To engage first-class students in a disadvantaged school with a lesson about stars, we’ll start by sitting in a circle. I’ll show five marbles and ask if there are more stars in the sky than these marbles. After counting the marbles together and placing them in a transparent container, I’ll explain that there are indeed more than five stars. Next, we’ll discuss if there are more stars than children in the class. We’ll count the children and place an equal number of marbles in a second transparent container, illustrating that the number of stars exceeds the number of students. To further emphasize, we’ll fill a third container to the top with marbles and discuss if there are more stars than can fit in this container. I’ll explain that there are so many stars we need computers to count them.
We’ll then discuss questions like, “Have you ever seen the stars? What did they look like? Do stars give light? Is the Sun a star too?” Using a discussion sheet of the starry sky, I’ll explain that stars are most visible at night, and the Sun, also a star, provides light so bright we can’t see other stars during the day.