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Activity
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Topics and Content Standards addressed
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Target audience
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http://www.handsonuniverse.org/
Hands-On Universe™ (HOU) is an educational program that
enables students to investigate the Universe while applying
tools and concepts from science, math, and technology. Using
the Internet, HOU participants around the world request observations
from an automated telescope, download images from a large image
archive, and analyze them with the aid of user-friendly image
processing software. See HOU website - http://www.handsonuniverse.org/
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Experimental Design; astronomy; measurement; graphing; interpretation;
mathematics
(too many to list!)
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Middle to high school students |
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This is a set of notes by Jeff Adkins on how to prepare
32-bit FITS images for use with the Hands On Universe program
Image Processing.
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Experimentation and use of appropriate technology |
Professional astronomers, educators, students
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When
will the sun die?
In this worksheet, step by step instructions are given for
computing the age of the sun and the amount of time the sun
has left before it runs out of fuel. In effect, this is the
length of our lease on the solar system. Is it time to pack
our bags?
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Scientific notation, energy-mass equivalence, areas of spheres,
and ratios |
High school age or older. |
How
do we know where we are in the Milky Way?
This activity shows the principle behind the original determination
that we live near the edge of the Milky Way, and also why
the Milky Way looks like a line instead of a spiral in the
sky.
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Galactic structure, perspective, modeling
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Middle School students to College age students will benefit
from this conceptual activity. Plotting the location of clusters
is probably high school level and beyond. |
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Distribution
of Rapidly and Slowly Decaying Novae in M31
A paper written by teachers for the TLRBSE program.
Abstract
Images of M31 taken over time reveal the presence of frequent novae distributed
over theentire area of the galaxy. When a nova explodes, it gets
brighter quickly and then dimsslowly over time. The rate of dimming
is referred to as the decay rate and is the variable investigated
in this study. It was hypothesized that the position of the novae
from the center of the galaxy may have an effect on the rate of decay
of the light curve of the novae. Decay curves may be affected by
the composition, age, and hence position of the novae within the
galaxy since the core of the galaxy is composed of older stars than
the disk.
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Stellar Evolution, geometry, experimental design, interpretation
of graphs |
High School astronomy teachers and students seeking an example
of a school-level research project. Note: this paper is a finished
version but has not been peer reviewed beyond the people who
wrote it. Comments welcome. |
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Aiming
a Satellite Dish
The distance to a geosynchronous satellite is derived
from the definitions of centripetal force and Newton's laws
of gravity. Then using geometric arguments, the altitude angle
for a geosynchronous satellite over the observer's longitude
is computed. You can compare the results of this calculation
with the approximate appearance of a Dish Network receiver.
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Law of Cosines, gravity, centripetal force, orbital velocity,
latitude, Kepler's laws
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Advanced high school math and physical science to college
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Measuring
the distance to Venus
If you observe "the evening star" over the course of several weeks you
will see its elongation angle (the angle between Venus and the Sun) gradually
increase, reach a maximum, and then decrease again. A precise determination
of this angle can be used to tell how far Venus is from the Sun compared
to Earth. The angle is between 44 and 48 degrees (it varies because of
the fact the earth's orbit is not a circle. ) Requires knowledge of cosine,
but can be adapted to be done with scale drawings at lower grades.
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Triangles, cosine, inferior planets, angles, scale drawings
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Advanced middle school to high school
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How
to Build a Simple but Powerful homemade telescope
This well-written and thoroughly
illustrated paper by my old friend Rico Tyler
explains how to build a PVC telescope-from
scratch-that can be useed to observe moon craters,
the rings of Saturn, and much, much more. A
great project for enterprising students from
high school to middle school. Some tools are
required but not anything expensive or unusual
(hack saws, drills, etc.) Highly recommended.
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Construction, budgeting, measurement, following directions,
optics, letter writing, observing, lenses
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middle school to college
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Create
a Diet for Astronauts
This paper was written for a certification class and lists topic outlines,
web resources, lesson planning ideas, and assessment ideas for having
students design a menu for an extended mission in space. Information
here could be adapted for almost any grade depending on the material
you wish to teach.
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Measurement, counting, food/diet, budgeting, health, energy
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elementary to high school
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A
Rotating Liquid Mirror Demonstration for the Classroom
This paper describes how to build a functional
model of a rotating liquid mirror (easy) and
the mathematical background required to understand
why it works (requires calculus). This technique
is used to make giant mirrors at the University
of Arizona's mirror lab. The demo is suitable
for middle school and beyond; the derivation
is useful to some degree for high school physics,
calculus or astronomy classes.
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Derivatives, rotating fluids, geometric optics, circular motion
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advanced high school to college
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Moon
Phases Observation Activity
This activity is made available courtesy
of Scott Kardel of the Lake
Afton Public Observatory in Kansas. This
link takes you to their teacher resource page
which includes tips on how to demonstrate moon
phases. Suitable for nearly all ages, and can
be adapted for young children for whom the reading
is a challenge. http://webs.wichita.edu/lapo/o31.html
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observation, moon phases, light, shadow, reflection, angles
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all grades
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Astronomy
from the planet Mars
This paper describes the appearance of
the night sky for an observer on the surface
of the planet Mars. A very different version
of this article, emphasizing how to get this
information from a planetarium program, appeared
in the July
1998 issue of Sky and Telescope.
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critical thinking, angles, geometry, perspective, general
astronomy
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high school
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Proof
of the Latitude/Altitude Relationship
This short paper provides definitions of a number of astronomical terms
such as latitude and altitude and horizon, then proceeds to prove through
basic geometry that the altitude angle of Polaris is equal to the observer's
latitude. This is day one of navigation school. Suitable for students
familiar with high school geometry.
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geometrical proof, definitions of north star, equator, etc.
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high school
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How
to Build a Classroom Planetarium
The Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation has awarded funding
for the development of an interactive web site to show how
to construct and use a classroom planetarium. The grant is
administered through the County Technology Assistance Grant
(CTAG) program administered by the Contra Costa County Office
of Education. Cheryl Domenichelli and Jeff Adkins are the grant
recipients. They will use designs inspired by Dr. Louis Finsand's
original cardboard planetarium and developed by the Deer Valley
High School's Astronomy and Space Science class.
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scaling, geodesic domes, pinhole cameras, spheres, circles,
basic observational astronomy
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all grades
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Weakly
Interacting Massive Particles
This is a resource page put together at a NASA training
for the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope mission (a part
of the Education and Public Outreach program at Sonoma State
University in California.
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Dark matter, WIMPS, cosmology |
Middle school and higher |
