Good for middle grades as well

The author does a good job of explaining the basics of how telescopes work. It is informative, but not overly technical. I also think that middle grades students would benefit from this arti... See More

The author does a good job of explaining the basics of how telescopes work. It is informative, but not overly technical. I also think that middle grades students would benefit from this article as well.

Modeling How a Telescope Works

Robertson gives excellent explanations of the similarities between the microscope, telescope and binoculars as well as providing easy to duplicate hands-on activities to help students unders... See More

Robertson gives excellent explanations of the similarities between the microscope, telescope and binoculars as well as providing easy to duplicate hands-on activities to help students understand how the telescope works. I modeled these with students 4th grade on up and they began to really understand the purposes behind the differing lenses and how the telescope worked. The explanation is definitely written at the adult level. When I asked the students to explain the difference between the flashlight light and the magnified light, they were able to grasp the basic concept of how the telescope worked.