Have you ever heard of Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope project? I have to admit, I'm always pretty leery of anything produced by Microsoft (I'm a diehard Mac lover myself), but when I took a look at what the WorldWide Telescope project was, I was very impressed. It's a homeschooler's dream, especially if you have kids that are fascinated by astronomy!
In a nutshell, WWT allows you to look at the universe interactively, through guided tours or by investigating on your own. When you find something you're especially interested in, you can click on the object and get more specific information about it or view more detailed pictures.
WorldWide Telescope requires Silverlight, so if you want to explore this fascinating program, you'll need to install it on your computer. WWT also requires some local storage space on your harddrive, but in my opinion, it's well worth it.
I will add that the makers of WWT present all their information from a Big Bang perspective. But knowing that in advance, it's not difficult to separate the facts from the assumptions. In fact, it might even be a good project for your kids to be able to identify when information is being presented as fact when it's really only a speculative conclusion based on an untestable presupposition.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
That looks fantastic. Will definitely have to check it out. Hubs and I are looking to get our family a good telescope. Our mountaintop view is amazing!
[Reply]