You are going to model our Milky Way galaxy as it is approximately like today. What will you need to fill the Milky Way as a well-formed, mature spiral? You’ll need to lay out the stars, gas, dust, a supermassive black hole at its center, nebulas, supernova remnants, smaller black holes, neutron stars, clusters of stars, planets (our solar system, but also beyond), and you’ll still need that dark matter. Just a few things for your shopping list.
Activity Goal: Have students iterating and designing, as well as collaborating as a group, to get a tangible and creative output of a miniature Milky Way galaxy.
Steps:
1. Create a large sketch of a spiral galaxy on craft or butcher paper for example with 4 arms as a rough guide, approximately to the size of the table you’ll be building your Milky Way on.
2. Using the provided maps as a guide, measure and mark the approximate location of the Galactic Center and Sun/Solar System.
3. Determine the locations of the following objects: Crab Nebula, Cassiopeia A, SS433, NGC603, Cygnus X-3, Circinus X-1. Add them on your paper.
4. Select an object to model from the galaxy. Each student (or pair of students) could either create a 3D printed model of an individual astronomical source using basic shapes in TinkerPad, or download some of the existing shapes from our Galactic 3D tool box, or external resources such as NASA, Makerbot or Thingiverse and edit them. Calculate the locations and place each astronomy model on the larger spiral shape.
5. As a group, students can then add the rest of the various galactic components using art, craft or other supplies, from cotton balls and glitter to pipe cleaners and paint. Other items such as holiday lights, confetti, basket grass, foam shapes scrapbooking supplies, etc. could also be considered.
