The Beginning of Star Study 



Anna Botsford Comstock 

 Reprinted by request from The Nature-Study Review, Feb. -March, 1914 



The study of the stars has a great fascination for children but 

 there have been difficulties attending the teaching of this study- 

 in the elementary schools. 

 First of all, the teachers have 

 found it impracticable to take 

 their classes out at night. 

 This difficulty, may be met by 

 showing the forms of the con- 

 stellations on the black-board, 

 and by explaining in what part 

 of the heavens they may be 

 found at an early hour in the 

 evening. February is a favor- 

 able time for beginning star 

 study, for early in the evening 

 Orion occupies the middle of 

 the southern skies . The study 

 should begin about the middle 

 of the month when the darkness falls early. 



The first study should be of the Polar constellations. The 

 Big Dipper and its relation to the Pole Star forms naturally the 

 earliest lesson. Place the accompanying diagram (No. i) on the 

 board. If the lesson is given at the middle of February, the Dip- 

 per will be seen at seven in the evening low down in the eastern 

 sky with the handle extending down toward the horizon. The 

 teacher should have made the observation previously so as to be 

 sure of the exact location. During the following two or three days 

 questions should be asked concerning what the pupils have seen 

 of the Dipper. The drawing should be erased from the board 

 and each pupil should make a drawing for himself of the Dipper 

 and the Pole Star as remembered. And this drawing should not 

 be accepted until the proper number of stars are placed for the 

 bowl and the handle and the proper relation of the pointers to 

 the Pole Star are indicated. The following questions should be 

 asked to stimulate further observations : 



i . Look at the Big Dipper at 6 130 in the evening and again at 8 or 

 8 :3c Does it keep the same position in relation to the Pole Star? 



384 



Diagram I. The Pole Star and the Big 

 and Little Dippers 



