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This
is a good activity to introduce the different colored
stars, and how hot they are, relevant to each other. It
can be done with balloons, with only 5 kids standing in
front helping, while the rest vote to place them...or,
I've also done it a lot with large laminated colored
stars (created from construction paper), breaking the
group up into groups of 5 or so, and letting them
decided in each individual group what order the stars
should go. Then compare to the actual temperatures, and
see which group came the closest to correct.
I've used this activity mostly with
6th graders...but I have also done it with a mixed-age
group at camp. The concepts may be too advanced for
younger than elementary, though.
Materials:
- 7 balloons--1 blue, 2 white,
1 yellow, 1 orange, 2 red
(the extra
white & red are for white dwarf & red giant)
-
Temperature cards, one
for each color balloon/star--
(blue-60,000F, white-36,000F, yellow-12-18,000F,
orange-9,000F, red-6,000F)
- What to Do:
1. Have kids blow up
balloons…about half-full, don't tie yet!
2. Have group vote on what color
is the hottest...move that kid and balloon to one end
(now designated the "hottest" end) Group votes on each
successive color, placing balloons (w/holder) in order
chosen.
3. Give "coolest" star, RED,
temperature card (show group-WOW! 6000 degrees!! What's
the hottest day you ever felt? A mere 100+!) Is red
balloon in right spot? If not, move…Continue giving temp
cards to the next hottest, and rearrange as necessary.
4. Final order, holding cards for
all to see! Add more/less air to balloons, so that the
largest is also the hottest, smallest/coolest…larger
stars tend to be hotter. EXCEPTIONS-red giant and white
dwarf
5. What color star is our sun?
(Yellow, medium-sized, medium hot) Our sun is about
10,000 degrees F! |
