In this activity, students investigate how pressure affects the temperature of air …
In this activity, students investigate how pressure affects the temperature of air and how this relates to the formation of clouds in the troposphere. They will form a cloud in a bottle, find the dew point and relative humidity of air at different places in the school and use a chart to estimate how high that air would have to rise to form a cloud.
In this activity, students use a National Weather Service flood forecast, USGS …
In this activity, students use a National Weather Service flood forecast, USGS gauging data, and other reports to estimate the maximum storm discharge from the New River and Wolf Creek, two streams in the Southeast U.S. which experienced flooding in November 2003. Topographic and urban maps are used to predict where flooding would occur and to evaluate strategies for reducing flood risk for the residents of the region.
The Foothill College AstroSims project is ensuring continued access to astro-education simulations …
The Foothill College AstroSims project is ensuring continued access to astro-education simulations past the deprecation of Java and Flash. This site includes:
* re-implementations in HTML5/Javascript of existing astro-education simulations, * new simulations of previously unaddressed topics, and * a frequently updated list of astro-education simulations.
About 4.6 billion years ago, a cloud of interstellar dust, ice crystals, …
About 4.6 billion years ago, a cloud of interstellar dust, ice crystals, and gas collapsed to form a rapidly rotating disk with a young sun at its center: our solar system. This comic strip, a supplement to the Hall of Meteorites Educator's Guide, explains the processes that led to the creation of the planets and the asteroid belt.
This annotated index includes a wide range of free, online labs appropriate …
This annotated index includes a wide range of free, online labs appropriate for Astro 101 courses, organized by chapter of the OpenStax Astronomy textbook. So, you can look up free labs on Kepler's Laws, H-R diagram, the Drake Equation, and many other topics in introductory astronomy. These lab activities have been put on line by universities, NASA and NSF sponsored projects, and instructors who want to share their labs with colleagues.
If we have missed any labs that are available free online, please suggest additions by emailing fraknoi@fhda.edu
This course focuses on three particularly interesting areas of astronomy that are …
This course focuses on three particularly interesting areas of astronomy that are advancing very rapidly: Extra-Solar Planets, Black Holes, and Dark Energy. Particular attention is paid to current projects that promise to improve our understanding significantly over the next few years. The course explores not just what is known, but what is currently not known, and how astronomers are going about trying to find out.
In this Digital Universe activity, students learn firsthand about estimation strategies and …
In this Digital Universe activity, students learn firsthand about estimation strategies and observational bias. They estimate how common several celestial objects are based on their location and make inferences about larger population patterns throughout the galaxy. The printable PDF activity includes illustrated step-by-step instructions for the following hands-on and computer-assisted activities: Introduction to Celestial Objects, Broad Distribution of Objects in the Galaxy and Making Galactic Estimates
This video lesson has the goal of introducing students to galaxies as …
This video lesson has the goal of introducing students to galaxies as large collections of gravitationally bound stars. It explores the amount of matter needed for a star to remain bound and then brings in the idea of Dark Matter, a new kind of matter that does not interact with light. It is best if students have had some high school level mechanics, ideally Newton's laws, orbital motion and centripetal force. The teacher guide segment has a derivation of centripetal acceleration. This lesson should be mostly accessible to students with no physics background. The video portion of this lesson runs about 30 minutes, and the questions and demonstrations will give a total activity time of about an hour if the materials are all at hand and the students work quickly. However, 1 1/2 hours is a more comfortable amount of time. There are several demonstrations that can be carried out using string, ten or so balls of a few inches in diameter, a stopwatch or clock with a sweep second hand and some tape. The demonstrations are best done outside, but can also be carried out in a gymnasium or other large room. If the materials or space are not available, there are videos of the demonstrations in the module and these may be used.
Students are divided into groups and, after being introduced to galaxies in …
Students are divided into groups and, after being introduced to galaxies in general, are given 20 galaxy images to sort into categories of their own devising. The groups then compare notes about their sorting criteria and learn more about what the different visual characteristics of galaxies imply.
Roughly one hundred billion galaxies are scattered throughout our observable Universe, each …
Roughly one hundred billion galaxies are scattered throughout our observable Universe, each a glorious system that might contain billions of stars. Many are remarkably beautiful, and the aim of Galaxy Zoo is to study them, assisting astronomers in attempting to understand how the galaxies we see around us formed, and what their stories can tell us about the past, present and future of our Universe as a whole. Are you an educator? Would you like to use Galaxy Zoo with a group of students? The Navigator is an interactive tool that allows groups to classify galaxies together and then investigate galaxy characteristics. Zoo Teach is where educators can share lessons, resources and that compliment the citizen science projects that are part of the Zooniverse.
This video segment adapted from NOVA shows how Galileo, using his newly …
This video segment adapted from NOVA shows how Galileo, using his newly developed refracting telescope, observed four of Jupiter's moons, the first astronomical bodies to be discovered since ancient times.
In the early 1600s, most people believed that the Sun revolved around …
In the early 1600s, most people believed that the Sun revolved around a stationary Earth. This video segment adapted from NOVA tells how Galileo proved that the Sun, not Earth, is at the center of our universe.
This OER explores the basic operations of a Telescope. It contains both …
This OER explores the basic operations of a Telescope. It contains both an activity as well as resources for further exploration. It is a product of the OU Academy of the Lynx, developed in conjunction with the Galileo's World Exhibition at the University of Oklahoma.
Students learn how a telescope's aperture determines how much light it can …
Students learn how a telescope's aperture determines how much light it can gather in this Moveable Museum unit. It has three procedures, one of which is optional. The four-page PDF guide includes suggested general background readings for educators, activity notes, step-by-step directions, and information about where to obtain supplies. In this activity, the light collector is not a lens or a mirror, but a hole in a cardboard box. Light enters through the hole and lights up the box. Users can change the size of the hole and see how the amount of light entering the box changes. The results show why increasing the aperture of a telescope increases the amount of light it can collect.
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