Dancing Lights provides a set of five activities that allows students in Grades 3 through 5 to explore the beauty, science and mythology of the aurora creatively through art and writing. (Courtesy Joshua Strang/USAF)
Current Update
The Dancing Lights program is a NASA Approved Product and has been funded under several NASA grants, most recently in 2010. If you have questions about the program, please contact us at epomail@lasp.colorado.edu. We currently do not plan to conduct the Colorado-based contest in 2012.
Introduction
Dancing Lights is a science-in-literacy program about the aurora. Students in grades 3-5 write and illustrate their perceptions, ideas, and facts pertaining to auroral science. Dancing Lights converted to a national program in 2009. Previously, the program name was “Colorado Lights.” We are pleased to present Dancing Lights to you and your students and sincerely hope you enjoy participating.
Lessons and Materials
- Dancing Lights Lesson Packet (2.3 MB PDF)
- Colorado State Standards (2.6 MB PDF)
- The Aurora: What does it look like? (an introduction for elementary school-aged children; 4.9 MB PDF)
- Auroras! Mysterious Lights in the Sky (Student tutorial from UC Berkeley)
- Aurora photo gallery
- The Northern Lights (on YouTube)
Recommended Reading
(All are available on Amazon.com)
- Not Every Day an Aurora Borealis for Your Birthday: A Love Poem by Carl Sandburg
- Aurora: A Tale of the Northern Lights by Mindy Dwyer
- The Fiddler of the Northern Lights by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
- Wonders of the World – The Northern Lights by Deborah Underwood
- Auroras: Light Shows in the Night Sky by Donna Walsh Shepherd
- Northern Lights by Dorothy Souza
- Science Matters: Northern Lights by David Whitefield
- The Night Rainbow by Barbara Juster Esbensen
Teacher Resources
- Auroras: Paintings in the Sky (Exploratorium)
- MetEd Space Weather Welcome, SEC (Free Registration Required)
- Animated video of Coronal Mass Ejection (Courtesy NASA)
- Secrets of the Polar Aurora (David Stern, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
- Auroras are Mirror Images (University of Iowa)
- My Place in Space! 2010 Art Contest (from Institute for Global Environmental Strategies)
