Astronomy Meets the Environmental Sciences: Activities for Informal and Formal Educational Settings

摘要

Dark Skies Rangers are a set of activities that address how light pollution affects safety, energy conservation, cost, health and wildlife, as well as our ability to view the stars. The activities were created by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) for grades 3-12, for use both in and out of the classroom. They are downloadable online and available on CD as part of a Dark Skies Kit. The central part of the kit is an interactive light shielding demonstration, which illustrates the reasons for lighting responsibly. Four of the seven activities, including the light shielding demonstration, were presented at four workshops for the 2010 Astronomical Society of the Pacific annual conference. Three of these activities are described here.