Astronomy: Our World In Space

Jeff Bullard is from Enid, Oklahoma, where he taught Junior High Earth Science until 1993 when he and his wife Ione, a Montessori teacher, moved to Minnesota.  Since then Jeff has been a chemistry, math, and earth and space systems teacher at Fridley High School.  Jeff’s first experience with the Summer Academy was last year when he substitute taught the first week of Dave Eckstrom’s Chemistry: Fun with Matter class.  Amazed by the students and staff of the Academy, Jeff hopes that students will be excited with this new astronomy class.

Astronomy: Our World In Space

Have you ever observed the night sky from a location far from city lights?  What did you see?  What did you wonder?  What did you think?  For at least 10,000 years our ancestors must have, no doubt, looked up at the night sky too.  What did they see?  What did they wonder?  What did they think?  Human curiosity combined with scientific inquiry has led to a fascinating, mind expanding, and changing view of the earth and its place in the universe.  Did you know that over 2200 years ago a Greek librarian measured the Earth.  After that the Greeks figured out the size of the moon and its distance from Earth.  And then they figured out how far away and how big the sun was!  We can too!

Each day we will use a telescope with a special filter that will allow us to view sunspots on the surface of the sun.  We will make daily observations of the moon and the path of the sun across the sky.  We will create earth models that will allow us to visualize the way our planet looks as viewed from space (locations receiving direct sunlight, night and day).  Imagine walking through our own scale model solar system (part of that journey will require a bus ride to a local planetarium).  We will look through different types of telescopes and figure out how (and how much) they magnify.  These telescopes can be taken home with parents in the evening for student star parties.  Optional field trips to Minnesota Astronomical Society star parties and evening Long Lake Park (dark) star parties will be offered for parents and students.

Join us as we imagine & investigate, compare & contrast, explore & explain the mysteries of our space environment.