Model expected behavior in the classroom.
Discuss school and classroom rules.
Review laboratory procedures.
Explain and show comprehension of science process skills and the scientific method.
Make use of the metric system and the scientific measurement.

September

Investigate how to locate objects in the sky.
Observe the apparent daily motion of the Sun across the sky.
Observe the changes from day to day where the Sun sets.
Describe how the Sun's apparent motion changes during the year.
Observe the moon and motions of the stars.
Construct a star finder to help with nighttime observations of the sky.
Describe a model of the sky called the celestial sphere.
Build a celestial sphere.
Use a celestial sphere to explore the reasons for the seasons.
Describe the apparent size of an object using size/distance ratio and angular size.
Relate the ability to see distant objects to size/distance ratios and angular sizes.

October

Describe how light behaves using the wave model and the photon model.
Predict how the apparent brightness objects change with distance using the photon model.
Predict some of the ways mirrors and lenses affect light using the photon model.
Illustrate that a mirror changes the direction of a photon path.
Demonstrate that pinholes can form images of objects on screens “behind” the pinholes.
Explore how lenses form images of objects.
Construct a pinhole tube.
Build and use an astronomical telescope.
Explain that the energies of photons making up light determine the color of the light.
Demonstrate what colors are produced when white light shines through a grating.
Use a colorometer to investigate how many colors are present in the “rainbow” spectrum.
Investigate how different colors of the spectrum behave when projected onto the same place on a white screen.
Investigate how light travels.
Observe objects of different colors through a variety of colored filters.
Observe how opaque materials of different colors reflect light of different colors.
Demonstrate what happens to light when it passes through a single filter and through a combination of filters.
Illustrate how to graph a spectrum and the spectrum produced when light passes through various filters.

November

Investigate new ways to measure the diameters of the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
Determine how far away the Moon and the Sun are from the Earth.
Build scale models of the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
Use recorded moon observations  to explain the phases of the moon.
Apply knowledge learned about the Earth, Moon, and Sun to explain solar and lunar eclipses.
Build a scale model of the a solar system.
Research the earlier models of the solar system which account for the motions of planets.
Observe Mercury and Venus and plot their orbits around the Sun.
Explore the paths that the planets follow.
Investigate how  the model of gravity explains the path of the planets.
Determine what features of a pendulum affect its period.
Explore how to determine distances to the stars.
Investigate how to estimate the sizes and masses of some stars.
Demonstrate a method for determining the masses of stars.
Estimate how many 200-watt bulbs “equal” the Sun.
Use a flashlight to estimate distances to stars.
Use the brightness of stars to estimate stellar distances.
Build a three-dimensional model of a constellation.

December

Investigate how astronomers take temperatures of the stars.
Infer the composition of stars.
Investigate how to relate temperature to color.
Understand how  to use the spectrometer.
Observe spectra of different light sources and measure the positions of dark bands in the spectra of  light that has passed through different materials.
Use the spectrometer to measure absorption lines in the Sun and compare them to emission lines measured in the classroom to determine some of the elements that are present in the Sun.
Explore the size of the Milky Way by using the brightness-distance relationship.
Locate the solar system in the Milky Way galaxy.
Explore the universe beyond the Milky Way using the apparent brightness-distance relationship and the size/distance ratio.
Measure the age of the universe using the apparent brightness-distance relationship and the size/distance ratio.
Model the size of the universe with a rubber band.
Observe the structure of the universe.