Astronomy

Over the past 100 years or so, stars seem to have disappeared from daily life. Our ancestors didn’t take the stars for granted; for them, the night sky often served as compass, clock, calendar, and a rich source of inspiration for tales of mystery and wonder. Skyscrapers and light pollution have dimmed the brilliance of the night sky for many of us in the 21st century, but for those who happen to stop for a bit and look upward, the sky’s glittering patterns are still there for the gazing.

In light of the Perseid meteor showers this month, Joann featured a variety of resources about meteors and meteor showers in her post this week. My goal each week is to help you, the educator, successfully bring these resources into your classroom. As I thought about how to creatively teach about this topic, I was stumped for a little while. When I was in third grade, we were able to take a night field trip to an observatory to see a meteor shower. It was such a wonderful and memorable experience, and I know that many teachers would love to do this today. How can we do something like this when time and budget constraints will hardly allow it?

You’ve seen the pictures. Maybe you’ve even been lucky enough to see it for yourself. The gloriously colored, amazing annual light show that is the Perseid meteor shower is going on right now, showing at a location near you until August 24.

Divine in appearance, meteor showers happen when planets – like Earth – move through streams of debris left by a comet. The Perseids are the debris field from the Swift-Tuttle comet, which is one of the oldest known comets, with sightings dating back 2,000 years. The Swift-Tuttle comet is also the largest object known to make repeated passes near Earth.