Expert: Jayendra Upadhye - 1/5/2007

Question
I work with a 9 year old autistic boy. He is very interested in the solar system. Are there any sites, videos online we can watch? any posters you can mail me? any information will be helpful. thanks

Answer
Dear Barbara!
Congratulations and more power to you!
You have a special child with another "beautiful mind".
Autistic children are gifted for sure.

Is he also interested in reading?
(science fiction can be very stimulating to young minds, Asimov and sagan wrote with us in mind i like to believe!!)

Ok if he is interested in reading good sf (astronomy & physics related)
1 - Read to him or show him this site:-
try to get him free virtual galaxy program by James R Smith.
It is a program where one can navigate onesspaceship to any corner of the galaxy and see double and triple star systems "from up close"!! really exciting for a 9 year old.
link is here to it and allied programs..
http://www.projectrho.com/smap07.html

2 - this is a very nice screen saver (earth as seen from space!)
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthscr/

3 - This is the home planet site from where you can download a beautiful software about stars and planets
http://www.fourmilab.ch/homeplanet/

4 - this is the planetary factsheet web site for info at your fingertips!
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planetfact.html

5 - This is a very interesting site. It is the periodic table of all elements found in our universe!
with properties etc.
Tell him all the elements are manufactured in centers of stars like our sun, starting from hydrogen forming helium,
helium forming carbon and so on.
show how each jump moves left to right from lighter to heavier elements, till the star reaches iron.
Then it can go no further and implodes.
The implosion and rebounding shock wave IS a supernova explosion that powers the remnant to synthesize all elements foun on that table, that are heavier than iron!!
(tell him consequently we are actually star stuff! (Sagan's words).
http://chemlab.pc.maricopa.edu/periodic/periodic.html

Play and interactive:-
-----------------------
6 - This is a very nice downloadable program for windows.
It actually shows all the positions of the galilean satellites of jupiter over time! (if you alter the time, the positions of the satellites alter too!
He will ove to play with this one.
http://indigo.ie/~gnugent/JupSat95/

7 - Hubble heritage gallery of very beautiful large color pictures taken by hubble during its useful life.
(Take large color printouts and get some of them posterised to paste on his walls).
especially the M16 EAGLE NEBULA & M31 Andromeda galaxy
http://heritage.stsci.edu/gallery/galindex.html


8 - collection of downloadable free astronomy softwares
very good site.
http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/astro/software.html

9 - In the world of colors, tell him all are in the end based on simple combinations of 3 basic ones!!
here is a very nice web based color applet (plays in your browser).
he will enjoy and learn!!
http://www.cbu.edu/~jvarrian/applets/color1/colors_g.htm

10 - you might remember plying with spirographs when in school.
Now we have spirographic programs on the web! Plot and print!!
http://users.erols.com/ziring/spirohelp/

Last but not the least, Buy Asimov's "I, Robot", and read aloud the fantastic tales (humorous & informative) of the exploits of Lanning and Susan Calvin. (Yes she featured in 'bicentinnial man' too).
You could even hire out and show him the movie after "vetting" it first....after all he is only 9 years old. Some parts of the movie are to deep & could set him thinking about certain philosophical things too early..such as position of robots in society.

And yes if he is capable of absorbing it, Get Asimov's "Last question" & read it with him. It is a hilarious story of man's endeavour to reverse the irreversible!! It ends by the computer saying "let there be light" and a dead world starts over again!!
Very Appealing! (Ful;l story is available on the web ..just type "Asimov last question" into google.

Jayen