The North Star Activity and the NSE/NCTM Standards

Please note that The NSE Standards is a very thorough document and is difficult to navigate since it was written for a variety of audiences and it not obvious from the table of contents exactly which sections are intended for teachers' use in the classroom. To save time when referencing the standards, you may want to skip directly to the information pertaining to the Content Standards for grades 5-8, which begins on page 143.

• Content Standard A: Science as Inquiry

  This standard is absolutely central to the North Star Activity. Goal 1 is to help students develop several fundamental skills that support the ability to perform Science as Inquiry as they:

  • Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence,
  • Think critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and explanations,
  • Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and predictions,
  • Communicate scientific procedures and explanations, and
  • Use Mathematics in all aspects of scientific inquiry.

  For more detail on any of these points, see Content Standard A in the NSE Standards.

• Content Standard D: Earth and Space Science

  Through this series of lessons and the related scale model of the solar system activity, students will gain a firm understanding of the Earth's position in the solar system. This knowledge will help them see how the Earth's tilt causes the seasons by changing the angle of incidence of the sun's rays, rather than by changing a region on Earth's distance to the sun. (this dispells a very common misconception)

While The NCTM Standards is as thorough a document as the NSE Standards, it was written primarily for teachers, and you will have no trouble navigating by its transparent table of contents.

• Number and Operation

  A key to this standard is the understanding of the meanings of operations and how they relate to one another. At some point in this activity, most students will have to confront a situation such as this: New Orleans is about 880 miles due south of Madison, and in terms of latitude the two cities are about 13 degrees apart. To determine the circumference of The Earth from this information, the students will have to think carefully about the meaning of arithmetic operations (or proportionality) to realize that 880 miles stretches 13/360 of the way around, so there are 360/13 880 mile pieces in the whole circumference. That is, the circumference is about 880 X 360 / 13 miles.

• Algebra

  The class will use a graph to analyze the relationship between latidude and the North Star's elevation.

• Geometry

  Goal 2 is to improve students' command of practical geometry skills. As urged by the NCTM, students will:

  • Analyze Characteristics and properties of two- and three-dimensional geometric shapes and develop mathematical arguments about geometric relationships and
  • Use visualization, spatial reasoning, and geometric reasoning to solve problems.

• Reasoning and Proof

  In this activity, students have a great opportunity to apply mathematical proof to a physical situation. Goal 3 is optional and serves as a guide if you choose to delve into the mathematical proof offered on day two. Goal 3 (optional) is for students to gain confidence and familiarity with the process of mathematical proof. If you choose to go into this proof they sould have a chance to:

  • Examine a collection of information to detect regularities,
  • Formulate generalizations and conjectures about observed regularities,
  • Evaluate conjectures, and
  • Construct and evaluate mathematical arguments.

• Connections

  Here, a basic skill for students is to be able to "recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics," which is central to this project.