We have collected aids and games for doing astronomy with youth. Adult groups have fun with these too! The material is a group of cookbooks, worksheets, and instructions for doing activities with groups. All of these can help you get your group doing something active as they explore astronomy.
Many of these resources are from the University of Arizona’s James Webb Space Telescope educational programs for Girl Scout leaders. Used by permission. Others are original work by RAC club members, including Glenn Holliday.
Exploring our Solar System
- Modeling the Solar System with photographs
- A bead and string model of our Solar System
- A graphical model of our Solar System
- Comparing the Earth and Moon
- Models of gravity
- Modeling the mass of the planets with rice
- Modeling the sizes and distances of the planets
- Modeling the distances of the planets with toilet paper
- Modeling the volumes of the planets with dough
- Notes about the solar system models
- Extend the mass and volume models by adding the Sun to them. This is more ambitious because the Sun is so much bigger than everything else in the Solar System.
- Modeling eclipses by acting them out
Exploring Deep Space
- Our nearest neighbor stars
- A balloon model of the life cycles of stars
Observing Plans