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.
Current Update
The Dancing Lights program is a NASA-approved product. If you have questions about the program, please contact us at epomail@lasp.colorado.edu.
Lessons and Materials
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- Dancing Lights Lesson Packet (2.3 MB PDF)
- Teacher Background Material (1.3 MB PDF)
- Colorado Contest Information (164 KB PDF)
- Common Core Standards for English Language Arts (156 KB PDF)
- Colorado State Standards (397 KB 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
Related movie
- The Northern Lights (YouTube)
Recommended Reading
(All are available on Amazon.com)- Aurora: A Tale of the Northern Lights by Mindy Dwyer
- Auroras: Light Shows in the Night Sky by Donna Walsh Shepherd
- The Fiddler of the Northern Lights by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
- The Night Rainbow by Barbara Juster Esbensen
- Northern Lights by Dorothy Souza
- Not Every Day an Aurora Borealis for Your Birthday: A Love Poem by Carl Sandburg
- Science Matters: Northern Lights by David Whitefield
- Sky Sisters by Jan Bourdeau Waboose
- Wonders of the World – The Northern Lights by Deborah Underwood
- Under the Night Sky by Amy Lundebrek
Teacher Resources
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- Auroras: Paintings in the Sky (Exploratorium)
- The Space Weather Center (Space Science Institute)
- Sun-Earth Connection FAQs (NASA)
- Space Weather (STEREO Mission)
- The Sun-Earth Connection (GEMS, Berkeley, Living with a Star)
- Everyday Mysteries (Library of Congress)
- MetEd Space Weather Welcome, SEC (Free Registration Required)
Related Media
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- Animated video of Coronal Mass Ejection (Courtesy NASA)
- Aurora Australis (NASAgovVideo YouTube)
- Space Weather and Earth’s Aurora (NASAgovVideo YouTube)
- ScienceCasts: Auroras Underfoot (ScienceAtNASA YouTube)