In 1610, Galileo made the first telescopic survey of the Milky Way and discovered that it is composed of a multitude of individual stars. Today, we know that the Milky Way comprises our view inward of the huge cosmic pinwheel that we call the Milky Way Galaxy and that is our home. Moreover, our Galaxy is now recognized as just one galaxy among many billions of other galaxies in the cosmos.---------------------------------------Distant Nature: Astronomy Exercises 2016 by Stephen Tuttle under license "Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike".

A plot of luminosity vs. time is a ‘light curve’. In this laboratory, we will use a light curve to determine the diameter of two stars in a binary system.  --------------------------------------- Distant Nature: Astronomy Exercises 2016 by Stephen Tuttle under license "Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike".

Poster showing a woman attaching a triangle to complete a five-pointed star "Victory." Woman's Committee, Liberty Loan Organization, Seventh Federal Reserve District. W.L.L.C. X5.

Astronomy is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of one- or two-semester introductory astronomy courses. The book begins with relevant scientific fundamentals and progresses through an exploration of the solar system, stars, galaxies, and cosmology. The Astronomy textbook builds student understanding through the use of relevant analogies, clear and non-technical explanations, and rich illustrations. Mathematics is included in a flexible manner to meet the needs of individual instructors.

This website has five great astronomy activities! By engaging in these activities, you can learn about the Milky Way Galaxy, the Sun, the Big Dipper, and stars!

This activity is a chance for students to apply the diffraction grating equation m*Λ/d = Θ to solve a real life problem: find the wavelength of given source of light. It is also useful for them to apply trigonometry to real life scenarios.

Everything around us is made from different chemical elements: carbon, silicon, iron, and all the other elements from the Periodic Table. The lighter elements were mostly produced in the Big Bang, but the rest were (and are) formed within stars and in the explosions of supernovae. In this series of short lecture videos, created to accompany her book Searching for the Oldest Stars: Ancient Relics from the Early Universe (Princeton University Press, 2019), Professor Anna Frebel reveals the secrets of stardust and explains the cosmic origin of the elements.

Based only on what we see when we watch stars in the sky, it’s easy to believe that the stars revolve around a stationary Earth, a common misconception among children. Although many students have at least heard that the Earth spins, they may not have thought about how this affects how we see stars, planets and the Moon.

In this activity, students find evidence of the Earth’s spinning through observing the apparent movement of stars. They use outstretched arms to measure the distance between a star and an object at the horizon. Later, they return to the same spot, re-measure, and notice that the star is in a different position, and try to explain this movement. Finally, the instructor shares the accepted scientific explanation for the phenomenon.

Nursery (or Kindergarten or Preschool) students enjoy seeing the evening sky with the teacher from the playground or through a big window (indoor). This is especially relevant for students who stay for extra-hour care. During late evening hours, some students feel a little lonely waiting for their parents, but they have a wonderful natural treasure: the evening sky. By observing the evening sky with the naked eye, they will notice many colours, changing colours, the first star, the subtle colours of stars, twinkling stars, and the movement of stars. Nursery teachers who think they are not science-oriented will also gain guidance skills of introducing science to students. This activity is also useful for primary school students, especially younger-grade students.

The Fifth Grade Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects,Earth and Space: Patterns in the Sky, uses the phenomena of perceived sun and moon movements that seem to move around the Earth to explore stars, Earth orbit and rotation and moon orbit around Earth.  It is part of Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects project, a statewide Clime Time collaboration among ESD 123, ESD 105, North Central ESD, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Development of the resources is in response to a need for research- based science lessons for elementary teachers that are integrated with English language arts, mathematics and other subjects such as social studies. The template for Elementary Science and Integrated Subjects  can serve as an organized, coherent and research-based roadmap for teachers in the development of their own NGSS aligned science lessons.  Lessons can also be useful for classrooms that have no adopted curriculum as well as to serve as enhancements for  current science curriculum. The EFSIS project brings together grade level teams of teachers to develop lessons or suites of lessons that are 1) pnenomena based, focused on grade level Performance Expectations, and 2) leverage ELA and Mathematics Washington State Learning Standards.

Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding, originally from China and now practiced all over the world. In this activity, create an origami star. Introduce children to both geometry and analytical skills in a creative way.

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.

Introduction to Astronomy provides a quantitative introduction to the physics of the solar system, stars, the interstellar medium, the galaxy, and the universe, as determined from a variety of astronomical observations and models.

This text includes 25 reading assignments for an introductory astronomy course. They have been modified from the OpenStax Astronomy 2e and College Physics 2e (linked in related resources below) textbooks to order the topics in a logical manner for a one semester course and provide shortened (~10-20 pages) readings intended for biweekly reading assignments. The text also features enhanced treatment of the Newton's Laws, Energy, and Optics content that go beyond the typical introductory astronomy course for non-majors.

Course connections: This content was built for an introductory survey of astronomy course (e.g., PHYS 103), including apparent motions of objects in the sky, light, telescopes, solar system objects, exoplanets, the sun, stars, galaxies, and cosmology. Basic math skills (arithmetic, powers, scientific notation, unit conversions) will be used frequently. This course is designed for students in all majors.

Our Solar SystemThis is a YouTube video/link of a unit I created using Canva. The video is a read aloud of Pluto and the Planets. There are 5 student led activities at the end with ways to assess each activty. Essential questions are included in addition to possible student questions, and teacher inquiry questions. Also, there are additional texts that can be incorporated into the lessons as well.