Astronomy and Space Sciences

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 05.04.07

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Rationale and Initiation
  2. Lesson Starter: Les Étoiles / The Stars
  3. Lesson Starter: Les Étoiles brillantes et les étoiles faibles / Bright Stars and Dim Stars
  4. Les 20 étoiles les plus brillantes / The 20 Brightest Stars
  5. Les Constellations (The Constellations)
  6. The Pole Star and Changing Sky-Views
  7. Papier ou 3-D? / Paper or 3-D?
  8. Light Years
  9. Activities
  10. Questioning Techniques
  11. Lesson Plans
  12. Annotated Bibliography
  13. Annotated Web Sources
  14. Appendix A: Vocabulaire
  15. Appendix B – Les 20 étoiles les plus brillantes
  16. Endnotes

Qu'est-ce qu'il y a dans le ciel étoilé? Basic Astronomy for Middle School French Students

Crecia L. Cipriano

Published September 2005

Tools for this Unit:

Annotated Web Sources

About.com-French. http://french.about.com/library/weekly/bltopicsub-g.htm. A thorough online source for French grammar rules and help.

Active Learning Online. http://www.acu.edu/cte/activelearning/whyuseal2.htm. Image and explanation of Edgar Dale's Cone of Learning.

Astrofrance.net. http://perso.wanadoo.fr/constellations/index.htm. French language information on stars, constellations, and planets. Useful in finding the correct French accenting and translation for the star and constellation names.

Astronomy for Kids (and Supervised Adults). http://www.dustbunny.com/afk/index.html. Excellent comprehensive website for astronomy information, for kids but not kiddish. Lots of varied graphics and easy to navigate.

Ciel & Espace – France. http://www.cieletespace.fr/default.aspx. This site has gorgeous photographs of stars and the night sky. For advanced students, this site has a section entitled "Paroles d'Astronomes" in the larger section entitled "Comprendre". Here there are little video presentations of astronomers speaking about astronomical issues. In particular Hubert Reeves speaks clearly and fairly slowly, so that students have a best chance of comprehension with his presentations (of which there are 17).

Constellations. http://perso.wanadoo.fr/simoes/christian/constellations.html. This site has information on the colors of different stars according to their temperature. It seems to be a personal website, so double-check all information!

Constellations: Starshine.com. http://www.starshine.com/frankn/astronomy/ constellations.asp. This is a personal website that has a lot of information on it. Since it is not the site of an organization, I would only use this as a starting point for information to then research more carefully.

Factmonster. http://www.factmonster.com. Excellent site for children to look up information on stars.

Imago Mundi – Le ciel de la terre. http://www.cosmovisions.com/CTconstellations.htm

Great French language site, with thorough information on stars and constellations.

Mythography. http://www.loggia.com/myth/content.html. Good source for Greek myths about the constellations.

NASA KIDS. http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov. Lots of links from a very reputable source.

Planétarium de Montréal. http://www.planetarium.montreal.qc.ca/index_f.html. Montreal Planetarium website, in French and English. Great source of information, French language and spelling of content. Also, there is a 20-page classroom activity document on the solar system at the following part of the site: http://www.planetarium.montreal.qc.ca/Education/Fiches/PDF/roue_planetes.pdf.

WordReference.com. http://wordreference.com. Great multi-language dictionary site, with accurate and thorough translations or words and phrases. I recommend this site for students also.

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