Activity 1 – Landmarks
Context
- When you are looking for a star or constellation, it is
important to know which direction to look in. So, the
starting point for learning stargazing is to learn the four
directions. This activity teaches the layout of the four
directions, north, south, east and west, and identifies
local landmarks that can be used to find the
directions.
Specific Learning Outcomes
- You will identify a stargazing place near your home,
and identify landmarks that enable you to find the four
parts of the sky: north, south, east and west.
Teacher Planning and Preparation
- Students can do most of this activity at school, but
need to complete it at their home. Completed map sheets
should be checked by the teacher, but kept by the students
for future reference when stargazing.
- Students who complete the activity from memory should
be encouraged to take the sheet home to conduct a field
check.
- Each student needs access to a map, but as class sets
of street maps can be hard to come by, here are the two
methods we have used:
Photocopying method
- Provide each student with a photocopy of the relevant
part of a street map. This method only works if you can
make clear photocopies of the map. Make certain the left
and right edges of the paper line up with the north-south
lines on the map, and that north is at the top of the
photocopy. If possible photocopy the map alongside the
worksheet on a single A3 sheet. If this is not possible,
get your students to join the map and worksheet
side-by-side, with sellotape.
Hand copying method
- Have students work in small groups with one map to a
group of 3 to 6 students. Students copy their stargazing
place and nearest road onto the worksheet.
What You Need
Handouts and Posters
- Landmarks Worksheet and Instruction Sheet
(download here)
- Photocopy of local street map (if used)
Equipment
- Pencils
- Street Map
- Sellotape (if you want to join photocopied maps to
worksheets)
Science
Background Knowledge
What makes a good
landmark for direction finding?
- Something permanent
like a tree, building, or hill
- Something as far away
as possible
-
Something that stands
out and is easy to identify
How can we line a map
up so it points the same way as the real
world?
- There are two main
ways to do this...
- Line up physical
features in the world with their representation on the map.
One really easy feature to use is a road. Roads are good
because they tend to have straight bits that are quite easy
to line up. Other physical features can be used if roads
are not convenient, such as distant mountain peaks and so
on.
- Find north with a
compass. Then line it up with the compass rose on the map.
We recommend the first
method, unless students have access to magnetic compasses
and know how to allow for the difference between magnetic
north and true north.
What makes a good
stargazing place?
- When you start
stargazing a city is a good place to stargaze from. Because
of the streetlights, only the brighter stars can be seen.
This makes the brighter stars and constellations easier to
find. So if you live in the city, a good stargazing place
is where:
- you can see quite a
bit of the sky,
- street lights and
neighbour’s house lights don’t shine in your eyes
too much, and it is a safe place to
stand at night.
Classroom Lead-In
- When you introduce students to this activity, it should
be part of introducing the whole Starry Starry Night
strand. (See Overview of This Strand.)
- Things you might discuss with the students as a warm up
to this activity:
- What are the four directions?
- What is a landmark?
- What makes a good landmark for direction finding?
- How can we line a map up so it points the same way as
the real world?
- What makes a good stargazing place?
- Some of these questions are answered in the
Science Background Knowledge
section of this page.
- It is recommended that you complete a Landmarks
Worksheet as a whole class activity using the school as
your stargazing place. To identify a good stargazing place,
walk around the school with the class locating streetlights
and looking for good views of the sky. You will also need
to take the class outside to line the worksheet/map up with
the nearest road and locate landmarks.
Instructions
- These instructions are also available on the Landmarks
Worksheet Instruction Sheet.
Photocopying method
- Choose a stargazing place near your home. (See
What makes a good stargazing place?)
- Find your stargazing place on the photocopied map and
mark it in pencil.
- Draw a picture of your stargazing place in the box on
the Landmarks Worksheet.
- Go outside with your worksheet and map. Stand beside
the road near your stargazing place. Turn the worksheet and
map until the road on the map lines up with the real
road.
- Look in each direction and write or draw the landmarks
you see in the bubbles on the worksheet. (See
What makes a good landmark?)
There might not be a good
landmark in each direction, but fortunately one good
landmark is enough. Choose distant landmarks, because when
you move from beside the road to your actual stargazing
place you need the landmarks to still be in the right
direction.
Hand copying method
- Choose a stargazing place near your home. (See
What makes a good stargazing place?)
- Find your stargazing place on a street map.
- Copy your stargazing place and the nearest road into
the box on the Landmarks Worksheet. First turn your
worksheet until north on the worksheet and north on the
street map line up. Keep things the same way up when you
copy them.
- Go outside with your worksheet. Stand beside the road
near your stargazing place. Turn the worksheet until the
road you have drawn on the worksheet lines up with the real
road.
- Look in each direction and write or draw the landmarks
you see in the bubbles on the worksheet. (See
What makes a good landmark?)
There might not be a good
landmark in each direction, but fortunately one good
landmark is enough. Choose distant landmarks, because when
you move from beside the road to your actual stargazing
place you need the landmarks to still be in the right
direction.
Follow Up and Extension
- A suggested classroom follow-up activity is for
stargazing places and their landmarks to be collected onto
a single map on the wall of the classroom. Pins with flags
on them are a good way to do this.
- Discussion questions might be:
- Who found four good landmarks? three? two? one?
none?
- How many people share the same landmarks?
- What things made the best landmarks?
- When complete, students should keep their Landmarks
Worksheets at home to refer to when they go outside
stargazing.
Downloadable Resources
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