Teacher Resources for Instructional Planning


HS, Astronomy Std 29: Evaluate astronomers' use of various instruments to extend the senses and monitor cosmic background radiation to increase knowledge of the universe.

Lesson Plans: Using Binary to Send Messages into Space: To show how messages are sent into space using radio telescopes with the hope that the messages will be received and understood by intelligent life in other solar systems. See inside a closed box Radar is a kind of light energy, but we can't see it. It also acts like sound, because it bounces off surfaces making "echoes," which are "heard" by the radar antenna. This activity shows how radiowaves can be used to get a picture. Pinhole Viewer To demonstrate how a pinhole viewer inverts light passing through it. Digital Images To simulate, by hand, how a computer may process digital images into color pictures and to learn how a planetary geoscientist interprets these pictures. Decoding Starlight The student will use data collected from the Chandra X-ray Observatory to calculate the average pixel intensity of X-ray emissions from a supernova remnant. A Journey of Discovery with RXTE In this unit (5 days long using a 90-minute block schedule), students, who take on the role of light curve experts at a fictitious Drew Freeman Research Facility, receive an important bulletin from NASA. A mysterious X-ray source near the Galactic Center has been detected by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite. The students collect, graph, and analyze data gathered by one of this satellite's scientific instruments, the All-Sky Monitor (ASM), to determine whether or not this source can be accurately identified as a black hole or a neutron star. Eclipsing Binary Using data of the object Hercules X-1 taken by the All Sky Monitor aboard RXTE, the student will be able to: Identify this object as a binary source. Determine an approximate value for the orbital period of the object. Lenses and Telescopes Investigation of lenses and simple telescope construction. Black Hole Activity To introduce black holes and demonstrate how space telescopes can provide data to support current hypotheses.

Resources: Eclipse Images: Photos and a description of the various instruments used to capture the images. Gallery of Images Film Images Hubble Space Telescope: Our eye on the universe, the Hubble Space Telescope is designed to see ten times more clearly into the cosmos than typical Earth-based equipment; it can see objects one-billionth as bright as the human eye can see. The Physics Classroom Tutorials, animations, sample problems Aeronautics Related Activities, Experiments, and Lesson Plans
© 2005 Mobile County Public Schools MCPSS is not responsible for the content of links beyond the initial levels in this site and does not officially endorse any software or other products mentioned on the linked sites.