Celeste SE
Cool tool brings planets to life through your mobile device
Take your students outside to use this app at first -- the concept is easier to grasp there, rather than indoors. As a class, use the app to track the sun's path throughout a day. For integrating history, talk about how people have always been interested in celestial movements and used other pre-technology tools like sundials and monuments to track them.
Continue readingPure wizardry: Learn about planets, the moon, and the sun by pointing your smartphone at the sky. Choose the one you want to know more about and move your phone to align it with the circle on the screen. Augmented reality images of celestial bodies (which may or may not be visible to the naked eye) appear as if viewed through a telescope. Tap the button in the pop-up window, and you can see the path the object takes through the sky and get more information about it.
Continue readingThe pop-up facts may be too dry for some kids, and it's too bad you can't view stars and constellations. Still, Celeste SE is an amazing way for kids to engage with and learn about the objects in our solar system. This app can simply be a way for kids to gain a general concept of how the planets, sun, and moon travel through the sky. The compass can help younger kids learn north, south, east, and west, and help older kids develop a more keen sense of orienteering. Finally, the pop-up facts and other tools -- such as the minute-by-minute tracker as each planet moves across the sky -- can create a more in-depth learning experience.
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Oakland, CA,
CeleseteSE, one of many sky map apps, allows a smartphone user to locate celestial objects. In the day time, this means identifying the direction of the objects. But at night, you can point your phone to the sky and find out what that bright light is. Unlike other free sky map apps, CelesteSE only shows the location of objects within the solar system: sun, planets and moon. It's only claim to usefulness is that students can click on the objects and learn about them. What this amounts are little "tweet-sized" random facts that are not in any thoughtful order. Although it's only two dollars, there are free sky map apps that deliver more: like identifying constellations, stars, galaxies, and settings that allow you to find out what will be in the sky on a specific date in the future or past.
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