Friday, March 21, 2014

Carina Nebula Texture -Candy Activity

Have you ever wanted to make a nebula out of candy? Here's how:

Purpose: This activity illustrates that The Carina Nebula is a three-dimensional object in space. Since students are using materials that are familiar to them to make the nebula, they will be more likely to remember what each item represents. The activity is multi-sensory, so students will also be more engaged.

Materials

Tactile version of the Carina Nebula
Text – A Guided Tour of the Carina Nebula –(large print version, Braille version, online audio as needed)
Large black construction paper
Zip-Lok bags

Candy Needed

Cotton Candy – Main Nebula Materials
Pixie Sticks sprinkled – Bright Gasses
Mike & Ikes – Stars
2 Peach Rings (twisted together to form figure-eight) – Eta Carinae
Gummy worms – dust pillars
Malted Milk Balls – partial bubbles—when bitten in half--& complete bubbles—when left whole
twizzlers – Jets from starbirth
dots/gummy poppers – bright globules
raisenettes – dark globules
hot chocolate sprinkled – dusty areas




Procedure

1.   Familiarize participants with Tactile version of the Carina Nebula and the Legend (2-5 min)
2.   Read through A Guided Tour of the Carina Nebula as participants follow along, feeling the symbols that represent various parts of the nebula (20-30 min)
3.   Walk participants through making their own nebula using candies to represent elements [Use construction paper as place-mat] (10-20 min)
4.   Ask participants to explain the elements of their nebula (10-20 min)
5.   Pour nebulae into Zip-Lok bags for participants to take home.

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