1: Starting our Journey of Discovery

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We will begin our journey in the same place that the ancient astronomers of Greece, Persia, China, and other cultures did – we will take a look at the most obvious objects in the sky, the Sun and the Moon.

The Sun and Moon are not only the brightest objects in the sky, they give us our first calendar and helped early cultures to measure and record the passage of time. So much of our modern society is linked to the precise measurement of time. From the school bell which regulates the day in millions of classrooms around the world, to the ultra-precise clocks that are essential to smart phone and GPS technology.By creating a clock, calendar, and lunar phase map in our classrooms, we will join our students in walking in the footsteps of our ancestors around the world. We will begin to understand and measure the passage of time for ourselves.

1.1: Building a Solar Clock and Calendar
Two of the most basic facts in astronomy are that we have the Sun crossing the sky during the day and the stars crossing the sky at night. In this unit, we will focus on the Sun and its movements, both daily, and over the weeks as the school year passes.