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This series of laboratory lessons and activities uses authentic solar imagery and data to introduce students to solar science. Students are asked to explore details in imagery, including how to deal with the issues of noise and resolution, and... (View More) understand scale. They are introduced to the concept of space weather and how that affects both observing instruments and the Earth. Students learn about spectra, how helium and coronium were discovered, and go on to explore real spectra from the Sun. Most activities are mathematically based, and targeted for grades 9-10. Imagery is included from NASA/ESA's SOHO mission, NASA's SDO mission, and Japan's Hinode satellite. (View Less)
This is a game associated with activities during Solar Week, a twice-yearly event in March and October during which classrooms are able to interact with scientists studying the Sun. Outside of Solar Week, information, activities, and resources are... (View More) archived and available online at any time. During this game, learners use clues to find out the color, average size, temperature, and location of the Sun. This activity is scheduled to occur during Monday of Solar Week. (View Less)
This is an online game associated with activities during Solar Week, a twice-yearly event in March and October during which classrooms are able to interact with scientists studying the Sun. Outside of Solar Week, information, activities, and... (View More) resources are archived and available online at any time. Learners view images of celebrities in various stages of pixellation to try to guess who the celebrity is by viewing images that are highly pixellated down to images that are more defined. This relates to astronomical image resolution and how the number of pixels defines the resolution of an image. This activity is scheduled to occur during Tuesday of Solar Week. (View Less)
This is an activity that compares the magnetic field of the Earth to the complex magnetic field of the Sun. Using images of the Earth and Sun that have magnets attached in appropriate orientations, learners will use a handheld magnetic field... (View More) detector to observe the magnetic field of the Earth and compare it to that of the Sun, especially in sunspot areas. For each group of students, this activity requires use of a handheld magnetic field detector, such as a Magnaprobe or a similar device, a bar magnet, and ten small disc magnets. (View Less)
Materials Cost: Over $20 per group of students
This 12-lesson unit includes inquiry-based lessons about the surface features of the Moon and the Earth and how these two worlds formed and continue to evolve. Students participate in real science as they help lunar scientists map the surface of the... (View More) Moon with MoonMappers, an online citizen science project that lets the public analyze real data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The lessons in this unit follow the 5E instructional model. Includes an overview of citizen science, glossary of lunar feature vocabulary, alignment to NGSS and NSES, and featured links. Each of the lessons addresses different topics and can be used together as a unit, or independently. (View Less)
This is an online set of information about astronomical alignments of ancient structures and buildings. Learners will read background information about the alignments to the Sun in such structures as the Great Pyramid, Chichen Itza, and others.... (View More) Next, the site contains 10 short problem sets that involve a variety of math skills, including determining the scale of a photo, measuring and drawing angles, plotting data on a graph, and creating an equation to match a set of data. Each set of problems is contained on one page and all of the sets utilize real-world problems relating to astronomical alignments of ancient structures. Each problem set is flexible and can be used on its own, together with other sets, or together with related lessons and materials selected by the educator. This was originally included as a folder insert for the 2010 Sun-Earth Day. (View Less)
Learners will be introduced to the concepts of error analysis, including standard deviation. They will apply the knowledge of averages (means), standard deviation from the mean, and error analysis to their own classroom distribution of heights. They... (View More) will then apply this knowledge to data from the Student Dust Counter (SDC) onboard the New Horizons mission to determine the issues associated with taking data, including error and noise. Note: Updated links to the Student Dust Counter Data Viewer and website are provided under Related & Supplemental Resources (right). (View Less)
Learners will relate the concept of density to the density of dust in space. They will use mission data from the Student Dust Counter (SDC) data viewer to determine the density of dust grains in a volume of space in order to answer questions... (View More) concerning the distribution of dust in the solar system. They will discover that space is much more sparsely populated with dust than they may have thought. Students discuss their findings with the class. Note: Updated links to the Student Dust Counter Data Viewer and website are provided under Related & Supplemental Resources (right). (View Less)
This is a booklet containing 15 problems that incorporate data and information from the Hinode solar observatory. The problems involve math skills such as finding the scale of an image to determine actual physical sizes in images, time calculations,... (View More) volumes of cylinders, graph analysis, and scientific notation. Learners will use mathematics to explore solar science topics such as sunspot structure, spectroscopy, solar rotation, magnetic fields, density and temperature of hot gases, and solar flares. This booklet can be found on the Space Math@NASA website. (View Less)
This is a booklet containing 24 problem sets that involve a variety of math skills, including scientific notation, simple algebra, and calculus. Each set of problems is contained on one page. Learners will use mathematics to explore varied space... (View More) science topics including solar storms, solar energy, coronal mass ejections, and doppler shift, among others. (View Less)