Google Treasure Hunt

My grade 5 and 6s are beginning to delve into the arcane science of Internet Searching (cue spooky music here). And because astronomy has been on their (and my) minds lately, I thought I’d throw some questions together to see how well our students can make the InterTubz work for them.

(And for pedagogists, to give me some baseline data to see what specific deficits I need to address.)

So, my students, please do this:

• First, write the question number and summarize the question in a sentence. [next line]

• On the next line, write the search terms you will use to find Web pages.  (Do not type in the question directly in Google – choose two or three or four good search terms.)

• On the next line, write the answer. It will be a single word or phrase.  You do not need to write a sentence here.

• On the next line, write the URI of the page you got the answer from.

And so, some astronomy-related questions…

Click on to see them.

1. In 1543, the polish astronomer Nicolas Copernicus published a book arguing (wrongly, as it turned out) that the Sun was at the center of the universe.  What was the name of that book?
2. We don’t know what is at the center of the universe. But there is something in the middle most galaxies.  What is that?
3. Copernicus was wrong about something else, the shape of the orbits of the planets around the Sun. What shape did Copernicus think the orbits looked like?
4. Johannes Kepler studied Copernicus’ book, and was able to use Tycho Brahe’s accurate observations to find out what shape orbits of the planets took.  According to Kepler, what is the shape of a planetary orbit?
5. Kepler also published a book, in which he presented his laws of how planets moved.  What was the name of Kepler’s book on planetary motion?
6. Kepler has a satellite named after him.  It was recently launched into space. What is the purpose of this satellite?
7. Tycho Brahe has a large crater on the Moon named after him.  What is the diameter of this crater?
8. It is often said that Galileo “invented” the telescope.  This is not true.  But he was the first to turn a telescope to the heavens, and study the planets. What physical feature did Galileo discover on the moon?
9. Galileo also discovered moons orbiting Jupiter.  How many Galilean moons are there?
10. A satellite (spacecraft) was also named after Galileo, and it was the first one to orbit another planet, Jupiter.  It also flew very close to several asteroids, another first.  What was the name of the first asteroid Galileo approached?