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For the Australian Aborigines, the sky was a textbook of morals and stories retold around campfires. They had their own zodiac made of birds, fishes and dancing men and it was the backdrop to their existence for tens of thousands of years.

In winter the bright stars we call Arcturus and Vega appeared and the Arnhem Land tribes knew that it was time to make fish traps. Also at that time, tribes in Victoria would look for the pupa of the wood ant. The appearance of the stars we call the Pleiades - or the Seven Sisters - was the sign of the start of the dingo-hunting season.

Aborigines saw Magellanic clouds as an old man and woman The Aborigines knew about the white, blue and red stars and had explanations for all of them. They understood the concept of circumpolar stars, that is, those that never dip below the horizon.

Eclipses and exploding stars were never regarded as good or bad omens - they were merely part of nature.

The Aborigines made bark paintings of the sky as well as rock carvings.

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The stars hold great significance for Australia's indigenous people.

The sky is a textbook of morals and stories, retold from generations to generations.

Through their Dreamtime legends, these stories have been the stages to their existence for thousands of years.

Let's start our journey with Australian poet Stella P. Bell's poem Man Of This Land, which takes us into Australia's starlit outback.
A Silhouette, stark against a red evening sky Motionless, standing with chin thrusting high He looks so majestic, alone there he stands. Not a blink of an eye, or a move of his hands. The sun, it is sinking. The wind turning cold He stands there surveying this land that is old In one hand he's clutching a spear, long and slim The other is holding a shield close to him. He listens and hears all the sounds of the night He knows of the dingo and what bird is in flight He hears the sea pounding on the cold empty shore And suddenly, silently he is there no more.
On a clear night, looking up with our naked eyes, we can see about three thousand stars.

Indigenous people of this sun-kissed-land have been gazing at the Southern sky for tens of thousands of years.

In there, they had their own zodiac, or the meanings taken from movements of the sun, moon and planets.

Indigenous astronomical traditions are very different from other traditions.

The constellations that can be seen from other parts of the world appear different in the sky over the Southern Hemisphere.

University of Western Sydney Astrophysicist, Dr Ragbir Bhathal uses Indigenous astronomy to teach students about engineering physics.

He says there are many examples of how Indigenous people use the constellations of the stars in their everyday life.

"They used the stars for telling them the seasonal supply of food, when to plant and how is the crop, and for transmitting the morals of their society. They identified the system of stars with their own zodiac. In Victoria, the Southern Cross is identified with a ring-tail possum, while the long neck tortoise is identified with the star called Pollux. We also find, in Victoria, that the star Taurus showed them where to find the pupa of the wood ant. While the star cluster, called the Pleiades or Seven Sisters informed the people in the western desert region that the annual dingo season was starting. And so they would descend to where the dingo stays and then catch their little pups and have a good feast. On the Torres Strait Islands the appearance of the stars the Tagai told them that it was time to start preparing the land for planting."

Indigenous people see the glowing star-filled band of the Milky Way galaxy as a river full of fish.

The duo of gaseous galaxies known as the Magellanic clouds are an old man and a woman.

Where stars have different colours; white, blue and red, Dr Bhathal says Indigenous people have explanations for all of them.

"The red star Aldebaran or Karambal is used to illustrate a warning to people that they should not commit adultery, so their bible was written in the sky. Thus when Karambal ran away with his mate's wife and hid himself and the lady in a tree to escape from the angry husband, the husband set the fire to the tree so they were carried away into the sky with the smoke and now you see both of them in the sky and Aldebaran is the red star that you can see in the night sky."

Dr Bhatal says eclipses and shooting stars are regarded as good or bad omens.

"On Stradbroke island for instance, the Southern Cross is seen as Mirrabooka, he was an old man, who when he died was taken up by Biami a spirit ancestor, into the sky to look after his people. In Queensland the appearance of shooting stars, was usually seen as a bad omen. It was said that someone who was sick in the camp would die, so just like in other cultures comets were seen as bad omens."

Dreamtime stories also look up to the sky.

There's a traditional Indigenous story from Central Victoria, called "How the Sun Came To Be".

"Early in the Dreamtime, before the sun had begun to shine, there was a young woman who decided to leave her group because the elders would not allow her to marry the lover of her choice."

Another legend from the Northern Territory explains "How The Moon Came To Be".

"Japara lived in the Dreamtime and was an excellent hunter. He had a wife and a little son whom he loved dearly. One day, when Japara was out on the plains hunting, a man called Parukapoli visited Japara's wife. He was a lazy man who preferred telling stories to hunting."

CSIRO astrophysicist and Macquarie University's Professor Ray Norris spent 10 years studying Indigenous Astronomy.

Professor Norris says there are some 400 distinct Indigenous cultures in Australia and each of them has special mythology, ceremonies and art forms.

He says most cultures have a strong astronomical component.

"We've always known that there were stories about the sky, we've known that they'd been stories of the emu and the sky, which is a big constellation you can see right across Australia, what I had not expected, was that they had a very deep understanding of the stars, in the sky, and the motion of planets, the sun and the moon, and things like this. One of my friends, who is an Aboriginal elder, he knows the name of almost every star you can see in the sky, and I don't think any present day astronomer could do that. He can tell stories about most of them as well."

Indigenous people also use their knowledge of the stars to navigate across the country.

The stars are a compass, a clock and a calendar.

When a particular star had risen, it was time to move to another camp.

Professor Ray Norris says Dreaming for Indigenous people means telling the creation of Earth, the sun, and the stars.

He says the Dreaming means the beginning of the world but it is also yesterday, today and forever.

"I think it tries to capture two different things. Firstly there is this time, and just this ancient time, long long ago. It is not a real time, you can't say ten thousand BC, or 50 thousand BC. It is just this ancient time. Once upon a time, in the beginning, and that's when the creative spirits were around, and sometimes they'd would be an animal, sometimes they'd be a human, sometimes they might be a planet or stars or something. The dreaming also means now, so it's this other world, a parallel universe, that's going on in parallel with the universe of the world, we see and touch. There's this hidden world which is full of creative spirits and mystical things going on."

Dr Ragbir Bhathal says while Indigenous cultures around the world construct their own meanings from the stars, there are some similarities.

"Ever since the humans begun walking on the earth, they have watched and studied the stars, each culture has built its own star system, and given the stars constellations and planets their own names and meanings. So in a way each star system is unique to the particular civilisation. It's also interesting, to note, that the clusters of stars called the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters is known as a group of sisters throughout all the civilisations on the Earth. And this tells us that we belong to one big family which came out of Africa a long, long time ago and spread ourselves all over the face of the Earth and this I find as an amazing fact of life. "

He says different stars often have different meanings to Indigenous groups around Australia.

In Arnhem Land, the Southern Cross is a shark chasing a stingray.

But for another group of Indigenous people the Southern Cross is a white ghost gum with two yellow-crested cockatoos trying to roost in its branches.

In European culture the star Orion is often represented as a hunter but in Indigenous culture, it's an emu.

Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the Australian National University, Ian Farrington, says academic interest in astronomy in Indigenous cultures around the world is growing.

"There are people, like myself, who are then looking at that, pushing that back further in time by looking at the archaeological background. Its good, that its becoming more popular, one of the great difficulties is that people don't necessary always interpret it very well, and that there is kind of a understanding that it's kind of a bit um ' how did they do that?' kind of question."

Researchers are studying astronomy in the Ancient Chinese and native American cultures while Mr Farrington's research is focused on ancient Peruvian culture.

Peru's ancient Incan capital today is called Cusco.

The word Cusco originates in the Quechuan language phrase "qusqu wanka"meaning "rock of the owl".

Mr Farrington spent three decades investigating Cusco and its surroundings, gathering a comprehensive amount of archaeological data.

"The city sits at the head of a long, relatively strait valley, this was the capital of Tawantinsuyu, which was the largest empire of South America, indeed in some respects the largest empire in the world, stretching from central Argentina, central Chile, as far north as the Ecuador, Columbia, about 4 thousand kilometres."

From the plaza at Cusco you can see every sunrise all throughout the year.

Mr Farrington says two nearby mountains mark the December and June solstices.

He says this landscape is full of symbolism.

"They had some very interesting understandings of their place in the Cosmos, linked to their landscape, in the Stories of Origin, with the stories of the sky. The landscape included into the Sky. Therefore they absorbed of the major rising and settings of the Sun, the Moon, particular planets, particular stars, particular constellation, and they had a very rich folklore about it."

Let's return back to Australia.

There are special roles of the sun and moon in Australian Indigenous astronomy as well.

Professor Norris explains.

"In nearly every Aboriginal culture, the sun is a woman, and the moon is a man. The sun is a nice person, she gets up in the morning, she lights the stringy bark tree, decorates herself with ocha. Some of the ocha comes off and goes on the clouds, you can see the beautiful sunrise, sets fire to the stringy bark tree, carries across the sky, giving everyone light and warmth, and then in the evening she comes down, in the west, takes the red ocha off, which is why you see that at sunset, extinguishes her stingy bark tree and then she travels under the ground, back to her camp in the east, so that's what the sun is doing."

But the Moon is a bad man.

In many cultures he is the person who brings death to the world.

Professor Norris tells the story.

"He refused to get any food for his clan, he is fat and lazy, and his wife and his son got so annoyed with him, because he is such a nasty person, they started attacking him with their axes, and they chopped bits of him, which is why you get the phases of the Moon. So the round fat moon becomes the half moon and the crescent and eventually he died and he stayed dead for three nights, that's when we have the new moon, and he came back to life, and he cursed the world, ' so now on I am going back to life every month'."

Professor Norris says these stories reveal the depth and complexity of Indigenous cultures which are not widely appreciated by outsiders.

While some cultures see eclipses, when the sun and moon block each other, as signs of imminent danger, Australia's Indigenous people have a human take on the event.

"The moon man and the sun woman get together to make love, and when they make love, his body covers hers, that's when you get the eclipse, and of course that's technically completely correct, that's exactly what happens, - the moon covers the sun, the story is built on Aboriginal Culture, its actually scientifically accurate and correct."

For Indigenous Australians, the stars don't just light the night sky.

They are sources of meaning.

Stories of people, traditions, culture and history.
The First Contact Network Event premieres Tuesday 18 November, 8.30pm on SBS ONE and NITV and continues Wednesday and Thursday

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Stories in the sky: Indigenous Astronomy

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The stars hold great significance for Australia's indigenous people. The sky is a textbook of morals and stories, retold from generations to generations. Through their Dreamtime legends, these stories have been the stages to their existence for thousands of years. Let's start our journey with Australian poet Stella P.

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The internet has become a priceless tool for the citizen-science movement, in which private citizens all over the world can make meaningful contributions to science.

With as little as a computer and some curiosity, you can help scientists determine targets for space telescopes, or look for signs of life on Kepler planets. Some projects, like the famous SETI@home application, simply use your computer's down-time to sift through vast quantities of data - no user input required. Others, like GalaxyZoo, ask you to look at pictures and classify objects based on shape or size.

For more advanced projects including those requiring more powerful telescopes, CCD cameras, or greater technical expertise, check our our list of amateur research programs.

With the wealth of projects out there, there is sure to be something that's a good fit for you.

Here is a list of some of the projects we find most interesting. This list was last updated on September 5, 2014.

Planet Four: Terrains: Identify exotic terrains around Mars's south pole in images taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

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List of Citizen-Science Projects - Sky & Telescope

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The internet has become a priceless tool for the citizen-science movement, in which private citizens all over the world can make meaningful contributions to science. With as little as a computer and some curiosity, you can help scientists determine targets for space telescopes, or look for signs of life on Kepler planets.

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Use the Moon Stories

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In most Aboriginal cultures, the Sun is a woman and the Moon is a man. Some Aboriginal communities describe the Sun woman pursuing the Moon man across the sky from day to day, occasionally meeting during an eclipse.

The Yolngu people call the Moon Ngalindi and he too travels across the sky. Originally, he was a fat lazy man (corresponding to the full Moon) for which he was punished by his wives, who chopped bits off him with their axes, producing the waning Moon. He managed to escape by climbing a tall tree to follow the Sun, but was mortally wounded, and died (the new Moon). After remaining dead for 3 days, he rose again, growing round and fat (the waxing Moon), until, after two weeks his wives attacked him again. The cycle continues to repeat every month. Until Ngalindi first died, everyone on Earth was immortal, but he cursed humans and animals so that only he could return to life. For everyone else, death would thereafter be final.

But the Arnhem Land stories go much further, even explaining why the Moon is associated with tides. When the tides are high, water fills the Moon as it rises. As the water runs out of the Moon, the tides fall, leaving the Moon empty for three days. Then the tide rises once more, refilling the Moon. So, although the mechanics are a little different from our modern version, the Yolngu people obviously had an excellent understanding of the motions of the Moon, and its relationship to the tides. (Source: Ray Norris)

A story from Cape York tells us how the Moon formed. Many years ago, people realised that a light was needed at nighttime because they found it difficult to walk around or to hunt. The Sun lit up their daytime - something was needed to light up the night. They held a big meeting and one idea was to collect a huge pile of firewood during the daytime hours and setting fire to it just as the Sun set. People thought that the fire would be big enough to light up the bush so that they could hunt and walk around and have corrobores. Most of the people thought that this idea was impractical.

One member of the community had great idea: why not make a special boomerang that would shine, throw it high in to the sky and at night this boomerang would give enough light to allow people and animals to see at night. They made a giant boomerang. People tried to throw it high into the sky. They tried but they just couldn't throw it high enough. Then, a very thin, old, weak man stepped forward and politely asked if he could try. Everyone laughed at him when they saw his weak, thin arms. One of the elders was a kind and wise man and he said the old man should be allowed to throw the boomerang.

And throw the boomerang the old man did! It went higher and higher and higher and finally stayed up in the sky as the Moon, shining down onto the people. The shape of the boomerang can still be seen in the Moon every month. ( Source)

Hamacher, D.W. and Norris, R.P. (2011) Eclipses in Australian Aboriginal Astronomy. Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, Vol. 14(2), pp. 103-114.

Hulley, C.E. (1996) Dreamtime Moon: Aboriginal myths of the moon. Reed Books, Sydney.

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The Moon In most Aboriginal cultures, the Sun is a woman and the Moon is a man. Some Aboriginal communities describe the Sun woman pursuing the Moon man across the sky from day to day, occasionally meeting during an eclipse. The Yolngu people call the Moon Ngalindi and he too travels across the sky.

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Physical Computational Thinking

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Ozobots Retell the Stories

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Micro:bits Our Secret Power

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Digital Interactions with Black Cockatoo

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From Pandanus Toys  to Wind
Turbines and Drone Making

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Understand the Solar System

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CBC news has compiled these stories: "From across this land, the people you are about to meet see a brighter future for all Canadians. Their personal journeys and stories are different, but are all connected by heritage and pride." Click here​ for more video and journal stories of Canadian Indigenous people.

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Milky Way Project

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Digital Story Telling

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ATSI Histories and Cultures - Cross Curriculum Priority: English: Languages: HaSS: Science: Digital Technology: Design Technology: ICT Capabilities: Sustainability Cross Curriculum Priority: STEM Pedagogies

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ATSI Histories and Cultures - Cross Curriculum Priority: English: Languages: HaSS: Science: Digital Technology: Design Technology: ICT Capabilities: Sustainability Cross Curriculum Priority: STEM Pedagogies

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures

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Two-way science is a pedagogy,...... “It's an approach that connects the traditional ecological knowledge of Aboriginal people – that is the cultural understanding of people, animals and the environment – with western science inquiry, and links that to the Australian Curriculum in a learning program.”

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Ancient Language

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Linguists have travelled to a remote desert community in Western Australia's far north in the hope of unlocking the secrets to the evolution of language.

Key points:

Nearly half of the world's 6,700 languages are at risk of being lost forever

A research project by the University of Queensland is mapping the Kukatja language

Researchers have visited Balgo in WA's far north to explore the language

Amid widespread concern about the disappearance of Indigenous languages, the former Catholic mission of Balgo is located in a linguistic melting pot that is thriving after tens of thousands of years.

Now, scientists want to map the local "lingua franca" called Kukatja, which is spoken more fluently than English by residents of all ages and across at least seven tribal groups.

Ancient connection

Within a small study, 14-year-old Anton Whisputt chats to his grandmother Dulcie Nanala about his day at school.

This timeless exchange feels particularly ancient given the language they are speaking is many thousands of years old.

With nearly half of the world's 6,700 languages at risk of disappearing, this casual chat also has global consequences.

Luis Miguel Rojas Berscia is recording the conversation for a research study by the University of Queensland, mapping the Kukatja language.

Dr Berscia has come to the township on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert after conducting similar studies with Amazonian tribes in Peru.

He believes Balgo could help explain how languages spread around the world.

"You have [many different] ethnic groups and they all communicate using Kukatja as a lingua franca, as a contact language, and that is very unique," Dr Berscia said.

"Nowadays it is very difficult to find these original multilingual societies.

"You find some of them in the Amazon, in western Africa, and you find some of them also here in Australia so these can tell us a lot about the formation of languages."

Mission history

Dr Berscia believes the common thread linking communities in these far-flung places is their history as religious missions.

The Catholic mission at Balgo was established in 1939 and resulted in tribal groups from across the region living in close proximity for the first time.

"Missions congregate people coming from many different places with many different linguistic backgrounds and at some point they have to decide on a common language," he said.

"That is very interesting and very unique [and] something that Balgo has in common with Peruvian north-western Amazonia."

This Place

Do you know the meaning of the Indigenous place names where you live? It's time to find out. You can also share the story behind your community's place names. Watch some on our YouTube channel or visit our latest stories:

He said the persistent isolation of these communities may have also helped preserve the unique cultural dynamic of these societies.

But Dr Berscia said that could soon change with English becoming increasingly popular among emerging generations.

"Nowadays many young people are switching to English; [they] use tonnes of English and creole elements in their daily speech," he said.

Working alongside Balgo residents, Dr Berscia is conducting a socio-linguistic survey and hopes to develop a Kukatja teacher's guide and dictionary.

High cost of losing language

The disappearance of language has long been linked to the loss of culture and wide ranging negative consequences for Indigenous people.

The United Nations deemed 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages in a bid to draw more attention to preservation efforts.

First Languages Australia in partnership with local language centres across Australia have developed an interactive map to display and promote the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.

Balgo woman Melissa Sunfly is determined to pass on Kukatja to future generations and has been assisting Dr Berscia with his research.

She has seen the impact on those who lose their connection to language.

"I see young people in towns or cities and they can't talk their language [and] it makes me sad inside to see they've lost their culture," she said.

"It's a big problem. Sometimes people, you know, they drink alcohol and smoke ganja.

"I'm happy to do the recording and put it on the books so people can read it."

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Researchers map ancient language in West Australian outback

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Linguists have travelled to a remote desert community in Western Australia's far north in the hope of unlocking the secrets to the evolution of language.

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Esri Story Maps are open source. This means you can download the code for any of the Story Map apps from GitHub, host it on your own server, and even customize it. While the needs of most story map authors will be served using the versions of these apps that are hosted on ArcGIS Online (or Portal for ArcGIS), there are a few reasons to consider self-hosting.

Why host an app?

There are several benefits to hosting a Story Map app, the most obvious is you can give your story a custom URL on your organization's domain. So, instead of a standard arcgis.com URL:
www.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=abcdef123456...
your story can have a URL like this:

www.our-agency.gov/stories/our-latest-story/.

You can also set up web analytics to capture statistics about who's reading your story and enhance how your story looks when it's shared on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

If you are a designer who knows HTML and CSS, you can style a Story Map app to change its appearance beyond what is possible in the builder. A popular style change is to add a banner image to a Map Tour, like in the "Kentucky's Frontier Trails" story from the University of Kentucky and the Commonwealth Office of Technology, Division of Geographic Information (DGI).

Finally, developers can customize an app to add new features. Examples of customizations are adding background audio or a cover page to your story. There are many styled and customized story maps in our gallery that you can review for ideas, and our developer blog has lots of articles about how to make specific customizations.

Want to learn more about how apps work when they are hosted on your own server and get step-by-step instructions? Read the full article on hosting your own Story Map on our developer blog .

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An introduction to hosting your own Story Map

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Esri Story Maps are open source. This means you can download the code for any of the Story Map apps from GitHub, host it on your own server, and even customize it. While the needs of most story map authors will be served using the versions of these apps that are hosted on ArcGIS Online (or Portal for ArcGIS), there are a few reasons to consider self-hosting.

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The Milky Way - 360° panoramic virtual tour - experience The Milky Way as if you're there!

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The First Nations people from the continent between the Indian and Pacific oceans (Named Australia by the British illegal invaders) were very aware of the stars and the 'EMU in the Sky' lines up with a rock carving in Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park.

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Australian Council for Educational Research - ACER

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Nearly 100 new practical teaching examples for the Australian Science Curriculum have been released. The suite of learning ideas relates to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority and aims to improve learning outcomes for all students.

The resources have been released by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). 'Teachers have told us they can generally see a connection between this cross-curriculum priority and some of the learning areas, like Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Arts,' ACARA CEO, Robert Randall says.

'But they have asked for advice on how they can embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learnings in other subject areas, particularly STEM subjects.'

The 95 examples (also labelled as elaborations) span the Science learning areas for Foundation to Year 10 and were developed with the assistance of ACARA's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory group and Taskforce, as well as Science and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander curriculum specialists.

'These elaborations ... are scientifically rigorous, demonstrating how Indigenous history, culture, knowledge and understanding can be incorporated into teaching core scientific concepts,' Randall says.

Practical learning examples

The examples are for optional use by classroom teachers. Currently, background information is available for teachers of Years 7-10 Science which details the cultural and historical significance of each elaboration, and how it connects to the Science Curriculum. Similar background information will soon become available for F-6 educators.

The suggestions are highly practical. For example, for Year 3 students learning how a change of state between solid and liquid can be caused by adding or removing heat, ACARA suggests students look at the changes of state evident in materials used by Indigenous peoples, like beeswax or resins.

Students in Year 6 can investigate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' knowledge of the physical conditions needed for certain plants and animals to survive in order to learn how the growth and survival of living things are affected by the physical conditions of their environment.

And, educators can explain the methods used by Indigenous Australians to convert toxic plants into edible food products in order to teach Year 10 students about the different types of chemical reactions to produce a range of products.

It's hoped that the resources will provide a more culturally responsive learning experience for Indigenous students and, ultimately, lead to better educational outcomes.

Nearly 100 new practical teaching examples for the Australian Science Curriculum have been released. The suite of learning ideas relates to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority and aims to improve learning outcomes for all students.

The resources have been released by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). 'Teachers have told us they can generally see a connection between this cross-curriculum priority and some of the learning areas, like Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Arts,' ACARA CEO, Robert Randall says.

'But they have asked for advice on how they can embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learnings in other subject areas, particularly STEM subjects.'

The 95 examples (also labelled as elaborations) span the Science learning areas for Foundation to Year 10 and were developed with the assistance of ACARA's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory group and Taskforce, as well as Science and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander curriculum specialists.

'These elaborations ... are scientifically rigorous, demonstrating how Indigenous history, culture, knowledge and understanding can be incorporated into teaching core scientific concepts,' Randall says.

Practical learning examples

The examples are for optional use by classroom teachers. Currently, background information is available for teachers of Years 7-10 Science which details the cultural and historical significance of each elaboration, and how it connects to the Science Curriculum. Similar background information will soon become available for F-6 educators.

The suggestions are highly practical. For example, for Year 3 students learning how a change of state between solid and liquid can be caused by adding or removing heat, ACARA suggests students look at the changes of state evident in materials used by Indigenous peoples, like beeswax or resins.

Students in Year 6 can investigate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' knowledge of the physical conditions needed for certain plants and animals to survive in order to learn how the growth and survival of living things are affected by the physical conditions of their environment.

And, educators can explain the methods used by Indigenous Australians to convert toxic plants into edible food products in order to teach Year 10 students about the different types of chemical reactions to produce a range of products.

It's hoped that the resources will provide a more culturally responsive learning experience for Indigenous students and, ultimately, lead to better educational outcomes.

Think about a future topic or unit of work you're teaching: How could you integrate the histories and cultures of Indigenous people into this learning area?

Educators can access the new ACARA materials by clicking the link.

Think about a future topic or unit of work you're teaching: How could you integrate the histories and cultures of Indigenous people into this learning area?

Educators can access the new ACARA materials by clicking the link.

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Connecting Science to Indigenous culture

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Dozens of new practical teaching examples for Science have been released by The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). The resources are aimed at helping teachers to incorporate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures in the curriculum.

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Download the Storytelling Map Tour Template and Get Started

By Rupert Essinger
ArcGIS Mapping Specialist, Esri

If you've seen an Esri story map that presents a tour with a map and associated images, such as this Palm Springs Map Tour, and wondered how to make your own, then this tip is for you! All you will need is an ArcGIS Online account, access to a web server, a simple graphics program, Microsoft Excel or a text editor, and (optionally) ArcGIS for Desktop.

The Storytelling Map Tour template is one of the free templates Esri provides for creating story maps. This tip shows you how to create a map tour story map by downloading the template Esri provides, creating a web map using ArcGIS Online for your tour, and then configuring the template to display your web map. It's easier than you think!

Step 1-Come up with your tour idea

The Storytelling Map Tour template is designed for presenting geographic information where there is a compelling photographic element to the story you want to tell. Be creative! Here are some potential uses. Click to see an example of each:

Step 2-Install the template

Download the ZIP file containing the map tour template. Unzip this file and copy the contents into a new folder in the file structure of an existing website or web server that you have access to so that the folder is publicly accessible to users on the web.

This step in the process is sometimes misunderstood. You don't need to have or set up a web server to deploy the template. You simply put the template files onto any website or web server that you have access to or that your organization maintains. For example, if you work for a small conservation organization whose website is hosted on one of the popular web hosting sites, like iPage or Bluehost, you'd log in to your account on that site and then upload the template files into a new folder in the file tree for your website. If you work in a large organization, you might work with the administrator of your organization's website or web server to install the template files.

The location of the template's index.html file defines the URL that will be used to access your map tour. For example, if your website is using a web server like Internet Information Services (IIS), and you create a folder in its root called C:\inetpub\wwwroot\map_tour, and your website's domain is http://www.example.com, then the URL of your map tour will be http://www.example.com/map_tour.

Step 3-Assemble Your Images

For each point in your map tour, you will need two image files: one at full size for display to the left of the map and a small thumbnail image for display in the thumbnail strip underneath the map. Images should be in JPEG format.

For full-size images, landscape (lengthwise) orientation is recommended instead of portrait orientation. The recommended image size is 1,000 pixels wide by 750 pixels tall (a 4:3 aspect ratio). This will ensure your images look sharp on a variety of monitor sizes and fill the image area to the left of the map nicely. Images in the common 3:2 aspect ratio also work well, in which case 1,000 pixels wide by 666 pixels tall is recommended. Don't worry if your images don't match these recommendations exactly, because images that are larger or smaller or have a different aspect ratio still work.

The thumbnail images should be in landscape orientation and ideally 200 pixels wide by 133 pixels tall (3:2 aspect ratio).

Each point in your map tour references its full-size image and its thumbnail image on the web via a URL, so you will need to make your image files available on the web. You could put them into the same folder on your web server into which you installed the template, into a different folder or web server, or into a photo sharing service such as Flickr. (If you use a photo sharing site, make sure you can access the photo via a URL that goes directly to the actual JPEG image file and not to a web page in which the image file is embedded.)

Step 4-Assemble your map tour points in a file

Assemble your map tour points in a comma-separated value (CSV) file, which is a simple text file. Each record in that file defines one point in your tour. Call your file Locations.csv. The file needs to contain name, caption, image URL, and thumbnail URL fields that are required by the template. In addition, the geographic location of each point has to be given either as latitude and longitude fields in decimal degrees or as a street address (in a single field or in separate address, city, state, and ZIP code fields).

You can create your CSV file in a text editor, like Windows Notepad, or in Microsoft Excel, which lets you export a worksheet to CSV format. The map tour template you downloaded in step 2 above includes a Samples folder that contains ready-to-use CSV and Excel files with all the required fields that you can use as the basis for your file, so you don't have to create it from scratch. There's also a README file in the template download that details the fields the template requires if you need more information.

Keep the caption text short, because it will appear on top of the full-size image, and on smaller displays like the iPad, a lot of text could cover up too much of the image. Limit your captions to 350 characters or less, including spaces. The caption text can include HTML tags to define formatting and links. For example, the caption text below is formatted so that the photo credit appears on a separate line in a smaller italic font than the rest of the caption:

The caption text below contains a hyperlink. Use the target attribute to make the link open in a new browser tab so that users don't lose their place in the tour.

The order of the records in the file determines the order in which the points will appear on the map. The first record in your map tour file is automatically treated as the introductory image by the template so that you can start the tour showing a compelling image to set the scene. The location of this record will not be shown on the map as a numbered point in your tour. You will still need to specify a location for this record in your file, but that location will not be displayed in the map tour. You can override this behavior if you don't want your map tour to start with an introductory image. That aspect will be covered later in this tip.

Optionally, you can assemble the tour points in ArcMap as a point layer using a geodatabase feature class and then export that layer's attribute table as a CSV file. This handy workflow saves you from having to manually assemble latitude-longitude coordinates or addresses for your points. The Samples folder contains a point feature class in a layer package with the required fields that you can use in ArcMap to edit your points. You can take advantage of ArcMap editing tools to interactively place and edit the points in your layer or use existing GIS data as the source for the points. Before you export your point layer's attribute table from ArcMap to a CSV file, you populate the latitude-longitude fields in the feature class's attribute table using the Calculate Geometry command in the ArcMap table window. As the order of the points in the layer determines their order in the tour, you can use the Sort geoprocessing tool if you want to reorder the records. To export the table to a CSV file, look for the Export command on the ArcMap table window's Options menu.

Step 5-Create your web map

Log in to ArcGIS Online using either a free public account or ArcGIS for Organizations subscription account and create a web map for your map tour using the map viewer. Load the Locations.csv file you created in the previous step into the web map as a new layer using the Add Layer from File command on the Add menu or by simply dragging the file onto the map.

You don't need to specify symbology or pop-up windows for the layer in the web map. The template automatically defines how the tour points layer will be displayed.

In addition to the layer containing your map tour points, you can also add supporting layers into the web map that your map tour will display. For example, if your map tour covers a particular study area, like a park or historic district, you could add a boundary into the web map showing the outline of that area. If your tour is a walking or driving tour, you could add a line to the map showing the recommended route. You can add supporting features and layers into the web map using shapefiles or any other data types supported in ArcGIS Online. Symbolize supporting layers in the web map as you want them to appear on your map tour. You don't need to define pop-up windows for these layers because the map tour template currently doesn't support pop-up windows for them. They are just providing context for the map reader.

Before you save your map, navigate to the default extent you want the map to display when it is used in the map tour template. The extent that your map is displaying when you save it will be the initial extent users will see when they launch your map tour. Your initial extent is therefore an important information design choice for your map tour. You may want all the tour points to be visible when the user first opens your map tour, or you may prefer that the initial extent is zoomed in to a subset of the points.

Finally, save your web map. The title and summary you use when you save the map will automatically become the title and subtitle of your map tour. Click Share and choose Everyone (public) to make the web map available to everyone.

Step 6-Configure the template

Now that you have created your web map and shared it publicly, you are ready to configure your template.

1. First, configure the template to use your web map. In the template folder, open the index.html file in any text editor, such as Windows Notepad or Windows Wordpad. Look for the template configuration section of the file.

2. In the template configuration section, update the webmap property to be the ID of your web map. This tells the application which web map to use. For example, our National Mall walking tour web map has the URL arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=a5019e8c55d547eab69c0777dcd7509a, and the ID of this map is the last part: a5019e8c55d547eab69c0777dcd7509a.

configOptions = {
// The web map id
webmap: "a5019e8c55d547eab69c0777dcd7509a",

3. The FIRST_RECORD_AS_INTRO parameter listed below the web ID in the config section controls whether or not the first record in your tour points layer is to be handled as an introduction for the map tour that does not appear on the map as a tour point. By default, this is set to true. If you change this value to false, the first record in your tour point layer will be the first point shown on the map.

// Use the first data record as an introduction instead of a point
firstRecordAsIntro: true,

4. Close and save the index.html file. (There are some other parameters in the template configuration, but you don't need to set them. See the README file in the download for more information about those.)

5. In the App folder in the template download, open the maptour-config.js file in a text editor. These parameters at the top of the file let you change the logo graphic and links shown in the top right-hand corner of the story map. You can also change the colors used by the story map:

// Header Logo
HEADER_LOGO_URL: "resources/icons/esri-logo.png",
HEADER_LOGO_TARGET: "http://www.esri.com",
// Header top right link
HEADER_LINK_TEXT: "A story map",
HEADER_LINK_URL: "http://storymaps.esri.com/home/",
// Header, Picture Panel and Carousel colors
COLORS: ["#444", "#797979", "#c2c2c2"], For example, to use your own logo graphic, put the image in the resources/icons folder in the template and update the HEADER_LOGO_URL parameter with the name of your file.

6. Close and save the maptour-config.js file. You can, of course, continue to edit and customize the code in any way you want! That's why we freely provide the code for the app as part of the template.

You are done!
Your story map is now live. If you launch the URL of your map tour in a web browser (i.e., the path to the folder in which you installed the template on your web server or website), it should work.

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By Rupert EssingerArcGIS Mapping Specialist, Esri If you've seen an Esri story map that presents a tour with a map and associated images, such as this Palm Springs Map Tour, and wondered how to make your own, then this tip is for you!

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Google Virtual Expedition

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Work the Algorithms

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An intro to algorithms | Digital Technologies Hub

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Students should be provided with opportunities to explore algorithms through guided play, including hands-on, kinaesthetic and interactive learning experiences. Students begin to develop their design skills by conceptualising algorithms as a sequence of steps or procedures for carrying out instructions to solve problems or achieve certain things.

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Millennium Kids On Country

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PEACE AND LIFESTYLE

#1000actionsfortheplanet #partnershipsforthegoals

Taking Coolgardie Kids on Country is an important role for Elders and sisters Betty and Maxine Dimer.

"The kids need to get out of town and know their country," said Betty, a local Councilor from the Shire of Coolgardie.

Betty and Maxine worked with Millennium Kids facilitators to secure funding from ASX-listed mining and exploration company Independence Group NL (IGO) for the 2019 program. They will take the kids camping at Fraser Range, on the edge of the Great Western Woodland, the largest intact temperate Mediterranean woodland left in the world.

Kids will learn how to manage a camp, collect seed and will find out how mining companies revegetate mining sites.

"It is important for the kids to work with all stakeholders, to have a say about how we look after our country and learn real life skills." Said Betty.

Kids on Country has been running for three years and this year the Kids will visit Credo Station and learn about the Indigenous Ranger program, they'll check out the Kalgoorlie Boulder Urban Landcare Group and host a visiting lecturer from John Moore Liverpool University in the UK, leading tours showcasing how they learn science skills on country.
The Kids on Country book featuring artworks done by the Kids in the Great Western Woodland will be launched in February 2019.

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Taking Coolgardie Kids on Country is an important role for Elders and sisters Betty and Maxine Dimer. "The kids need to get out of town and know their country," said Betty, a local Councilor from the Shire of Coolgardie.

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Worldwide Telescope is a tool for showcasing astronomical data and knowledge.

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Work this  Algorithm

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The Australian Museum collection includes two plaited strips made by boys from several strands of pandanus leaf. These were collected from the Cape Bedford region of north Queensland by Dr Walter Edmund Roth, and acquired by the Museum in 1905. Roth's notes imply these were made solely for amusement of boys, and that girls didn't engage with them.

We also have several toys made from folded pandanus strips. Some, referred to as propeller toys, are made from four strips of folded pandanus. These were thrown in the air, and also whirled on the end of a spindle. Piar Piar's were made from one strip of folded pandanus.
What is known as the piar-piar accomplishes the flight of the boomerang, and is therefore termed familiarly the 'little fella boomerang' ... is made from a strip from the side of the leaf of one of the pandanus palms (Pandanus pedunculatus). The prickles have been sliced off with a knife or the finger nails, two distinct half hitches are made in reverse order. Each end is shortened and roughly trimmed, the knots creased and squeezed to flatness between the teeth and lips, and the toy complete, the making having occupied less than a minute. Before throwing the ends are slightly deflexed. The toy is held in the right hand lightly between the thumb and first and second fingers, concave surface down, and is thrown to the left with a quick upward turn of the wrist. After a short rapid flight almost on the plane of the hand of the thrower the toy soars upwards, and taking a sinistral course, returns, twirling rapidly, to the thrower, occasionally making two complete revolutions. The ends are deflexed prior to each throw. Boys and youths are fond of the piar-piar, and men of sober years do not disdain it, being frankly pleased when they succeed in causing it to execute a more prolonged and graceful flight than ordinary.
Dunk Island, Queensland. Edward Banfield My Tropic Isle, 1911

More information
Haagen, Claudia, Bush toys: Aboriginal Children at Play, Aboriginal Studies Press Canberra, 1994.

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The Australian Museum collection includes two plaited strips made by boys from several strands of pandanus leaf. These were collected from the Cape Bedford region of north Queensland by Dr Walter Edmund Roth, and acquired by the Museum in 1905. Roth's notes imply these were made solely for amusement of boys, and that girls didn't engage with them.

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See sky in Google Earth | Help | About Google Sky

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Algo Rhythm through Dance : Code these  dances.

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Dance Theatre

Descendance performances cover both traditional and contemporary indigenous styles. Descendance's award winning show has toured to over forty countries around the world while still maintaining a strong presence in Australia. Descendance has some of the world's finest, Didgeridoo Players, Dancers, Singers, Storytellers, Choreographers, Traditional Painters, Musicians, and also provides Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremonies.

Descendance Performs In diverse sectors

Corporate Events, Conventions, Films, Audio Recordings, Touring, Theatre, Museums, Tourism, Opening Ceremonies, Galleries, Festivals, Community Work, Workshops, Schools, Government Education, Political Events and a wide range of Functions.

Descendance is a Sydney-based organisation.

Enquiries [email protected]

Contact Jose Calarco
+61(0)411337136 (mobile)
+61 2 96997071 (landline)

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Descendance - Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Dance Theatre

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Dance Theatre Descendance performances cover both traditional and contemporary indigenous styles. Descendance's award winning show has toured to over forty countries around the world while still maintaining a strong presence in Australia. Descendance has some of the world's finest, Didgeridoo Players, Dancers, Singers, Storytellers, Choreographers, Traditional Painters, Musicians, and also provides Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremonies.

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The story of the moon - ABC South Coast WA - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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Have you ever wondered why the full moon rises and falls so slowly? In Aboriginal culture the moon tells the story of Munuk, a girl who misbehaved while playing in the sky.

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A new website funded by NASA lets the public search for new worlds in the outer reaches of our solar system and in neighboring interstellar space. The website, called Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, allows everyone to participate in the search though brief movies made from images captured by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission.

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The First Sunrise

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Play Games

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Children around the world grow up in an unimaginable variety of environments. Although their homes, experiences and cultures may vary, a common denominator is that children everywhere love to play and entertain themselves. Some games are comparable, while others are unique to particular cultures. In Australia, the customs and practices from a varied population have allowed for an assortment of games and pastimes.

Down Down Down involves the tossing of a tennis ball between two players, and the eventual crouching of the player who continues to drop the ball. Players begin tossing the ball back and forth from a standing position. If a player drops the ball, he must go to one knee. If he drops it again he goes to both knees, then to an elbow, to two elbows, and eventually ends up on his chin.

Stuck in the Mud emulates the game of freeze tag. Frozen players must remain frozen until a free player crawls between their feet, which are planted as if stuck in mud. All players are eventually frozen until only one free player remains.

What's the Time, Mr. Wolf? focuses on one player, the "wolf," who stands with his back turned to the other players, about 15 feet away. The other players begin to inquire about the time. When the wolf yells out the time, the other players take the correlating number of steps forward (10 o'clock for 10 steps, 2 o'clock for two steps, and so on). Once the group is close enough, the wolf screams "dinner time" and tries to catch one of the other players. The player who is caught assumes the duties of the wolf.

Bounce Eye is thought to have been in existence for more than 200 years. It involves marbles and at least three players. After a 12-inch circle is drawn, each player deposits two of his three marbles in the center. Each player takes a turn dropping his remaining marble over another player's marble, trying to knock it out of the circle. When a marble is displaced, it becomes the property of the individual responsible. Turns are taken until all the marbles are outside the circle. The player who accumulates the most marbles is the winner.

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Traditional Children's Games in Australia

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Children around the world grow up in an unimaginable variety of environments. Although their homes, experiences and cultures may vary, a common denominator is that children everywhere love to play and entertain themselves. Some games are comparable, while others are unique to particular cultures.

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Codes and  Symbols

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Knowledge Area: Art Styles

VISUAL STIMULUS FOCUS

The Sand Symbols is a story about an Aboriginal Elder sharing cultural and historical knowledge with her grandchildren, and discovering comparisons with modern and traditional Australian societies.

VISUAL STIMULUS

Click on the image to launch the video The Sand Symbols.

DOWNLOAD
Teaching Notes
A comprehensive document of notes relating to the visual stimulus.

Each set of Teaching Notes contains the following:

Prior to Viewing: Background information on the topic and tips to help you introduce the video to students

Shared Viewing: Explanations and additional information to engage students while viewing the video

After Viewing Discussion: Recommended ideas for discussion and questioning after viewing the video

Curriculum Links: Relevant content descriptions and elaborations from the Australian Curriculum

DOWNLOAD
WORKSHEETS
Printable worksheets for students to complete that support the teaching material.

WS 1: Drawing Aboriginal Art Symbols
A drawing activity where students draw different Aboriginal art symbols that they have memorised. (The symbols and patterns can be found in the Learning Aboriginal Art Symbols document in the Additional Resources section.)

WS 2: Aboriginal Art Symbols - Writing a Story
A reading and writing activity where students draw Aboriginal art symbols to complete the story.

WS 3: Aboriginal Art Symbols - Reading a Story
A reading and writing activity where students recognise Aboriginal art symbols to complete the story.

DOWNLOAD
Additional Resources
Additional materials such as answers, useful links, relevant protocol documents or tips for localising the teaching materials.

WS 2: Aboriginal Art Symbols - Writing a Story (Answers)

WS 3: Aboriginal Art Symbols - Reading a Story (Answers)

A great game that teaches students about the meanings of some of the art symbols commonly used in Aboriginal paintings and rock art. It is suitable for students in Years 3-6.
Read More

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Teaching With Aunty: The Sand Symbols (Year 4) - Crackerjack Education

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Knowledge Area: Art Styles The Sand Symbols is a story about an Aboriginal Elder sharing cultural and historical knowledge with her grandchildren, and discovering comparisons with modern and traditional Australian societies. Click on the image to launch the video The Sand Symbols. DOWNLOAD A comprehensive document of notes relating to the visual stimulus.

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Aboriginal Art has survived for over thousands of years and continues to be one of the oldest art forms practiced today. Symbols were used in order to show the presence of different things or objects that existed around them.
Aboriginal Art consists of symbols. These symbols were used as a means of communication; communication of their lives on earth, their rituals, food, customs and also to show constellations and for ritual decorations. These works were almost always ceremonial or religious.

Unlike the well-known artists you've studied, Aboriginal artists created their works based on how the land was created,
basing their subject matter mainly on patterns and animals.

These patterns and symbols were created using only the colours seen in nature, (for instance soil, was seen in tints of reds, yellows and browns ochres. White, clay and charcoal colours were also used from natural materials. Thousands of years ago, Aboriginals would create their works using only the natural materials left around them, (such as bark, clay, logs, trees, burnt sticks, rocks, etc....

The backgrounds of these art works were never blank. There is always a continuous use of dotting, patterns, lines or hatching to create a sense of movement within the work. These works of art could be labelled as Abstract.

Check Out Some of The Frequent Symbols That Were Used:

Let's Create Our Own Aboriginal Works of Art!!

1. Pretend you are living thousands of years ago and need to create a work of art for your ancestors.
2. Choose one-three of the above Aboriginal symbols to create a storyline.
3. On the back sheet of your new, blank sketchbook page, write down the short story you are choosing to tell with your symbols.
Use the original Aboriginal Art Works as inspiration to get you started.
4. On a blank sheet in your sketchbook, draw the symbols you have chosen, and create patterns to tell your story using different lines.
5. Once your lines are drawn, glue down different colours of string or other materials over the lines to complete your work.
6. Make sure all your lines are completely covered in neatly, and you are only using the same colours you would see in nature to complete you work.

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Aboriginal Art has survived for over thousands of years and continues to be one of the oldest art forms practiced today. Symbols were used in order to show the presence of different things or objects that existed around them. Aboriginal Art consists of symbols.

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Jewellery such as necklaces as well as paintings are an extremely important component in Aboriginal culture. Traditionally it was customary for necklaces to be worn by both men and women during ceremonies relating to sexuality and fecundity. This is one of the few practices of special significance which is maintained in contemporary Aboriginal culture.

Shells, feathers, grasses and reeds. plant seeds and dried fruit, snake vertebrae and various other materials which are found in the desert and coastal regions of Australia can all be used in necklace making however the availability of such items dictates what can be used and when in the production of jewellery.

The most important part of the necklace is the string or hair used. It symbolises the relatedness of people and families. The string can be plain or embellished with seeds. Wearing the necklace represents a connectedness to the land and its components and also family and relationships between people. Many necklace makers prefer to use red coloured seeds because it represents ancestral power and expresses imminent change or danger. Bean shaped seeds are also used as they can be found in large qualities and can be found in varying red hues, it is these seeds which are shared among families to represent relatedness.

The production of necklaces is a seasonal occupation which is mainly carried out by the women in a community. In the desert regions of Australia seed production and development are dependent on sufficient rainfalls. Women and children gather seeds and pods for necklace making while searching for bush tucker using their traditional knowledge. Gum nut seeds are collected while they are still green, they are sorted, cleaned, dried and then drilled or poked using hot wire to create beads for necklace making.

Artists living in Alice Springs explain that the seeds are collected for in and around town. They are taken home and lacquered, using acrylic paint geometric patterns are added to the Gum nut seeds such as concentric circles which represent camp sites, curved lines which represent rain or underground water, or straight lines which represent routes to camp sites or places of significance, or U shapes which represent people. Aboriginal artists apply this basic set of symbols which can have multiple meanings depending on there context to their artworks to tell stories of the dreamtime.

Alice Springs artists have become especially well known for their elaborate designs, precision dotting technique, and colour contrasts. Some artists add an extra seed which does not match with the necklace either differing in seed type, colour, pattern, size or shape. There are several reasons this may occur, for instance it may be a left over bead from a previous batch or have been made by a relative and added in their memory or simply for good luck.

The colouring of necklaces can also be interpreted. Green is very unusual as it represents new growth after rain and is not generally used for necklaces, blue may represent water; yellow and pink or purple hues are associated with sunsets and flowering grasslands at particular times of the year. By lacquering the seeds or pods the bright colours and contrasts are enhanced making them more eye catching.

Your gift item is accompanied with a Central Art Gift Card Certificate

" View our Art on a String Gallery to browse our collection.

Each jewelry item is accompanied by a Central Art Gift Tag.

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Jewellery such as necklaces as well as paintings are an extremely important component in Aboriginal culture. Traditionally it was customary for necklaces to be worn by both men and women during ceremonies relating to sexuality and fecundity. This is one of the few practices of special significance which is maintained in contemporary Aboriginal culture.

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Staging a Traditional Indigenous Games event develops a greater understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island culture.

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Aboriginal people share a strong spiritual connnection to the land. This mobile combine various natural products, bringing nature into the home and maintaining connection. Search terms: nature, NAIDOC, wood, mobile, seeds, pods, naturals, wall hanging

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Tangram Algorithms

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Have the planets in the palm of your hand.

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Engage yourself into an Amazing Space Journey. Discover the Solar System and explore the Sun, the planets and their satellites in stunning details.

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Solar System Atlas takes users on an interactive journey to the outward reaches of our solar system to examine many of the most detailed maps available for planets, moons, asteroids, and comets.

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This story map was created with the Story Map Journal application in ArcGIS Online.

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Moon Stories

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In most Aboriginal cultures, the Sun is a woman and the Moon is a man. Some Aboriginal communities describe the Sun woman pursuing the Moon man across the sky from day to day, occasionally meeting during an eclipse.

The Yolngu people call the Moon Ngalindi and he too travels across the sky. Originally, he was a fat lazy man (corresponding to the full Moon) for which he was punished by his wives, who chopped bits off him with their axes, producing the waning Moon. He managed to escape by climbing a tall tree to follow the Sun, but was mortally wounded, and died (the new Moon). After remaining dead for 3 days, he rose again, growing round and fat (the waxing Moon), until, after two weeks his wives attacked him again. The cycle continues to repeat every month. Until Ngalindi first died, everyone on Earth was immortal, but he cursed humans and animals so that only he could return to life. For everyone else, death would thereafter be final.

But the Arnhem Land stories go much further, even explaining why the Moon is associated with tides. When the tides are high, water fills the Moon as it rises. As the water runs out of the Moon, the tides fall, leaving the Moon empty for three days. Then the tide rises once more, refilling the Moon. So, although the mechanics are a little different from our modern version, the Yolngu people obviously had an excellent understanding of the motions of the Moon, and its relationship to the tides. (Source: Ray Norris)

A story from Cape York tells us how the Moon formed. Many years ago, people realised that a light was needed at nighttime because they found it difficult to walk around or to hunt. The Sun lit up their daytime - something was needed to light up the night. They held a big meeting and one idea was to collect a huge pile of firewood during the daytime hours and setting fire to it just as the Sun set. People thought that the fire would be big enough to light up the bush so that they could hunt and walk around and have corrobores. Most of the people thought that this idea was impractical.

One member of the community had great idea: why not make a special boomerang that would shine, throw it high in to the sky and at night this boomerang would give enough light to allow people and animals to see at night. They made a giant boomerang. People tried to throw it high into the sky. They tried but they just couldn't throw it high enough. Then, a very thin, old, weak man stepped forward and politely asked if he could try. Everyone laughed at him when they saw his weak, thin arms. One of the elders was a kind and wise man and he said the old man should be allowed to throw the boomerang.

And throw the boomerang the old man did! It went higher and higher and higher and finally stayed up in the sky as the Moon, shining down onto the people. The shape of the boomerang can still be seen in the Moon every month. ( Source)

Hamacher, D.W. and Norris, R.P. (2011) Eclipses in Australian Aboriginal Astronomy. Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, Vol. 14(2), pp. 103-114.

Hulley, C.E. (1996) Dreamtime Moon: Aboriginal myths of the moon. Reed Books, Sydney.

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The Moon In most Aboriginal cultures, the Sun is a woman and the Moon is a man. Some Aboriginal communities describe the Sun woman pursuing the Moon man across the sky from day to day, occasionally meeting during an eclipse. The Yolngu people call the Moon Ngalindi and he too travels across the sky.

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Australian Saltwater, Desert and Bush Tangram Algorithms

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Tangram Animals | Free Printable Puzzle Games Templates

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Tangram Animals. Great collection of jigsaws and math puzzles, mysterious mazes and labyrinths, intriguing visual logic games, easy handwriting worksheets and spot the difference activities, crosswords for kids, guess the word, rebuses, word search and many other brain teasers.

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Origami Algorithms

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Whether you are looking for an easy way to make fun holiday decorations, or a fun project for the kids, origami is a good option. In this instructable, we will create a very simple origami rabbit that can be made quickly and can easily be converted into several other animals, which we will discuss in detail at the end. These bunnies make great decorations, a fun activity for kids, and are very open to creative interpretation!

If you've come here for the kangaroo, quickly read through the whole instructable. At the end, we discuss the changes needed to create a kangaroo.

Supplies Needed:
Paper
Scissors
Decorations (Optional)
i.e. cotton balls, markers, stickers

Estimated time to completion: 5 minutes plus decoration time.

The above photo pictures what it might look like when you're done. Again, this is a very flexible design, so this image is the basic bunny.

Step 1: Prepare Your Paper

If you have a square sheet of paper, you can skip to step 2. If not, take your rectangular paper and fold the top-right corner diagonally across the page until what used to be the top of the page is parallel with the left side. Don't worry if you crease this fold: that is part of step 2, so doing it early won't hurt. Using the scissors, cut off the strip of paper below this fold. When you unfold the paper, you will have a perfect square and a head start on step 2!

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Step 2: Form the "kite Base"

A "kite base" is a common origami base used for several different origami projects. To make the kite base, fold your square paper in a triangle (if you did step one, skip this fold). Open the paper back to the square, then fold the two corners that aren't creased by our first fold down until the edge meets the center crease, like folding a paper airplane.

This looks somewhat like a kite, hence the name. Some terminology to make this easier: there will be a pointier part that is two sheets thick (the tip of what would be the paper airplane), and a less pointy part that is only one sheet thick. We will call the pointier end the head (as it will be at the head of the bunny), and the less-pointy part the tail (as it will be the tail) for the rest of this instructable. We will call the crease that runs down the middle the center crease. Now let's turn this kite into a bunny!

Step 3: Fold the Tail

Turn the kite so that the tail is up. Fold the tail completely down (photo above, bottom left), then fold the tail point back up about 2/3 of the way, so that it hangs off the main triangle (photo above, bottom right). The portion that hangs off will be the bunny's visible tail.

Step 4: Prepare the Ears and Fold the Body

Now fold the head down to the tail crease (photo above, top), then unfold it (photo above, bottom left). Using scissors, cut from the head along your center crease until you get to the horizontal crease you just made (photo above, bottom right). Now fold the whole thing in half along the center crease. It should look similar to a paper airplane at this point, with a bit extra sticking out the back.

Step 5: Fold the Ears

Rotate the paper so that the center fold is away from you and the other edge is flat towards you (photo above, top). Fold up the top-half of the head at a 60 degree angle (photo above, bottom left), using the cut as the anchor point for the top of this fold. Flip the paper over, and do the same thing on the other side. These are your bunny's ears. You have now completed the basic origami bunny!

If you want more bunny-ish ears, you can open the two head folds to form opened, rounded ears.

Step 6: Decorate!

Now that you have a basic bunny, you're free to color it, add eyes, glue cotton balls to the tail, string these up to make decorations--your imagination's the limit!

As noted in the beginning, the kite is a simple base for many different origami projects. Using these same steps, you can also make a kangaroo: just cut from the head down to the horizontal fold in step 4,and fold the ears up only about 30-45 degrees. Stand the finished origami up so the bunny is propped up by it's tail and hind legs to form the kangaroo. You can also try adding a few extra folds to the bunny and kangaroo, and get a host of other animals. We got a whale, turtle, and howling wolf depending on how we decorated it! What will you make?

Teacher Notes

Teachers! Did you use this instructable in your classroom?
Add a Teacher Note to share how you incorporated it into your lesson.

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Easy Origami Bunny (or Kangaroo): Whether you are looking for an easy way to make fun holiday decorations, or a fun project for the kids, origami is a good option. In this instructable, we will create a very simple origami rabbit that can be made quickly and can easily be converte...

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This page is dedicated to origami animals. There are many kinds of animals and there are many ways to categorize them. Please be patient because some of the links takes you to another page of links. Diagrams listed are "easy" or "intermediate". Instructions for "complex" origami animals and crease patterns are not included because they are beyond the range of this audience.

Do you know of more designs for

origami animals

? Do you have a favorite origami animal? Let us know.

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This page is dedicated to origami animals. There are many kinds of animals and there are many ways to categorize them. Please be patient because some of the links takes you to another page of links. Diagrams listed are "easy" or "intermediate".

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An algorithm is a precise set of instructions.

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Step By Step Instructions How To Make Origami A Windmill. Stock Vector - Illustration of collection, craft: 68770561

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Step By Step Instructions How To Make Origami A Windmill. Stock Vector - Illustration of collection, craft: 68770561

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Work the Stories and Picture Books

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The River I s B ig . by Connie Ah See . The river is big, cold and wide. It twists and turns across my country. We used to swim near the old bridge and jump from the bridge into the river. We'd skim flat stones across the river.

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Story Sequence with the Bots

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This lesson adopts an integrated approach to teaching science, incorporating picture story books and maths concepts. The lesson aims to expand the students understanding of the differing seasons in Northern Australia and draws on their developing understanding of scientific concepts such as evaporation. The lesson should be taught as part of a continuing exploration of the importance of living sustainably.

Children in the 1/2 area have been enjoying listening to 'Dreamtime stories', they have also begun to learn about the days of the week and months of the year, working on their own calendars during lap top sessions. By using Big Rain Coming I aim to introduce the concept that, in parts of Australia they don't experience four seasons like we do in the south. In Northern Australia, there is the wet season and the dry season.

To introduce the children to the concept of seasons in the 'Top End' and comparing them to seasons in Southern Australia.

Observable changes occur in the sky and landscape (ACSSU019)

Science involves asking questions about, and describing changes in, objects and events (ACSHE021)

Science involves exploring and observing the world using the senses (ACSHE013)

Year 2:

Use a calendar to identify the date and determine the number of days in each month (ACMMG041).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures: investigating the seasons used by Aboriginal people, comparing them to those used in Western society and recognising the connection to weather patterns.

Why do you think old man Stephen believes that the rain is coming? Are there any clues in the pictures that would suggest this?

How many seasons of weather do we have?

Why are their different coloured clouds? What do you think this might mean?

What is a billabong? What is it being used for? Why is the billabong important? Who needs to use the billabong?

What makes thunder?

Why were the people sleeping outside waiting for the rain to come?

Why were the dogs digging holes to keep cool?

Why do living things need water?

Why did Stephen say the rain was coming?

Where did the children swim?

How did the dogs keep cool?

When did the rain come?

Why was the water warm and still in a billabong?

Why did the fat green frogs gathered around the leaky tap?

Where can you hear echo sounds?

How did the children feel when the rain came?

What happens to the grass and trees around us when is not raining?

Many places experience 4 seasons in a year. Each season lasts for 3 months. Hot places near the equator often only have 2 seasons, called the wet and the dry.

CLOUD BUILD UP

In Victoria, we are coming into our warm and sunny seasons, in Darwin it is starting to get very hot, stormy and rainy!

Read story Big Rain Coming

Discuss

Look at 'How do you know it is going to rain?'

http://splash.abc.net.au/media/-/m/30177/how-do-you-know-when-rain-is-coming-?
source=early-primary

Scientists Observe (Outside if possible) Children to face teacher and observe...

"What are my clothes doing?

What am I wearing?" etc.

Ask children to turn around so they cant see teacher. Teacher to change appearance, eg pull up one sleeve or trouser leg, put on glasses, hat... Explain Scientists make observations about the environment around them, they record things carefully over time so they can recognise changes and explain what is happening.

Return to the Classroom and Watch and Discuss 'Living in cold or hot areas'

Why were the boys wearing different clothes?

What if it was raining in both places?

Would the weather still feel different in each place?

Why do you think this?

How does the weather affect what you do?

Recap on Water cycle poster (brief recap of concept following energy unit) (See Resources)

Conduct the Evaporation Investigation (See Resources)

Where to from here?

Add culturally significant dates to the calendar children have been working on in literacy ((ACMMG041) using calendars to locate specific information, such as finding a given date on a calendar and saying what day it is, and identifying personally or culturally specific days).

Children colour code the seasons on the calendar they are working on with the lap tops, eg Summer: yellow, Spring: green, Autumn: Orange, Winter: blue.

Read Poem (trad.)

"Thirty days has September, April, June and November;

All the rest have thirty-one,

Except February, with twenty-eight days,

And twenty-nine each leap year."

Big Rain Coming word search for early finishers (See Resources)

Anecdotal notes

Collect Investigations and assess for students' ability to identify changes.

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If you like this lesson, or have an idea to improve it, please consider sharing it on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook or leave a comment below.

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Big Rain Coming by Katrina Germein - An Integrated Maths and Science Lesson for 1/2 - Australian Curriculum Lessons

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Summary: This lesson adopts an integrated approach to teaching science, incorporating picture story books and maths concepts. The lesson aims to expand the students understanding of the differing seasons in Northern Australia and draws on their developing understanding of scientific concepts such as evaporation. The lesson should be taught as part of a continuing exploration ...

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Learn Their Stories

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Do you have a story you want to tell? Do you want to document any special events, festivals, concerts or ceremonies?
Our talented media artists build strong relationships with community members as they guide them through scripting, story boarding, story telling, yarning, recording and filming their very own powerful story or documentary. The Documentary project is a popular project, based on the powerful, positive content/resource that is created as an archival historical story, uploaded to YouTube. The end product is a locally written, produced and driven resource including story telling, interviews, music and dance that can be shared with the whole world.

2016 IHHP Director Dion Brownfield and Film maker 'Syd' Britten Andrews guide the Frog Hallow community through making a their first feature-length documentary.

Purnululu Aboriginal School Full length documentary called 'Law, Land and Family' will be coming soon.
IHHP Documentary Projects
IHHP will send our media team to any event, camp, festival, function or project to film, document and capture the spirit and experience or short stories for your community.
Recent Documentary Projects Strelley School - Celebrating 40 Years 'Proud and Strong' NAAJA Maningrida 'Ripple Effect' - interviews and stories respect and culture Lajamanu Kurdiji Law and Justice Group Bidyadanga Dreaming Oenpellie Krew - Ktown Journey Starting The Conversation - WHITE RIBBON IHHP & Alzheimer's Australia - Heywood Behind The Scenes Galiwin'ku Elcho Island NT 'Shepherdson College Xmas Concert' The Esperance Norseman Dance Hip Hop Project Doco Mowanjum - Culture Night IHHP - Bunbury - Dance Documentary IHHP - Ngaanyatjarraku Spring Dance Tour Warakurna - Desert Dust Up 2014 Diabetes Eye Health Stories
Check Today, See Tomorrow - Regular Eye Checks https://vimeo.com/152264879

Behind the Scenes - https://vimeo.com/152264858

Check Today, See Tomorrow - Jack's Story https://vimeo.com/152264865

Check Today, See Tomorrow - Lynn's Story https://vimeo.com/152264866

Check Today, See Tomorrow - Colin's Story https://vimeo.com/152264867

Check Today, See Tomorrow - Colleen's Story https://vimeo.com/152264869

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Do you have a story you want to tell? Do you want to document any special events, festivals, concerts or ceremonies? Our talented media artists build strong relationships with community members as they guide them through scripting, story boarding, story telling, yarning, recording and filming their very own powerful story or documentary.

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Check out our variety of Education Resources, designed to provide a range of pathways for students to explore the art of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytelling.

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The use of Bush Tucker plants in home and school gardens are becoming more and more common. Bush Tucker plants are local native plants that were used by local Aboriginal people before European settlement of Australia. While we generally call them 'Bush Tucker' plants they quite often were used for more than just food.

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" For too long a time, Aboriginal people have been disconnected from the lands and waters. It's vital that we, as the first Australians, share and teach our cultural knowledge of such an enriching culture that has existed since before recorded history. We now need to reconnect to all become caretakers.

We connected to the land and animals for our foods, health and healing for generations. Today, we have the opportunity to continue sharing our knowledge, so we can ensure the planet is well looked after today and into the future.

I believe every child and their parent has a role in taking care of the environment. To bring back our bushtucker species will be amazing. Together, we can make it happen. "Marissa Verma

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" For too long a time, Aboriginal people have been disconnected from the lands and waters. It's vital that we, as the first Australians, share and teach our cultural knowledge of such an enriching culture that has existed since before recorded history. We now need to reconnect to all become caretakers.

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Cuisine Capabilities - My Indigenous  Kitchen Rules

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Non-Alcoholic Beer Infused With Native Plants Hits The Market

10 News First

You'd think a non-alcoholic beer in Far North Queensland would be about as popular as a brown snake in a lucky dip barrel.
But Clinton Schultz, the founder of Sobah Badha Gali beers, reckons he's onto a winner. On Thursday the company launched its line of premium craft beer in Cairns, which promises plenty of flavour without the hangover.
"I wanted for people who don't drink for whatever reason to be able to go out to the same normal venues with their families or friends and be able to access adult tasting non-alcoholic drinks," he said. . . . more

Indigenous bush food ingredients give Christmas puddings an authentically Aussie twist

ABC NSW Country Hour

The quandong — a fruit that has been a traditional staple for thousands of years for Aboriginal people — is giving the traditional Christmas pudding an authentically Australian twist this year, while also helping create jobs in the local community.
Proud Wiradjuri man Herb Smith said he was delighted to bring the quandong Christmas pudding to the Australian table this year.
His company Dreamtime Tuka, based in Wellington, in the New South Wales central west, works to create food products using traditional Aboriginal ingredients, to provide local jobs in food production.
"And this food is good stuff, it's healthy tucker," Mr Smith said.
"So not only is it creating job opportunities, it's also helping to create a vision for Aboriginal people, a way to tell their story." . . . more

Hort Innovation Alumni

Hort Innovation Alumni, of which ANFAB is a member, aims to raise the profile of the valuable roles industry leaders play in horticulture businesses, the industry and the community. In doing so it:

Provides a platform for emerging and established industry leaders to develop new networks with growers and researchers from a range of commodities

Fosters a culture of leadership across the industry, with growers aspiring to become a part of the leadership alumni

Provides opportunities for identified and established leaders to further increase their leadership skills

ANFAB's Russell Glover is pictured here with Karen Martin from Yanalla Farms and Chair of the Alumni's Steering Committee, and Shayne Hyman from East Gippsland Food Cluster, receiving an Industry leader award.

Indigenous apple crumble on the menu, as Arnhem Land communities start selling red bush apples

ABC Rural 17/12/18

Indigenous communities in Arnhem Land are busy harvesting red bush apples and, for the first time, have started selling the native fruit commercially.
The Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation at Maningrida is coordinating the wild harvest and has been overwhelmed by people looking to get involved.
"There's been a lot of interest from the community and we've got people coming in each day with loads of bush apples," the corporation's Jonathon Buckingham said." . . . more

Australia's first Indigenous grower group celebrates success of Noongar-owned Dowrene Farms

ABC WA Country Hour

From afar Dowrene Farms looks like a typical sheep operation, but to Australia's first Aboriginal grower group it is much more significant.
The property, based near Cranbrook, Western Australia, is the first in the group to become a commercially successful farming business.
It is also one of very few Noongar-owned and operated farms in the region, and it hopes to set a precedent for more to come . . . more

Koko Black x Dan Hunter

Koko Black 1/12/18

Ingredients unique to Australia. Chocolates unique to Koko Black
Each handcrafted chocolate is the culmination of time and experimentation, a journey toward artful balance, made possible with Koko's skillful chocolatiers, and the imagination of a brilliant chef.
"Australian ingredients pair incredibly well, providing acid and balance to fruity, high cocoa mass chocolate, that can often completely squash more delicate flavours." —Dan Hunter who is one of Australia's most celebrated chefs, and is passionate about connecting people with place. It's a philosophy that guides his award-winning restaurant Brae, and now this unique collaboration with Koko Black.
"I want to connect people to place — to capture the idea that places have their own flavour profiles. My intention is to draw out what Australia's taste of place can actually be." —Dan Hunter . . . more

Bush booze: Indigenous Australian botanicals make a splash in Italy

Edgefield 15/9/18

Lemon myrtle, wattle seed, sea parsley, bush mint: they're not the usual ingredients you'd expect to find listed on the back of a bottle of rum, gin or an Italian-made Indian Pale Lager. But this is some of the uniquely Australian produce that will be served up to eager throngs of food-savvy visitors attending the holy grail of global food festivals, Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, in Italy next week . . . more

The surprise ingredient in Ikea's new meatballs

Better Homes & Gardens 14/8/18

Ikea is giving its iconic Swedish meatballs a bush tucker makeover this month, with the launch of kangaroo meatballs. The limited-edition roo ball will be available for three days as part of Ikea's Democratic Design Days. The design festival will be held at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art from 27 August to 29 August. . . more

Bushlolly Cafe a hit at Supply Nation Expo

Bushlolly Cafe as a Connect 2018 Featured Exhibitor. launch their native food products all the way from Karratha to Supply Nations Indigenous trade show @ Sydney Convention Centre

Ancient rice heralds a new future for rice production

Urekalert 22/1/18 - Unique genetics of wild Australian rice may help boost food security

Wild rice growing in northern Australia's crocodile-infested waters could help boost global food security, say University of Queensland researchers who have mapped its genetic family tree. Valuable traits from the wild rice - such as drought tolerance and pest and disease resistance - can be bred into commercial rice strains, said Professor Robert Henry from the Queensland Alliance of Agriculture and Food Innovation . . . more

Growing the Growers Workshops: Ballina

24-25 August 2017

ANFAB in collaboration with Farming Cooperatives Australia are thrilled to announce a National roadshow working towards Integrating indigenous cultural knowledge and strengthening the industries understanding and appreciation of the uniqueness and incredible array of Australian native species grown in our own backyard.

The roadshow series will kick off in Ballina, NSW on the 24-25 August 2017, culminating in Melbourne - VIC, with our National Conference. Presentations by experts in the industry as well as a networking Native food lunch by Harvest Cafe in Newrybar and the second break off workshops and a farm tour of Boon Luck Farm in Tygarah. . . more

Agriculture serves up safe food deal

The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources has signed a bilateral Food Safety Recognition Agreement with the United States.
Head of exports at the Department, Greg Read said the agreement was the third the US had entered with a trading partner and provided for the US and Australia to recognise one another's food safety and regulatory systems as comparable. . . more

Scientific study good news for ANFIL members The Lime Caviar Company

A scientific study will be conducted by the Queensland Government to determine if commercially grown finger limes - Citrus australasica - is a host to Queensland and/or Mediterranean fruit fly.
Currently, Australian growers of our native citrus are not allowed to export fresh finger limes to China, India, Japan, the USA, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, New Zealand and a number of other countries . . .
ABC Landline 10 July 2016. Hope for finger lime growers: Speech to Parliament
SA foundation gets $1.25m grant to expand native foods industry

Adelaide chef and restaurateur Jock Zonfrillo's Orana Foundation will receive $1.25 million from the State Government to foster the research, cultivation and production of native foods... more

Bogong moths: the bush tucker superfood swarming Canberra

They sweep over Canberra each year in the hundreds of thousands, from the cracked, black soil where they were born into the cool dark crevices of the mountains of the Great Dividing Range.
But bogong moths aren't just a marauding horde invading our houses, hot water systems and halls of power - they are a superfood that tastes a little like "charred pork fat". . . more

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NEWS | Australian Native Food and Botanicals

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10 News First You'd think a non-alcoholic beer in Far North Queensland would be about as popular as a brown snake in a lucky dip barrel. But Clinton Schultz, the founder of Sobah Badha Gali beers, reckons he's onto a winner.

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Bruce Pascoe: Aboriginal agriculture, technology and ingenuity

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Education resources for schools teachers and students - ABC Education

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ABC Education has 4000+ educational games, videos and teaching resources for schools and students. Free Primary and Secondary resources covering history, science, English, maths and more

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Design and build a tool to represent a spiral galaxy

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Take a look at M101,
the Pinwheel Galaxy
In visible light:
The Hubble Space Telescope took this picture of M101 in visible light, the same waves that we can see with our eyes. The yellow core is made of old stars. The brown dust swirls are places where new stars can form.

In infrared:
The Spitzer Space Telescope took this picture of M101 in infrared, which we normally can't see with our own eyes. It gives us a different view of the dust swirls where new stars are forming. Dust warmed by hot, young stars glows in bright red at the edges of the galaxy.

With X-Ray vision:
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory took this picture using X-rays, much like how a doctor uses X-rays to see your bones. This picture shows parts of the galaxy that are giving off X-rays. That means the pinks and purples show the energy given off by black holes, neutron stars, and the remains of supernovae explosions that release these X-rays.

See more galaxy images in the gallery!

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Take a look at M101,the Pinwheel Galaxy In visible light: The Hubble Space Telescope took this picture of M101 in visible light, the same waves that we can see with our eyes. The yellow core is made of old stars. The brown dust swirls are places where new stars can form.

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Articles, games and activities about our universe

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Disclaimer: This material is being kept online for historical purposes. Though accurate at the time of publication, it is no longer being updated. The page may contain broken links or outdated information, and parts may not function in current web browsers.

Make a Star Finder. Learn your way around the night sky by finding some of the constellations. Download and print the Star Finder for this month.

Color or decorate the Star Finder, if you like. Then cut it out on the solid lines.

Fold it like this:

Play the Star Finder game:

1. Stick your thumbs and first two fingers into the four pockets on the bottom of the Star Finder.

2. Ask another person to choose one of the top four squares. Then, depending on the number on the square she chose, open and close the Star Finder that many times (open up and down, close, open side to side, close, etc.). For example, if she chose number 6, open and close the Star Finder 6 times.

3. Then, ask the person to look inside the Star Finder and pick one of the four visible constellations. This time, open and close the Star Finder once for each letter to spell out his choice. For example, if he chose "Lyra," you would open and close the Star Finder 4 times, once for each letter: L - Y - R - A.

4. Ask the player again to pick one of the four constellations visible. Open the panel to see the name of a constellation (highlighted in red) she will try to find in the sky for this month.

For some of the months, not every part of the Star Finder may show a highlighted constellation for you to find. In this case, just try to find the constellation that is nearest to the part of the sky you picked. Or, just find any constellation!

A constellation is group of stars like a dot-to-dot puzzle. If you join the dots-stars, that is-and use lots of imagination, the picture would look like an object, animal, or person. For example, Orion is a group of stars that the Greeks thought looked like a giant hunter with a sword attached to his belt.

Other than making a pattern in Earth's sky, these stars may not be related at all. For example, Alnitak, the star at the left side of Orion's belt, is 817 light years away. (A light year is the distance light travels in one Earth year, almost 6 trillion miles!) Alnilam, the star in the middle of the belt, is 1340 light years away. And Mintaka at the right side of the belt is 916 light years away. Yet they all appear from Earth to have the same brightness.

Even the closest star is almost unimaginably far away. Because they are so far away, the shapes and positions of the constellations in Earth's sky change very, very slowly. During one human lifetime, they change hardly at all. So, since humans first noticed the night sky they have navigated by the stars. Sailors have steered their ships by the stars. Even the Apollo astronauts going to the Moon had to know how to navigate by the stars in case their navigation instruments failed.

Finding the Constellations

We see different views of the Universe from where we live as Earth makes its yearly trip around the solar system. That is why we have a different Star Finder for each month, as different constellations come into view. Also, as Earth rotates on its axis toward the east throughout the hours of the night, the whole sky seems to shift toward the west.

The Star Finder charts are for a latitude of 34° N, which is about as far north of the equator as Los Angeles, California. (Charts are from The Griffith Observer magazine.) The farther north you are, the more the constellations will be shifted south from the Star Finder charts. The Star Finder charts show the sky at about 10 PM for the first of the month, 9 PM for the middle of the month, and 8 PM for the last of the month. These are local standard times. For months with Daylight Savings Time, star chart times are an hour later.

The star charts are maps of the sky overhead. So, to get the directions lined up, hold the map over your head and look up at it, and turn it so the northern horizon side is facing north.

If you live where big city lights drown out the beauty of the stars, you may see only a few of the brightest stars and planets. How sad! But see if you can find at least one or two constellations on a clear, Moonless night.

Ever wondered about the difference between astrology and astronomy?

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Disclaimer: This material is being kept online for historical purposes. Though accurate at the time of publication, it is no longer being updated. The page may contain broken links or outdated information, and parts may not function in current web browsers. Make a Star Finder.

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Play with Forces

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A guest post by Gregory Brunner

I love astronomy. In a previous life, I was fortunate to study astronomy and work with some of the coolest hyperspectral data collected by the Spitzer Space Telescope. So since joining Esri five years ago, I've had it on my mind to use ArcGIS to map the infrared universe using observations from Spitzer Space Telescope; observations with which I already have some familiarity.

Over the past few months I've been exploring the various Python packages that I could use for astronomy. Having not done anything with astronomy for the past eight years, I was very pleased to discover astropy and I immediately saw that there was potential for me to use astropy and arcpy to bring observations (i.e. images) from Spitzer Space Telescope into ArcMap. So I decided to devote some time to figuring out how to use astropy and arcpy to bring these images into ArcMap and work towards creating some spectacular maps of the nearby infrared universe.

It might not sound too practical to use ArcGIS to look at observations from a space telescope; however, I think that the image processing capabilities in ArcGIS could be really powerful tools to use to create a large scale map of the universe. So the idea I'm putting forth isn't just to look at some nearby galaxies in ArcMap, but that using Python with ArcGIS, we could make some spectacular and interactive maps of the universe.
Composite of GLIMPSE I and II and MIPSGAL data of the Milky Way galactic plane Astronomy from the Perspective of a Geographer
Back in my grad student days (2005 - 2008), SOAImage DS9 was the default viewer for astronomers and IDL was the most common programming language and environment. Images taken by CCDs on telescopes were generally delivered as FITS files and to my knowledge they still are. I've never seen FITS files used in GIS; however, I have noticed that GDAL does support reading FITS files. That being said, I have not been able to read a FITS file into ArcMap and would venture to say that the FITS file reader has not been implemented. For this blog post, I'm going to describe how I used astropy and arcpy to convert images of M51 (NGC 5194) from FITS files to TIFF files and how I manipulated the coordinates in order for the images to project in ArcMap as they would in DS9, or for that matter, on the sky.

Image of IRAC1 band of M51 in SAOImage DS9

In future posts, I plan to demonstrate how I batch downloaded these images from the Spitzer archive and how I mosaicked images from the GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL surveys into a map of the galactic plane. So if you find this post intriguing, come back soon to learn how to create more really beautiful maps of the sky.
The Data
I used the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies (SINGS) Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) data for M51. M51 is particularly striking when seen in the infrared, so I thought it would be a good galaxy to start with. I am also familiar with the observations.

I downloaded the four IRAC images. The numbers in the filename correspond to the band on the Infrared Array Camera. The wavelength corresponding to IRAC channels one through four are 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 microns respectively.

Image of M51 in the visible and infrared wavelength ranges
Imports and Environment Variables
To map the infrared universe, I needed to import numpy, astropy, sys, os, and arcpy. From astropy, I used the capability to handle FITS files and the utilities to work in the world coordinate system (WCS) projection. Here are my imports:

I set some arcpy raster environment variables because I did not want to calculate pyramids or raster statistics. That's something I don't typically do, but I wasn't happy with how the pyramids looked, so I opted to omit them knowing that I could always calculate them later.
Filenames
I knew I'd be reading and writing a bunch of image files. I had a folder that contained all of the input FITS files ( input_image_path), a folder that I wrote the individual images out to as TIFFs ( output_image_path), a folder where I wrote the four band composite images for a galaxy ( composite_image_path), the number of bands ( num_bands), and the instrument name ( instrument). The galaxy name ( galaxy) was also a variable. At the end of the post, I'll show how I used a list of galaxies to loop through the 75 SINGS galaxies to make 4 band composite images of each of them. The composite image file (c_omposite_filename_ and _composite_path_and_name_) are both dependent on the galaxy name.

I also had a few lines to check and make sure the output image folders exist before writing to them.

if not os.path.exists(output_image_path): os.mkdir(output_image_path) if not os.path.exists(composite_image_path): os.mkdir(composite_image_path)
For Galaxy NGC5194...
I needed to loop through all four bands, define the input FITS filename ( input_filename), a temporary output filename ( temp_filename), and a "georeferenced" output filename ( output_filename). I also had to join the filenames to their folders.

Bear in mind as you read this, everything is being done within this for loop until I composite the bands.
Reading FITS File with Astropy
For each image file, I opened the file header and image data.

I used the image shape to define the pixel coordinates I'd use to reference the image. I needed the data as a numpy array to get the WCS coordinates and a string to pass to the Warp tool. I used the pixel coordinates to get the world coordinates at those points too.These are the coordinates that I used to "project" the M51 images.
Converting to TIFF
I needed to write the images out as "georeferenced" TIFF files. I flipped the y-axis of the image, defined the pixel data type to be 64-bit floats, then wrote the raster to disk.

Here's the IRAC1 image in ArcMap:

If I didn't flip the y-axis ( numpy.flipup), the output image would have looked like:

Finally, I Warped the image in order to give it WCS coordinates and deleted the temporary image ( temp_file_and_path).
Composite Bands
I composited the four individual images into a single raster that has four bands.

Note that this happened outside of the for loop ( for band in num_bands).

I didn't define the projection, so in ArcMap, M51 looked a little bit squished compared to the Spitzer image that I showed at the top.

If I defined the projection to be WGS 1984, the image would look very similar to the image at the beginning of this post. I defined the projection when I added the galaxies into a single mosaic dataset.
Creating the Mosaic Dataset and Adding the Images
I then added the composite 4-band image into a mosaic dataset where I set image projection to be WGS 1984.

This should render the images very similarly to how you see it above in the NASA press release image. Here's M51 in the mosaic dataset with the band combination set to use IRAC4 (red), IRAC2 (green), and IRAC1 (blue) as the band combination.
Mosaicking All 75 SINGS Galaxies
I structured the code so that I could do this for all 75 SINGS galaxies. In fact, I downloaded them all using the Python requests library and inserted a for loop where I defined the galaxy name and used the galaxy list as the input to the for loop.

In the end, I had 75 4-band composite images in a single a mosaic dataset. I shared them as an image service and put them in this storymap:
Go to Storymap
I'm only highlighting 12 galaxies here, but if you want to see them all, go to this webmap and search around the image service table.
Still to Come...
I got really into this when I worked on it last summer but the code isn't too clean. I thought about making a Python class for every Spitzer Legacy Program I wanted to look at, but I didn't get too far with it. My code is on github. I think I'm going to devote another post to show how I created some beautiful maps of the galactic plane from the MIPSGAL and GLIMPSE surveys (like the one at the beginning of the post and this one below).

In that post I'll go through how I scraped the MIPSGAL and GLIMPSE archives with BeautifulSoup and requests. Let me know if you thought this was interesting! I'd love to build a more complete map of the sky and even think about how to do things like crowdsource the sky with other observations of space, so if this topic interests you or if you have links to other people who are doing something similar, please let me know!

Written by Gregory Brunner on

See Also

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How to Map the Infrared Universe with Astropy and ArcGIS

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A guest post by Gregory Brunner I love astronomy. In a previous life, I was fortunate to study astronomy and work with some of the coolest hyperspectral data collected by the Spitzer Space Telescope.

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Pandanus propellers such as these were used as toys by Aboriginal children from Yirrkala in Arnhem Land. They were used in two different ways. Firstly, they were spun through the air in throwing competitions to judge both the skill of the player and the quality of their propeller's construction. The child whose propeller flew the furthest was the winner. Secondly, a propeller was attached to a spindle and a child would hold it up and run against the wind with it to make it spin.

Toys such as these were made from strips of leaf from the screw pine tree ('Pandanus tectorius)' and were used in tropical and subtropical coastal areas and moist tropical inland areas of northern Australia where the screw pine tree grows. Its strong leaves can be used as strips for weaving mats and baskets as well as for making toys.

The propellers are symmetrical, light and flat to assist their flight. They were designed to be thrown high and to descend spirally, the speed making them appear as a solid disc. Their light weight meant children could also attempt to make them drift upwards in hot air currents. In some places children knotted pandanus in the shape of the letter 'z' and threw these strips as boomerangs that would return to the thrower.

These are examples of toys used for entertainment. Toys had an important role in preparing Aboriginal children for adulthood. Games were invented by adults using small-scale models of tools and weapons made with light materials and blunt edges. The toys were used to teach children survival skills related to hunting for food and defence. Traditionally rattles, dolls, spinning tops, balls and string were also used as toys.

These pandanus propellers were made by Aboriginal children from the Yolngu language group. They were collected in 1948 by Fred McCarthy, the Australian Museum's curator of anthropology, during the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land in that year. The Expedition was funded by the Australian Government and the National Geographic Society of America.

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Pandanus toy propellers from Arnhem Land, 1948

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Pandanus propellers such as these were used as toys by Aboriginal children from Yirrkala in Arnhem Land. They were used in two different ways. Firstly, they were spun through the air in throwing competitions to judge both the skill of the player and the quality of their propeller's construction.

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