To make it as easy as possible to carry out an observing session with your class using the robotic telescope, we’ve incorporated the experience into a game of Bingo. It’s fun and easy to play: when you see an object you like, take your own picture with just the click of a button.
How to Play
To use the robotic telescopes, you will need an LCO account. If you are a Welsh primary school educator and do no yet have access to the network, or if you have any issues accessing your account, contact the Universe in the Classroom project coordinator at [email protected]
Before beginning, download and print as many bingo cards as you have players. You can find a selection of 30 Bingo cards at lcogt.net/education/messierbingo
If this is your first time playing Messier Bingo, you may want to introduce your class to the various cosmic objects they will encounter during the game. To help you we have created two resources:
- Astronomical Object PowerPoint presentation (Beginner): lcogt.net/files/edu/MessierBingo.pdf
- Astronomical Object Factsheet (Refresh): goo.gl/CNZ8cd
Step-by-Step
1) Hand each player a bingo card. There are 30 cards in total but more than one person could have the same card in a large group.
2) Open your browser and launch the Messier Bingo random image tombola from messierbingo.lco.global/
3) You will be prompted to log in. Enter your login details as requested to access Messier Bingo. This application will simulate the Bingo tombola and give you random Messier objects.
4) Select whether you want information to display. For the first few rounds you will want to keep the information visible so the students can become familiar with the types of object.
5) Click Next Image to start the game.
6) As each image appears, explain what type of object it is and provide some information using the object description found on the Astronomical Object Factsheet.
7) When students are familiar with the various types of object, you can ask them to shout out the type of object each time a new image appears to evaluate their knowledge gain.
8) Players mark the card each time one of their objects appears.
9) Ask the players to shout 'Bingo', 'House' or even 'Messier' when they have marked a full row of objects on their card.
10) When this happens, turn off the information display and click Next Image. The player must now attempt to name the type of object shown.
11) If the student names the type of object correctly, invite them to select a Messier Object to observe. To do this, turn the information display back on and flick through the objects by clicking Next Image until they see an object they would like to observe.
12) To observe the image click ‘Take your own picture’.
13) Continue the game until a student has marked all the objects on their sheet, repeating steps 10-13 each time a student achieves a full row.
14) To win the game, the player must not only mark each object on their card, they must also be able to correctly identify the objects in the game.