Laying the foundations of heliocentrism in primary school II: looking through the eyes of Galileo and Bessel

Abstract

Abstract In this work, a didactic sequence for students with ages 9–10 that provides an experimental approach to the stellar parallax concept and revisits the events that humanity had to transit before the heliocentric model was accepted is introduced. This sequence complements our adaptation of the first observation attempted by Galileo to demonstrate the heliocentric hypothesis to be correct and that was specifically designed for ages 12–13. An experimental setup designed to mimic Bessel observations is also introduced in order to bridge the gap between the early attempt by Galileo and the present state of knowledge.