and young stars and open star clusters emerging from this matter. On the other hand, the bulge component consists of old stars and contains the globular star clusters; our galaxy has probably about 200 globulars, of which we know about 150.

The arms of the Milky Way are named for the constellations that are seen in those directions. The major arms of the Milky Way galaxy are the Perseus Arm, Sagittarius Arm, Centaurus Arm, and Cygnus Arm; our Solar System is in a minor arm called the Orion Spur. The Sun (and therefore the Earth and Solar System) may be found close to the inner rim of the Galaxy's Orion Arm. Our Sun, together with the whole Solar System, is orbiting the Galactic Center at the distance given, on a nearly circular orbit. We are moving at about 250 km/sec, and need about 220 million years to complete one orbit (so the Solar System has orbited the Galactic Center about 20 to 21 times since its formation about 4.6 billion years ago).

Activity 1: Glitter Galaxy

In this activity students will make their own Milky Way Galaxy using glitter and black construction paper.

Materials

• Glue

• Pencils (or white crayon)

• Black construction paper

• Glitter (best if there are a variety of colors, one for central bulge, one for arms)

• Old newspapers to work on

Procedure

• Work on some old newspaper. On the black construction paper, draw a rough sketch of our galaxy, the Milky Way using a pencil (or white crayon). Our galaxy is a spiral galaxy with five arms. The center is a dense disk containing many older stars.

• Put glue along the lines of your galaxy drawing.

• Sprinkle glitter on the paper. Tilt the paper onto some newspaper to shake off the loose glitter.

• You now have a picture of the Milky Way galaxy, the galaxy where we live – explain that each grain of glitter represents a single star (like our Sun).

• Have students label where our Solar System is located in the Milky Way. For higher grade levels have students label all of the arms of the Milky Way Galaxy as well as where our sun and Solar System are.

Activity 2: My Side of the Story

In this activity students will be read ancient stories about how the Milky Way galaxy came about and got its name. They will then make up their own version on how their glitter Milky Way Galaxy came about.

Materials

• Stories about the Milky Way

• Paper

• Pencils

• Glue

Procedure

• Look up stories about the Milky Way on the website and print it off to read to the class:



• Have students make up a story that explains how someone living thousands of years ago in their location might have explained how the Milky Way came about and got its name. Tell them to be really creative, and use their imagination.

• When finished glue story on the back of their glitter galaxy, and share their galaxy story to the class.

• For a more advanced class or higher grade level, have them choose a civilization to research to discover what important elements of their culture are reflected in these stories.

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