Constellation Creation

Invent your own constellations!

Constellations are pictures that people have imagined in the patterns of the stars. They are now accepted scientific ways of organizing our view of the night sky. But this idea that scientific classifications, like constellations, could have begun with imagination might surprise people. Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Pretty smart. This activity invites children to look at star patterns and imagine their own new constellations, while practicing STEM skills like observing, recognizing patterns and thinking creatively. This kind of creative activity encourages children to make personal connections to objects in the sky, and to seek out their new constellation when they look up at night.

Preparation

Print out the Star Sheets included with this activity, or create your own. You’ll want many different constellations, and a few copies of each one so that each child can choose one or two that they like. Print out the Constellation Pictures (one copy per team is enough) or show them on a computer screen to the whole group.

You might also print out or show on-screen photos of existing constellations as seen in the sky, like Orion, Ursa Major, and Cassiopeia if you live in the Northern Hemisphere; or The Southern Cross and Centaurus in the Southern Hemisphere. A quick web search will give you lots of results. It is best to use constellations that your children can see when they look up at the night sky; and helpful to show an image of the stars that make up a constellation, alongside a photo with lines drawn on connecting the stars of the same constellation. See Suggestions below for some links to get you started.

Suggested Materials

5-10 Constellation Creation Star Sheets (click here), printed out
1 copy Constellation Pictures, printed out or on screen (click here)
1 copy Constellation Identification Sheet (click here, for the teacher)
Pens or pencils
Paper

Opening Discussion

Ask your students if they have heard of constellations before. What are constellations? Where can we see them? Where did their names come from? Show your students the Constellation Photos (printed out, on a computer, in a book, or you can find your own images to show them online). Do they recognize any of these constellations?

Constellations are pictures that people have imagined in the patterns of the stars. Many constellations we are familiar with were invented a long time ago by people looking up at the sky, connecting the stars they saw with pictures they imagined. Ask your students, “What if you could rename the constellations? Would they still be named after the same animals and people they are now? Or do you see different pictures when you connect the dots?”

The Challenge

Invent your own new constellations!

Doing the Activity

Show your students a set of the printed Star Sheets, and tell them that these are the star patterns in constellations up in the sky. But they don’t have any pictures on them. Ask students to choose a Star Sheet that they like, bring it back to their seat and make a drawing that connects the dots. It could be a person, an animal, a thing – whatever they can imagine. Ask them to make their drawings and to give their new constellation a name.
Give your children enough time to complete their drawing and naming. If they would like, they can also make drawings on blank paper, using the Star Sheets as guides.

Let’s Talk About It

When everyone has completed a constellation, bring the larger group together and ask them how it went. Was it hard or easy to imagine a picture using the Star Sheet? Did they choose something from their own lives, something they’ve heard of before, or something totally imaginary? Ask if anyone would like to share their new constellation drawing and its name.

Build On What They Talked About

After everyone who would like to share has had a chance to, you can send them back to create more. Hang them all up on a wall and admire the beauty. You could also challenge your students to match each Star Sheet constellation with the real constellation that it came from.

Suggestions

Some students may express an interest in the stories behind the classic Greek and Roman mythological characters behind the existing constellations. This is a great chance to encourage students to do some research, and then share what they discover with the rest of the group.
A simple online image search for constellations like Orion, Cassiopeia, and others will yield many results. You can also visit sites like these:
One of NASA’s richest resources for images is their Astronomy Picture of the Day, or APOD site. It is the largest collection of annotated astronomical images on the internet, filled with images from NASA telescopes, NASA spacecraft, scientists and amateur astronomers. Visit here to search for an image: http://apod.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search; or here for their photo of the day: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html. Here are some APOD samples that are great for this activity:

Orion: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0302/orion_spinelli_full.jpg

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081015.html

Big Dipper:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160123.html

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110624.html

Leo:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100610.html

Cassiopeia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassiopeia_(constellation)#/media/File:CassiopeiaCC.jpg

Additional activity resources:
- http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/starfinder/
- Try this great activity from Astronomical Society of the Pacific called “Constellation Detective”. It has some simple diagrams for several constellations that might be useful: https://astrosociety.org/edu/family/materials/constellationdetective.pdf
- Try using this constellation guide from Stardate.org: https://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations
- From the NASA’s Chandra X-ray Telescope Website, here is a Constellation Index with stories of many of the constellations: http://chandra.si.edu/photo/constellations/constellations_intro.html

Earth and Space science activities were developed with the support of NASA. This material is based upon work supported by NASA under grant award number NNX14AQ83G. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Invent your own constellations!

Preparation

Suggested Materials

Make it Matter

Opening Discussion

The Challenge

Make it Happen

Doing the Activity

Make it Click

Let’s Talk About It

Make it Better

Build On What They Talked About

Suggestions