The

STARRY

MESSENGER

 

 

TEACHER'S NOTES

Level 1

 

 

The Starry Messenger is based on Attainment Target 4 of the National Curriculum for Science covering the Earth's place in the Universe with emphasis on the important historical figures in the story of Astronomy.  These notes are intended as a guide to the scientific content within the play and teachers may wish to undertake preparatory work.  However, we aim to present the scientific content in such a way that it becomes self-explanatory so preparation is not essential.

 

We have approached the subject matter from an historical angle and as the story unfolds we meet Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton and Neil Armstrong.

 

 

GALILEO  (1564 - 1642)

 

Galileo was born in Pisa and attended Pisa University.  His researches into the theory of motion began when he disproved Aristotle's theory that different weights fall at different speeds.  There is a famous story which tells of Galileo dropping various objects from the Tower of Pisa to see which hit the ground first.

 

Galileo built his own telescope and discovered that the moon's surface was not smooth as previously thought and even managed to calculate the height of the mountains by measuring the length of their shadows.  He also discovered that Jupiter has four moons.

 

In 1610 he published his results in a book called 'The Starry Messenger' and this book features in our story.

 

 

SIR ISAAC NEWTON  (1642 - 1727)

 

Newton, born in the same year Galileo died, was a sickly baby not expected to survive, but by the age of 26 he was professor of Mathematics at Cambridge.

 

In 1687 he finished his greatest work, the 'Principia Mathematica' which finally disproved the Aristotelian view of the solar system.

 

It was from Galileo's work on falling bodies and Kepler's laws of planetary motion that he developed his three laws of motion and the general theory of gravitation as a force of attraction between any two objects.

 

Newton was elected a fellow at the Royal Society in 1672 and in the play we see him giving a lecture there on the stars and planets.

 

We also meet Diamond, his dog in the play and in real life.  In fact Diamond was supposed to have destroyed many pages of Newton's notes by knocking over a candle and setting fire to them.

 

 

 

NEIL ARMSTRONG AND THE LUNAR EXPEDITIONS

 

In 1960 the USA decided to send a manned craft to the moon after several missions involving unmanned spaceships and they called the plan the Apollo project.  They developed Saturn V, the rocket launcher designed to carry Apollo 8 and in December 1968 three astronauts circled the moon.

 

But it was not until 20th July 1969 that Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon closely followed by Edward 'Buzz' Aldrin.  A third astronaut remained in the spacecraft whilst Armstrong and Aldrin performed their now famous space walk.

 

 

The play centres around Galileo and his fight to get his revolutionary theories believed.  Our heroine Andrea is taken back to 17th Century Italy by the strange, battered old telescope she receives for her birthday and is quickly caught up in a race through time to find the evidence to support Galileo and his theories on astronomy.  With the help of Sir Isaac Newton, Neil Armstrong and the audience Galileo’s theories are proved correct at the great trial in Pisa and the truth is discovered about the solar system.

 

 

 

SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS EXPLORED

 

 

DAY LENGTH AND YEAR LENGTH

 

With the help of Andrea, our heroine, Galileo demonstrates how the Earth travels around the sun.  Andrea plays the sun and a member of the audience plays the Earth.  The 'Earth' is then sent around the sun and we discover that it takes 1 year, or 365 days for the Earth to travel once around the sun.

However, the question is posed as to how day and night occur.  Galileo, using his volunteer, demonstrates that one full turn will give both night and day and that the Earth then spins 365 times in one year.

 

 

 

 

THE SOLAR SYSTEM

 

Sir Isaac Newton uses six members of the audience to demonstrate how the solar system works.  Each child represents one of the planets and stands in planet order. They are sent around the sun in their order to show how they planets orbit the sun and how the outer planets take much longer to complete one orbit.  As only six planets were known of in Sir Isaac Newton's day we only demonstrate those six, but stress that three more planets will be found and we name them.

 

 

 

Newton teaches the audience a sentence which helps them to remember the order of the planets:  My Very Eccentric Mother Juggles Saucepans Up Near Pudsey.  The first letter of each word is the first letter of a planet.  The audience are asked to remember the sentence and explain it to the judge in the final scene.

 

THE MOON

 

On the moon we meet Neil Armstrong.  He tells us that the moon circles the Earth every 29 ˝ days, or one month.

 

The moon has no light of its own but is lit by the sun.  As it revolves around the Earth it keeps the same face towards the Earth.  Therefore it has one perm­anent lit side and one side in constant darkness.  This is why we see a waxing and a waning moon.

Armstrong explains that we only ever see the lit parts of the moon.  When the dark side is facing we see no moon, or a New Moon.  As the moon circles the Earth more and more of the lit side is visible and we see firstly a crescent moon, then a quarter moon (We think of this as a half moon) then  we see a Gibbous Moon, or a three quarters moon and finally we see all of the lit side, a Full Moon.

 

As the moon appears to increase in size it is said to be waxing and as it decreases it is said to be waning.

 

In the final scene the children are asked to recap what they have learnt along the way to help Galileo prove his theories correct to the Head of the Hall of Fame. The final resolution is that Galileo is allowed to stay in the Hall of Fame.

 

At the end of the performance there will be a 10 minute question and answer session where the  actors will be happy to take questions.

 

 

SHOW REQUIREMENTS

 

The actors will be arriving approximately forty minutes prior to the start time in order to set up and will need to have access to the school hall from then. They bring the set, lighting and sound equipment with them so only need access to a plug socket.  They’ll need a space approximately 15’ wide by 10’ deep with the children sitting in front, either seated or on the floor.  The show works well ‘on the flat’ but if it’s more convenient for the actors to use your stage, please let them know on arrival.  The Starry Messenger lasts one hour with a two minute ‘q & a’ session at the end.