Educational resources in astronomy
What kinds of constellations are there in different cultures? How did they get their names? In this assignment, pupils listen to stories about constellations and can then come up with and name their own constellation.
Keywords: night sky, stories, constellation
This is part 8 of an 8 part session series on Star Evolution. Find Part 1 here.
By watching a presentation students get the information about stages of stellar evolution. Then using the computer animation students explore the changes of stellar parameters during different stages of stellar evolution. Finally they draw a schematic diagram of stellar evolution.
Age Range: 14 – 17 years
Prep. Time: 5 mins
Lesson Time: 45 mins
Cost per activity: Printing of student’s worksheets
Includes the use of: Computer for each group of students
This is part 7 of an 8 part session series on Star Evolution. Find Part 1 here.
By using computer animations students will explore two main energy production cycles of stars to understand how hydrogen is converted into helium and energy is released.
Age Range: 14 – 17 years
Prep. Time: Zero, if Activity 2 is done before
Lesson Time: 20 mins
Cost per activity: Printing of student’s worksheets
Includes the use of: Computer for each group of students
This is part 6 of an 8 part session series on Star Evolution. Find Part 1 here.
By using a computer animation students will explore the connection between the temperature and luminosity of stars to understand that stars form specific groups on the diagram corresponding to the stage of their evolution.
Age Range: 14 – 17 years
Prep. Time: Zero, if Activity 2 is done before
Lesson Time: 40 mins
Cost per activity: Printing of student’s worksheets
Includes the use of: Computer for each group of students
This is part 5 of an 8 part session series on Star Evolution. Find Part 1 here.
By using a presentation and a computer animation students will explore the connection between the apparent brightness, absolute brightness and the distance of stars to understand the different luminosity classes of stars.
Age Range: 14 – 17 years
Prep. Time: Zero, if Activity 2 is done before
Lesson Time: 35 mins
Cost per activity: Printing of student’s worksheets
Includes the use of: Computer for each group of students
This is part 4 of an 8 part session series on Star Evolution. Find Part 1 here.
By using computer animation students get knowledge about different spectral classes of stars and typical spectral lines of each spectral class. Then they explore the picture of real stellar spectra.
Age Range: 14 – 17 years
Prep. Time: Zero, if Activity 2 is done before
Lesson Time: 35 mins
Cost per activity: Printing of student’s worksheets
Includes the use of: Computer for each group of students
This is part 3 of an 8 part session series on Star Evolution. Find Part 1 here.
By using a computer animation students explore different types of spectra. Later they explore the spectrum of the Sun.
Age Range: 14 – 17 years
Prep. Time: Zero, if Activity 2 is done before
Lesson Time: 20 mins
Cost per activity: Printing of student’s worksheets
Includes the use of: Computer for each group of students
This is part 2 of an 8 part session series on Star Evolution. Find Part 1 here.
By using a computer animation students will explore the colour of heated nail and will compare the observed colours with the colours of some flames and stars to draw the conclusion that the colour of the star depends from its temperature.
Age Range: 14 – 17 years
Prep. Time: 15 min
Lesson Time: 40 mins
Cost per activity: Printing of student’s worksheets
Includes the use of: Computer for each group of students
This is part 1 of an 8 part session series on Star Evolution. Find Part 2 here.
A presentation introduces students to different types of stars that have different colours and different sizes.
Age Range: 14 – 17 years
Prep. Time: Zero
Activity Time: 15 min
Cost per activity: Worksheet Printing
In this activity, Students will practise plotting Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams using a range of different, yet familiar, items. Once they have plotted their graph they will compare this with other groups.
Next they will see how a real Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is created by using the stars table to plot a true H-R diagram.
Finally, they will compare the range of items by creating a ‘master diagram’, using all the items and stars plotted. Creating an expanded H-R diagram to see how objects really compare.
Age Range: 16-18
Prep. Time: 10 minutes
Lesson Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Cost per activity: Low (printing costs)
Includes the use of: Graph paper, Excel, internet
