National Aeronautics and Administration

Exploring Stars in the Milky Way National Aeronautics and Administration

Publisher Marketing: Math textbooks routinely provide 'real world' examples for students using familiar examples drawn from every-day situations, but there are many other areas where proportional relationships and working with large numbers aid in understanding our physical world. This collection of activities is intended for students looking for additional challenges in the math and physical science curriculum in grade 6-8, but where the topics are drawn from astronomy and space science. This book 'Exploring the Stars in the Milky Way' introduces students to some of the most unusual places in our galaxy that are outside our solar system. A common question that students might ask is 'How many stars are in the sky?' Answering this question introduces students to basic counting, tallying and grouping techniques, and to work with simple proportions. For example, a student will be shown an area of the sky and asked to systematically tally the number of stars, N, in this area. The student will then be told that this area represents a specific fraction of the full sky, 1/M, and will have to estimate the total stars in the sky by performing the multiplication MxN, where M is the number of groups and N is the number of members per group.