Stargazing Night at DCS Montessori
Students and their families enjoy a night of astronomy fun at one of the stations set up for Stargazing Night at DCS Montessori.
Outside, the evening sky provided additional study.
By Tracy Dudley; photo provided by DCS Montessori
After dark on Wednesday, December 8, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade Montessori students returned to their school for a special evening event. Once every one or two years, teachers at the school gather the kids out of the classroom after normal school hours to study the universe. Stargazing night is open to all upper elementary students and their families.
Instead of having students spend the entire night outside looking through telescopes, the school set up three different stations related to astronomy. All of the visitors casually explored these stations through the course of the evening.
For one station, school staff set up a Starlab in the gymnasium. Starlab is a portable inflatable planetarium where students can view a projected night sky while instructors tell stories about various constellations. Douglas County High Schools’s Honors Astronomy teacher Andy Caldwell, and senior Astronomy Club member Sarah Lukas (a former DCS Montessori student) kept groups fascinated all night as they entered the Starlab.
At another station in the common classroom pod area, students got crafty and made their own personal star finders.
Then, of course, outdoors on the playground, students could view lots of interesting cosmic objects – like Jupiter and three of its moons – through star-gazing telescopes provided by Keith Pool of the Denver Astronomical Society and amateur astronomer Wolfe von Russow. Then, to top off the night, groups could come in from the cold and enjoy hot chocolate and cookies.
Within the Montessori philosophy, it is important for the learning process to include a range of activities and exercises for children to experience the natural order of the physical environment. This often means stepping out of the classroom to connect with the real world, and stargazing night provides the perfect opportunity to explore and learn in a fun and celebratory fashion.
To learn more about DCS Montessori, visit www.dcsmontessori.org
