KEY ELEMENTS: EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE

By the end of the grade, students will have examined the formation, composition, and characteristics of the solar system, stars, and universe.

Vocabulary

Asteroids, axis tilt, Big Bang, colonization, comets, constellations, Copernicus, galaxies, Kepler, moons, nebulae, planets, probes, Ptolemy, revolution, rotation, satellites, solar and lunar eclipses, spectroscopes, star clusters/types, Sun, telescopes, terraforming

Knowledge
• technologies advance understanding of the solar system, stars, and universe
• components of the universe and solar system
• significance of Earth’s rotation, revolution, and axis tilt
• celestial sphere in relation to constellations and their location
• motion of constellations, planets, moons, sun, asteroids, and comets
• solar and lunar eclipses
• implications of space travel

Skills and Attitudes
• illustrate astronomical phenomena
• show respect for Aboriginal perspectives
• identify ethical considerations associated with space travel

RESOURCES

First Nations in British Columbia(handbook for a trip to the museum of anthropology)

Article on the need for an ethical framework for dealing with non-intelligent extra terrestrial life

Cosmic Quest: discovering astronomy through science and culture (excellent, features 3 aboriginal groups, although not BC)

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