Teaching Science in Elementary Schools

Welcome, elementary educators!

Note: Bring hammers and scissors

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“Why did not somebody teach me the constellations, and make me at home in the starry heavens, which are always overhead, and which I don’t half-know to this day?” — Thomas Carlyle

Old books offer us the opportunity to recover meaning in what we do. The night sky is filled with hundreds of stories which remind us that a knowledge of the heavens has always been part of what makes us human.

What memories do you have of watching the stars? What stories do you like to tell about the night sky?

The stars are a great example of using rare books in teaching. They enchant us with wonder, and fit in with an interdisciplinary, unit studies approach.

We will be in two spaces: Murphy and Gaylord. We will examine rare books in Gaylord and do activities in Murphy.

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PART I — 1:30-2:30

Foyer: Cuneiform brick, Choga Zanbil (ca. 1300 BCE).

Gaylord

1. Peter Apian, Cosmographicum (1540).
   • Apian: Cosmic section and lunar eclipse.
2. Camille Flammarion, L’Atmosphere (Paris, 1888). Flat-Earth woodcut.
   • Boldy go… leaflet.
   • Download images: original black and white (tiff, for coloring); colorized version (tiff) by Susanna Joy Magruder. Cf. Blog post.
   • Video presentation: Shape of the Earth.
   • Website archive: “This is not a medieval woodcut.”
3. Anonymous, Urania’s Mirror (London, 1824). Constellation cards. Distinguish star patterns from constellation figures.
   • Urania’s Mirror leaflet.
   • Urania’s Mirror constellation cards (for coloring or study).
   • Urania’s Mirror at Sky Tonight.
4. Friedrich Braun, Himmels Atlas in Transparenten Karten (1860). Constellation cards.
5. Ptolemy, Almagest, in Opera (“Works”; Basel, 1541). Johann Honter drew constellation figures after the manner of Albrecht Dürer. At Sky Tonight.
6. Johann Bayer, Uranometria (“Measuring the Heavens”; Ulm, 1661), bound with Johann Bayer, Explicatio characterum (Ulm, 1697). 1st “Golden atlas.”
   • Bayer’s depiction of ancient constellations.
   • Bayer at Sky Tonight.
7. Johann Kepler, De stella nova in pede Serpentarii (Prague, 1606)
   • Kepler’s explanation of the Star of Bethlehem.
   • Kepler 1606 at Sky Tonight.
8. William Schickard, Astroscopium (1698).
   • Create your own astroscopium. Download templates: Plate 1 (tiff); Plate 2 (tiff).
   • Schickard at Sky Tonight.
9. Hevelius star atlas. 2nd “Golden Atlas.” Includes three books, usually published separately: (1) Uranographia, or Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia (“The Firmament of King Sobiesci, or Map of the Heavens”; Gdansk, 1690); bound with (2) Prodromus Astronomiae (“Preliminary Discourse for Astronomy”; Gdansk, 1690); bound with (3) Catalogus stellarum fixarum (“Catalog of the Fixed Stars”; Gdansk, 1687). Can you find the title pages and frontispieces for each of these three books?
   • Elisabeth Hevelius leaflet.
   • Hevelius atlas at Sky Tonight.
10. Vincenzo Coronelli, celestial globe gores (Paris, 1693; reprint ca. 1800).
    • Celestial globe leaflet.
    • Coronelli gores at Sky Tonight.
11. Johann Bode, Uranographia (“Map of the Heavens”; Berlin, 1801). 4th “Golden Atlas.”
    • Bode atlas leaflet.
    • PDF: Original plates (for coloring or study).
    • Bode at Sky Tonight.
12. Planisphere: Maier, Drehbar Sternkarte (c. 1890).
13. Catherine Whitwell, An Astronomical Catechism (London, 1818).
    • Whitwell at Sky Tonight.

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PART II — 2:45-4:10

Murphy

Storytelling

• Follow the Drinking Gourd
• Halley Came to Jackson
• Hoot the Owl, by Anna Todd.
  • Download PDF: Hoot the Owl.
  • Blog post: Hoot the Owl Backstory.
• Middle Earth astronomy:
  • Blog post: Poem by Rachel Folmar.
  • Blog post: Explanation of poem.

Coloring pages: Flammarion, Urania’s Mirror, Bode.

Six Constellations.

• Orion.
• Coma Berenices.

Constellation tubes:

• Packing tape
• *Scissors
• Nails, wood base
• *Hammers

Celestial Globes

• Find 6 constellations
• Trace the Zodiac
  • Zodiac constellations handout.
  • Why is your horoscope out of date?.

Constellations intro and activities.

Go to Ogilvie: astrolabes, orrery, pocket globe, sundials, cosmonaut doll.

Time of night: planispheres as star clocks

• Diurnal motion leaflet (background for telling time by the stars)
• Planisphere leaflet.
• Nocturnal Dial (star clock).

Seasons

• Chet Raymo: Winter Hexagon and Summer Triangle
• Robert Frost, “The Star Splitter”
• Starstruck Tonight (winter; summer)

Music

• Johann Kepler, Harmonices mundi (“Harmony of the Universe,” Linz, Austria, 1619).
  • Kepler, Harmony leaflet.
  • Music: Kepler suite, arranged for harp, flute and oboe, by Jonathan Annis (m4a). Short (2:25 mins). Original (10:13 mins).
  • Video presentation: Kepler life and works tour.
• Favorite space music?

Art

• Galileo, Sidereus nuncius (Venice, 1610).
  • Optics activity.
  • The Sidereus at Sky Tonight.
  • A Book Mystery (Sidereus whodunnit).
• Johann Hevelius, Selenographia (1647).
• Lorenzo Sirgatti, La Pratica di Prospettiva (Venice, 1596).
• Jean François Niceron, La Perspectiva Curieuse (Paris, 1663).
  • Make your own Alberti box, from Niceron.
• Space art.

Hold a star party

• Current free monthly printable star map with planets.
• Volunteer amateur astronomers: OKC Astro Club; Lunar Sooners
• Daytime: Sun telescope

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Supplemental resources:

• skytonight.org: my star atlas digital project.
• kerrymagruder.com: my professional blog (under construction). See the “videos” tab.
• Additional links on the Stellar post.
• Video presentation:
  • In a public presentation, Starstruck Tonight, Candace and I describe most of the astronomical works on display in this section, along with poetry and literature about the night sky.
• The Sky Tonight:
  The images that fuse the beauty of modern deep space photos with historic star atlases may all be downloaded at my website skytonight.org. Information about each atlas is available under the “Sources” tab. Constellation images are found under the Constellations tab, etc.
• Index for Chet Raymo, 365 Starry Nights, to quickly find the pages for any constellation.

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University web pages:

• History of Science Collections
• Bizzell Bible Collection
• University of Oklahoma Libraries
• repository.ou.edu: Many of the books displayed are digitized and available in the library’s open access online library.

Become a researcher at the OU History of Science Collections:

You are welcome to come back as a researcher. You do not need to be an academic scholar. There is a registration process. After that, the books will be brought to you in the Reading Room. It’s good to request the books in advance so they can be pulled and waiting for you. All this is explained on the web page for the History of Science Collections. Go to the University of Oklahoma Libraries website (libraries.ou.edu) and navigate to the page for the History of Science Collections. There you can register online, request the books you want to see ahead of time, and ask any questions you have for Collections staff. And then come and sit with the books.

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