Skip navigation

Universe

The Universe

Let's have a look at some vocabulary related to the Universe.
1. Listen to the words and repeat them.

Spiral galaxy

NGC 4414, a typical spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, is about 55,000 light-years in diameter and approximately 60 million light-year away from Earth. The Hubble Heritage Team Wikipedia. (Public Domain)

 The Solar System
Galaxy
Star
Planet
Dust
Nebula
 The Milky Way
2. Complete the words with the missing vowels.  Cluster
T H M L K Y W Y
P L N T
S T R
D S T
C L S T R
N B L
G L X Y
T H S L R S Y S T M

Nebula

The Cat's Eye Nebula, an example of a planetary nebula. J.P. Harrington and K.J. Borkowski (University of Maryland), and NAS. Wikipedia. (Public Domain)

Milky Way

    The Milky Way from Fairyland Canyon. Derwiki. Pixabay. (CC0)

 3. Listen and write the words you hear.

Enable JavaScript

The Universe II

1. Here you have the definitions of the words in the previous exercises. Listen, repeat and learn them.
The solar system: It is an area of the universe that includes the Sun and a group of planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune), some dwarf planets (Pluto), asteroids and comets which orbit the Sun.

Crab nebula

TheCrab Nebula, remnants of a supernova that was first observed around 1050 AD. NASA ESA, J Hester and A. Loll, Wikipedia, (Public Domain)
Galaxy: An enormous collection of stars, gas, and dust that makes up the visible universe. They may have a regular shape: elliptical or spiral. The largest galaxies may have a diameter of hundreds of thousands of light-years and the smallest hundreds of light-years.
Star: A Large sphere, such as the sun, that radiates energy derived from thermonuclear reactions in its interior.

Halley CometHalley's Comet in 1985. Kuiper Airbone Observatory. . Wikipedia. (Public Domain)
Planet: A celestial body, larger than an asteroid or comet, that revolves around a star which illuminates them.
Dust: Particles that exist in space and that may come from stars, asteroids, comets, etc.

Hoag's object Hoag's Object, an example of a ring galaxy. NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team, Wikipedia, (Public Domain)
Nebula: a diffuse cloud of interstellar gas (mainly hydrogen) and dust.
The Milky Way: it is the galaxy that contains our solar system. It can be seen from the Earth as an irregular band of hazy light. It is the second largest galaxy after the Andromeda Galaxy.

Barred spiral galaxy

 NGC 1300, an example of a barred spiral galaxy. NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team.  Wikipedia (Public Domain)
Cluster: A group of nearby stars that hold together due to mutual gravitation
2. Choose the word whose definition you are listening to.

1.

2.

3.

Universe and comet

Images obtained by Stefano Sposetti, Switzerland on March 18, 2004. Animation made Raoul Behrend, Geneva Observatory, Switzerland, 2004 FH I Asteroid is the center dot being followed by the sequence; the object that flashes by during the clip is an artificial satellite. Wikipedia. (Public Domain)

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Enable JavaScript

"Who are you?" Role Play

  • Get as many small pieces of paper as students in the classroom.
  • Write the words we have studied (one word per paper).
  • Students take one at random and learn by heart the definition of the word in the paper(pay attention to posible changes in pronouns).
  • Stand up and ask following this dialogue:
STUDENT A STUDENT B
Who are you?
I'm a celestial body, larger than an asteroid or comet, that revolves around a star which illuminates me.
Are you a planet?
Yes, I am
  • If your answer is incorrect, you'll have to ask another different student before a second try.
  • The goal is to ask everyone in class till you find one student per definition.
  • Once finished each student will explain the rest one of the words and its definition matching them with the person who told him/her the information.

Kid's questions

SCIENTISTS

Hypatia

 Fictional portrait of Hypatia for Elbert Hubbard's fictional biography. Jules Maurice Gaspard. . Wikipedia., (Public Domain)

Hypatia of Alexadría (born c. 350-370, died 415 AD) was a philosopher, mathematician and astronomer who also taught students from all the Mediterranean area.


Her father, a mathematician, raised her avoiding the traditional role for women at that time and so her studies included rhetoric, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, astrology and she even had a physical training.


Hypatia’s mathematical work meant an improvement on how to write long division algorithms needed for astronomical computation. Her astronomy investigations focused on the position of the stars and planets and the accuracy of calendars to determine phenomena such as the equinox.


Hypatia made extraordinary accomplishments for a woman in her time.
1. Read the text and decide if the sentences are TRUE (T) or False (F).

2. In groups of three, find out the answer for the following questions. At the end ot the activity all members in the group should be able to answer the questions.

Teamwork
a. Hypatia was a doctor.
b. Hypatia's students lived near her. a. Use a map to place Alexandria.
c. Hypatia's father was a shop assistant. b. What famous building existed there in ancient times?
d. Hypatia's father wanted her to be a traditional woman. c. What is rhetoric?
e. Hypatia had a blog. d. What unit do we use to measure distances between planets?
f. Hypatia studied mathematics. e. Which century was Hypatia born?
g. Hypatia's work on astronomy focused on the position of continents. f. How do you imagine life for women at that time?

 

Enable JavaScript

EXTRA ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITY 1

Have you paid attention to all the information under the photos?. If so, you have probably seen these words:

Hubble
Barred Spiral Galaxy
Ring Galaxy
Supernova
Halley's Comet
Kniper Airbone Observatory
Geneva Observatory
Equinox
Repeat the words till you can pronounce them properly. Are you interested in knowing more about them? You'll have to wait for the next exercise.

ACTIVITY 2

Have a look at this link from NASA webpage and you can get more information about the Universe.

Here there is a game in which you have to rescue words before they disappear into a black hole.

Explore that webpage, there are a lot of interesting games and facts to learn.

Girl with laptop

PROJECTS

PROJECT 1: ALL WE KNOW

1. Create a poster with the eight words, explanations and photos illustrating the words we have learnt in this unit.
You can use these webpages canva, adobe spark or piktochart or cardboard, markers, scissors, glue, etc.

PROJECT 2: A STEP BEYOND

2. Use the vocabulary in extra activities section and create a slideshow to explain the rest of students everything about these words: Supernova, Ring Galaxy, Barred Spiral Galaxy, Hubble, Halley's Comet, Kuiper Airbone Observatory, Geneva Observatory, Equinox.
Use Adobe Spark or Libre Office Impress.

PROJECT 3: FURTHER

3. Find three other women that were important in Greek times. On a paper write three short texts and questions about them. Handle the paper to the students so that they can read the texts and answer the questions. You check they have answered properly.
Use LibreOffice Writer.
After that let's think... what do women around us do? Let all students in the classroom participate and extract conclusions from the answers.