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The Copernican RevolutionA set of computer simulations and curricular materials for teaching the history of astronomy from Ancient Greece to Isaac Newton. |
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The Copernican RevolutionA set of computer simulations and curricular materials for teaching the history of astronomy from Ancient Greece to Isaac Newton. |
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I teach the course using interactive methods. Students work in small groups to complete worksheet-based activities. Most of the activities involve using computer simulations. Some of the activities make use of commercial planetarium software (Starry Night Enthusiast 6.2). It is possible that an open-source planetarium program (like Stellarium or Celestia) could be used instead, but I haven't tried it. The remaining activities use computer simulations that I have created using the Easy Java Simulations (EJS) package. These simulations are part of the Open-Source Physics (OSP) project and are available for free using the links below, along with all of the worksheets for the activities. Interested faculty may also be able to get a pre-publication version of a textbook for this course.
For a more detailed description of the course see http://berryactivelearning.blogspot.com/2009/06/ast-120-copernican-revolution.html.
Warning: I am continuing to refine these simulations, as well as develop new ones. I will try to keep an up-to-date version of the simulations available here, but this could lead to some incompatibilities between the most recent version of the simulations and the activity/lab handouts posted below. If you want a version that should work well with the handouts, use the class-tested version. Otherwise, use the most recent version.
Class-tested version: CopernicanRevolution.jar (3.2 MB).
New versions of several simulations: ejs_astronomy.jar (3.9 MB). This package contains 12 simuluations. Ten are new versions of simulations from the original Copernican Revolution package. In some cases the new simulations replace several of the old simulations. Two simulations (CelestialGlobe and EquinoxPrecession) are completely new. I will be teaching this course again in Spring 2011, so by the end of that semester I should have new activity worksheets to go with these new simulations.
Curricular Materials
The table below contains a list of topics (arranged into 7 groups) that students explore in my Copernican Revolution course. For each topic I provide a link for downloading the corresponding worksheet (in pdf format), a list of the simulations related to that topic (all simulations are contained within the CopernicanRevolution.jar package linked above), and a list of any other materials needed to complete the activity. The worksheets designated with "(A)" are activities designed to be used in a single 75 minute class period (with some time left over for a short lecture review). The worksheets designated with "(L)" are laboratory exercises designed to be used in a single 120 minute laboratory period. Ideally these materials should be used in the order in which they are listed, but there is some flexibility (especially with some of the labs).
You are free to use (and even change) the worksheets, but please see the Terms of Use before doing so. If you wish to edit the worksheets, and you know how to use LaTeX (or are willing to learn), you can download a package containing all the .tex files and other necessary files (images, etc.) for all of the worksheet. To download this package click the link below:
CRtex.zip (4 MB).
If you would like to edit the worksheets but need them in a different format please email me (ttimberlake@berry.edu) and I may be able to accommodate you.
Please watch out for typos and other errors in these handouts. I cannot guarantee that they are without flaws - but the handouts posted here are all materials that I have used in my own class. Please work carefully through the exercises yourself before you give them to your students!
| Group | Topic | Worksheet | Simulations | Other Materials |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Observations | The Dome of the Sky (A) | SkyDome.pdf (40 KB) | none | Starry Night |
| The Celestial Globe (L) | CelGlobeLab.pdf (56 KB) | none | celestial globe | |
| Motion of the Sun (A) | SunMotion.pdf (52 KB) | none | Starry Night | |
| Shadows and Gnomons (L) | ShadowsLab.pdf (184 KB) | Gnomon, Analemma | none | |
| The Moon (A) | TheMoon.pdf (40 KB) | none | Starry Night | |
| Observing the Moon (L) | MoonLab.pdf (108 KB) | MoonPhases | nighttime observations | |
| The Planets (A) | ThePlanets.pdf (32 KB) | none | Starry Night | |
| The Zodiac and Precession (A) | TheZodiac.pdf (56 KB) | none | Starry Night | |
| Observing the Night Sky (L) | ConstellationsLab.pdf (72 KB) | none | nighttime observations | |
| Ancient Greeks | Two Sphere Universe (A) | TwoSphere.pdf (64 KB) | none | Starry Night |
| Aristotle's Physics (A) | AristotlePhysics.pdf (32 KB) | Simulations | steel ball, graduated cylinder, pennies, book | |
| Spheres of Eudoxus (A) | Eudoxus.pdf (44 KB) | Eudoxus, Epicycle, EpicycleSunSuperior, EpicycleSunInferior | none | |
| Ptolemy's Syntaxis (A) | Ptolemy.pdf (60 KB) | Eccentric, EpicycleEccentric, Equant, SuperiorPtolemaic, InferiorPtolemaic | none | |
| Eratosthenes Measures the Earth (L) | EratosthenesLab.pdf (76 KB) | AngularSize, Eratosthenes | Starry Night | |
| Copernicus | Motions of the Earth (A) | EarthMoves.pdf (56 KB) | DailyRotation, DailyRotation2, EarthOrbit | none |
| Copernicus' Theory of the Planets (A) | CopernicusPlanets.pdf (72 KB) | SimpleVenus, SimpleMars | none | |
| The Scale of the Universe (A) | ScaleOfUniverse.pdf (100 KB) | SimpleInferior, SimpleSuperior, EarthParallax | none | |
| Tycho | The Tychonic System (A) | TychoSystem.pdf (56 KB) | FullMars, All3Systems, All3Systems2 | none |
| Parallax (L) (warning: there are some problems with this lab that I will fix soon) | ParallaxLab.pdf (160 KB) | Parallax | Starry Night | |
| The Comet of 1577 (A) | TychoComet.pdf (32 KB) | none | Starry Night | |
| Kepler | Kepler's Mysterium (A) | Mysterium.pdf (68 KB) | MysteriumTriangle, MysteriumSquare, MysteriumPentagon, MysteriumTetrahedron, MysteriumCube, MysteriumOctahedron, MysteriumDodecahedron, MysteriumIcosahedron | shapes for building Platonic solids |
| The Species Motrix (A) | SpeciesMotrix.pdf (72 KB) | KeplerEquant, SpeciesMotrix, KeplerInertia | none | |
| Earth's Orbit: Kepler's Second Law (A) | EarthOrbit.pdf (72 KB) | SecondLawCircle | compass, straight edge | |
| Mars' Orbit: Kepler's First Law (A) | MarsAttack.pdf (132 KB) | KeplerCircle, KeplerOval, KeplerOrbits | none | |
| Harmonices Mundi (A) | HarmonicesMundi.pdf (168 KB) | none | none | |
| Kepler's Laws (L) | KeplersLawsLab.pdf (1.9 MB) | KeplerSystem | ruler | |
| Galileo | Message of the Stars (A) | SideriusNuncius.pdf (60 KB) | MoonMountain, VenusPhasesPt, VenusPhases | none |
| Sunspots and Solar Rotation (L) | SunspotsLab.pdf (272 KB) | Sunspots | ruler | |
| The Moons of Jupiter (L) | PDF (504 KB) | none | Moons of Jupiter CLEA program | |
| Falling Bodies (A) | FallingBodies.pdf (116 KB) | InclinedPlane | lead ball, wood ball | |
| Free Fall (L) | FreeFallLab.pdf (48 KB) | none | Free Fall apparatus (Pasco, Cenco, etc) | |
| Neutral Motions (A) | NeutralMotions.pdf (44 KB) | InclinedPlane, ProjectileMotion | none | |
| Newton | Newton's Laws of Motion (A) | NewtonsLaws.pdf (84 KB) | Corollary1 | none |
| Centripetal Forces (A) | CentralForces.pdf (128 KB) | CentripetalForce, InverseSquare | none | |
| Universal Gravitation (A) | UniversalGravitation.pdf (88 KB) | NewtonsMountain, NewtonsMtn2 | none |
The Java programs in the CopernicanRevolution.jar package are Open Source Physics (OSP) programs that were created using Easy Java Simulations (EJS) and are freely distributable under the GNU GPL license. For more information about the Open Source Physics project visit http://www.compadre.org/osp/.
All of the curricular materials (including the narratives in the Launcher package) are copyrighted by Todd Timberlake and/or Paul Wallace and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. You may modify and redistribute these materials for non-commercial use as long as you clearly cite the original author (Todd Timberlake for all simulations materials and the activity handouts, Paul Wallace and Todd Timberlake for the lab handouts) and release the materials under the same license.