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This booklet is dedicated to: my marketing and usability consultants: William and Catherine, my consultant on canine affairs: Ella, and my steadfast patron: Pat. Special thanks to Isuru, the computer guru. |
The goal of this cartoon booklet is to introduce young people
to the wonders of our Milky Way Galaxy, and to do it in a way
that is enjoyable for them. The success of the booklet will depend
on whether they take pleasure reading it and retain the scientific
information on galaxies and general astronomy. You can help them
with the pedagogical part by highlighting the somewhat low-profile
technical information. How many school buses put end-to-end would
it take to span our Galaxy? Can you think of other methods to
give the kids an intuitive feel for the immensity and beauty of
our galactic home?
A theme that might hit home with your children/students is
the "new neighborhood argument." Suppose a kid moved
into a completely new neighborhood. That child would certainly
want to know what kind of kids and animals lived there, where
the shacks and secret places could be found, where to find woods
suitable for exploring and building forts, what the schools were
like, etc. Perhaps the child would be a little shy about the new
neighborhood, but there would be no lack of curiosity.
Well, each child "moved into a completely new neighborhood" when
he or she was born into this miraculous world we live in. To the extent that
we can instill the idea that the entire cosmos is their
neighborhood, they should be motivated to learn about it.
Sometimes the realm of the stars and galaxies (large size scales) is considered "otherworldly," but it is well past time to retire this concept. Children of the Space Age should readily explore their whole neighborhood, not just the sandbox in the back yard.
* Collect from the LOONEY BANK, which can be found on the dark side of the Moon.
COVER PHOTO: A spiral galaxy like our own, called M51 or "The Whirlpool Galaxy".
Copyright: Robert L. Oldershaw, 1996
Please feel free to download
a copy of this booklet!
(booklet is in Zip file format - you can download
WinZip to unzip it)