3.3 · Star Patterns and Finding Your Way

From Ohio 5th Grade Science Power Workbook · Chapter 3 · Lesson 3.3.

Big idea: Stars appear in patterns that stay the same, and people have used those patterns to find their direction.

Learning goals: Explain how star patterns helped people navigate

Describe why the patterns look fixed

Patterns that do not change

Stars appear in patterns. The pattern stays the same night after night and year after year, because the stars are so far away that their tiny movements are not something you would notice in a lifetime.

Because the patterns are reliable, people have used them to work out which way they were facing, long before there were any instruments.

Other stars, other solar systems

Our sun has planets orbiting it. So do many other stars.

That means our solar system is one of many, and our sun is one ordinary star among an enormous number of them.

Worked examples

Question: A hiker at night has no compass but can see the stars clearly. Explain how the star patterns could help.

Steps: Ask what the hiker needs. A reliable direction.

Ask what the stars offer. Patterns that stay in the same places relative to each other, night after night.

If you know where a pattern rises and sets, or which pattern stays near north, you can turn yourself to face the direction you want.

Answer: The patterns are reliable, so a hiker who knows where a pattern rises and sets, or which one stays near north, can use them to work out which way to go.

Common mistakes

Our sun is not the only star with planets

Ours is the solar system we know best, so it is easy to assume it is the only one.

Many other stars have planets orbiting them. Our sun is one ordinary star among an enormous number.

Check your thinking: Ask whether there is any reason our star would be the only one with planets. There is not.

Ohio connection

Following the sky north

People escaping slavery before the Civil War traveled north through Ohio at night, and accounts describe them using the sky to hold their direction.

Ohio has many stops on the route north that are preserved today. The sky was one of the few guides that could not be taken away.

Think: Why would a star pattern be more useful than a landmark for someone traveling at night through country they did not know?

Remember

The pattern is the tool

You do not need to know a single star's name to use the sky. What makes it useful is that the pattern stays put.

Practice tip

Remember: You will not be asked to name a constellation.

Tip: Ohio's specifications say names of constellations are not assessed. What is assessed is how star patterns can be used to find direction, and why that works.

Written practice

Explain how people used star patterns to find their way, and why the patterns work as a guide.

Sample response: People learned where certain patterns rise and set, or which pattern stays near north, then turned to face the direction they wanted. It works because the patterns keep the same shape night after night, so the same pattern rises in the same direction it did last week.

Scoring guide: 1 point: describes using a pattern to work out a direction.

1 point: explains that the patterns stay the same, so they are reliable.

Ohio assesses the use of constellations for navigation, which means both the use and the reason it works.