Four ways to bring the night sky into your classroom this Winter

Many people don’t like the long dark nights that winter brings, but when they’re clear, they can be one of the most beautiful sights in the natural world.

There’s something amazing about looking up at a clear night sky. Nothing captures my imagination quite like looking at thousands of stars and imagining the worlds which might be orbiting them.

The night sky is a great teaching resource; it’s inspiring, freely available, and you don’t need any special equipment to appreciate it - all you need is a clear night. Secondly, the early sunsets in winter mean that even younger pupils can see the night sky.

You don’t, however, need to wait until sunset to bring the night sky into the classroom. There are several planetarium programs which allow you to simulate the night sky. My favourite is Stellarium, which is free to download. This program is easy to use and well supported with a clear guide and an active community of users.     

With or without this kind of software, the night sky is an easy and effective way to bring space science into the classroom. Below, there are four resources which you could use to engage your pupils with the night sky.   

Myths and legends

This is a great resource (developed by European Universe Awareness) which describes the myths which are used to explain some of the constellations. This is a nice way to inspire pupils by combining science, history and literacy. The activity could be extended by getting pupils to design their own constellations and write their own corresponding myths. The resource can be used to develop truly cross-curricular lessons.

Real star sign

As the Earth orbits the Sun, the view of the night sky changes, causing the constellations to progress across the night as the year progresses. This resource also allows pupils to find their own star sign and discover how the view from the Earth will change as the Earth orbits the Sun. The model lets them see how the night sky changes over a year and how the Earth must be spinning to see the Sun rise in the east and set in the west.

How big and how far?

One of the problems often encountered when you’re looking at the night sky is an appreciation of scale and astronomical distances. This resource looks to tackle these problems using scale models to understand the huge differences in size between the Sun and other stars in the galaxy. The spreadsheet gives scales for the Sun and five other stars, ranging from the gigantic Betelgeuse to tiny Sirius B. Students can draw out these scale models using a pencil and string.

This resource also covers distances. Pupils are given the task of calculating the distance between the Sun and the stars in the constellation of Orion. This allows the pupils to understand that, although stars appear close together when viewed from the Earth, they are in fact at very different distances away.

Stellar SatNav

This Key Stage 3 resource was developed by the Royal Observatory Greenwich and allows students to use bearings to plot constellations.

Coming up: a guided tour of the Solar System for use with planetarium software to bring the planets into the classroom.