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.

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 is now 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 the city of Portland, Oregon; and we know of it being done in Peru, Guadeloupe, Iceland, and along a kilometer of the Great Wall of China.

8.5 x 9.5 in., 16 pages, color painting on cover, illustrations. 1989; 5th printing with revisions 2004. ISBN 978-0-934546-21-8.
$6.00

"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