For Teachers - A Resource Page

Welcome to the Manfred Olson Planetarium’s teacher resource page. We hope to give you ideas to make the most of your visit to our facility. We appreciate your feedback!

Resource Materials

Each grade includes a teacher’s toolkit, pre- and post-visit guide for the students, and the answers to the guide. These materials were developed by Ms. Karen Green, a science teacher at Metropolitan High School, and Mr. Kevin Mcdonald, a science teacher at Alexander Mitchell. They were both recipients of a Research Experience for Teachers grant at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Ms. Green in summer 2007, 2008 and Mr. Mcdonald in summer 2008). For more information on this grant opportunity and how to apply see http://www4.uwm.edu/ret/

The toolkit includes:

• WKCE skills and MPS targets for the age group in question;
• pre-visit activities;
• description of the goals of the planetarium presentation;
• optional hands-on activities for the age group;
• post-visit activities;
• suggestions for assessment;
• suggested books and websites.

Please choose one of the following grades:

Kindergarten

Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Grade 5

Grade 6-8

Grade 9-12

See our suggestions on how to make your trip as successful as possible, and get directions and find out where to park.

We offer hands-on activities for a fee. Please see our list of activities that we offer at this time.

Earth’s Amazing Moon (K4-G8)

Students use playdough to make 50 balls (for G2 and above, students can use math skills to separate the playdough among students). Then they predict how many they would use for the Earth and how many they would use for the Moon. For G5-8 students, they would estimate how far the Moon should be from the Earth. They might be surprised!

Solar System to Scale (G2-G8)

Students make a scale model of the solar system along the length of a long hallway indoors. The students are separated in 4 groups with the 4th group being biggest: needing at least 5 members. The students are given instructions on how many tiles they need between various planets.

Star Charts (G5-12)

Students learn to use star charts to find various constellations in the sky. The activity involves looking at the star charts but also pointing to objects in the sky with a laser pointer.

Please feel free to contact Jean Creighton if you have additional questions. stargaze@uwm.edu