Gallileo and the Moons of Jupiter
We stepped back about 400 years and imagined we were with Galileo as he made discoveries through his telescope. We looked at pictures of Jupiter on nine consecutive nights and noticed four star-like points of light on either side of the planet. We were able to see, as Galileo did, that these points of light change their positions in respect to Jupiter. These are not stars, 
but moons! I gave them the names of these four moons.
We looked at their patterns of movement and James told us the order of the moons from closest to farthest from Jupiter. Using Sweethearts, which was the closest things at hand at the moment, we demonstrated these positions from above. We would move the Sweethearts so that if you looked at them at table level would look the same as the charts, but then you could also see them from above. By doing this, we could see that they were indeed revolving around the middle or Jupiter. Then, looking at a photograph of Jupiter, we could see its Great Red Spot. We talked about how it is like a hurricane or tornado that has raged for 100's of years or more. With that in mind, we got out James' tornado tube and had lots of fun.
but moons! I gave them the names of these four moons.We looked at their patterns of movement and James told us the order of the moons from closest to farthest from Jupiter. Using Sweethearts, which was the closest things at hand at the moment, we demonstrated these positions from above. We would move the Sweethearts so that if you looked at them at table level would look the same as the charts, but then you could also see them from above. By doing this, we could see that they were indeed revolving around the middle or Jupiter. Then, looking at a photograph of Jupiter, we could see its Great Red Spot. We talked about how it is like a hurricane or tornado that has raged for 100's of years or more. With that in mind, we got out James' tornado tube and had lots of fun.
 |
| It was a kit, so Steven had to put it together. |
In the process, the boys learned about how the lenses work in a telescope. |
 |
| We set it up to see what we can find. |
 |
 |
| We also experimented with our Galileo's thermometer, which works on the principals of density, which weaved well with our density studies in our Ocean Currents study. Sources: GEMS: Moons of Jupiter Grades 4-8 5 Activities 112 pages Your students re-enact Galileo’s historic telescopic observations of Jupiter’s moons. They observe and record moon orbits over time and learn why these observations helped signal the birth of modern astronomy. Students experiment to learn how craters are formed; make scale models to better understand size and distance; and take a grand tour of the Jupiter system as viewed by the Voyager spacecraft. Then students work in teams to create, from an assortment of common materials, a settlement on one of the moons of Jupiter. |
