Teachers and students can create models of galaxies and portions of galaxies such as black holes to help understand them better. For example, use the round piece of cardboard from a frozen-pizza box to make a galaxy mobile. Cover the cardboard with black construction paper. Poke three evenly spaced holes around the circle, tie a piece of yarn in each hole, then tie the pieces together to make a way to hang the mobile. Find pictures of galaxies online, cut them out and add glitter to them, then tie a piece of yarn to each galaxy and punch holes in the cardboard to tie the galaxies on the mobile. Attach a small piece of paper or notecard to each galaxy with its name and characteristics.
Playing games related to galaxies can also help students learn about galaxies. The Space Telescope Science Institute (amazing-space.stsci.edu) offers trading cards that teachers can download to help students learn about galaxies and constellations. Teachers can use the cards to play a matching game with students, help students locate constellations in a map of the night sky or simply as a study tool. NASA, in partnership with Sonoma State University (sonoma.edu) offers a game called "Galactic Doom" to help students learn about galaxies. Teachers can use the game in a computer lab to help students learn about galaxies or present to the class on an interactive whiteboard and allow students to take turns playing.
Teachers can use online pictures and resources for demonstrations about galaxies. McDougal Littell offers online visualizations of galaxies to accompany the "Exploring Earth" textbook. Through the visualizations, teachers can share with students how the Milky Way looks at different scales and view images of other galaxies taken by the Hubble telescope and classified by shape. The official website of the Hubble telescope (hubblesite.org) also offers an online presentation about the Milky Way called "Cosmic Collision" that uses pictures from the telescope to teach students about galaxies.
Black holes are a fascinating part of galaxies to introduce to students. Follow up a book or movie about black holes by having students create an edible model of a black hole. Place a doughnut hole in the middle of a bagel, with the bagel representing a galaxy's disk, cutting the bagel to make the doughnut hole fit. Using a toothpick, poke a small hole in the middle of the doughnut hole and place a dark-colored sprinkle in the hole to represent the black hole. Press the point of a sugar cone into each end of the doughnut hole to represent the gas jets that fly out of a black hole. Spread chocolate frosting around the edge of the bagel for the torus.