The Thousand-Yard Model, or, The Earth as a Peppercorn

Instructions for using common objects such as nuts to make a solar-system model, over a distance of 1000 yards. It could be called a Model, Walk, or Happening. Tested many times with groups of children, who invariably are spellbound by the incredible distances. Since it also leads to a vivid grasp of light-years, star sizes, etc., it is an ideal opener to any astronomy course, for students of any age.

This description was twice printed in magazines, and was revised and reprinted as a booklet because there are so many requests for copies of it. The exercise (first devised for children in an Indian reservation) has been performed annually or monthly by some astronomy clubs and at the American Museum of Natural History, New York; has been proposed as an installation in Portland, Oregon. and other cities; and we know of it being performed in Peru, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Japan, and along a kilometer of the Great Wall of China.

8.5 x 9.5 in., 26 pages, color painting on cover, illustrations; cartoons by Ian Dicks. 1989; 5th printing with revisions 2004; 2nd edition 2012; reprinted 2014. ISBN 978-0-934546-21-8.
$12.95

“It’s all utterly convincing; you’ll feel it in your bones. Education at its best. The author should get a prize” —Whole Earth Review

“. . . well worth the price, an eye-opener for informal teachers, a piece of virtuoso pedagogy simple and right from first to last” —Scientific American

“I never had so much fun! It was somewhere around Jupiter that the kids realized that something very strange and awesome was taking place. If only I could capture and bottle that moment. The look of wonder and awe was totally priceless.” —David Rousso, Illinois