Academics:SeattlePublicSchools
From Astronomy Facility Wiki
This page outlines the work being done by members of the Astronomy department in conjunction with Seattle public schools to develop lesson plans for High School students in physical science classes. Our goal is to provide assistance to the public schools in developing physical science lesson plans. This could include introduction of key concepts and integrating several physical science fields into the lesson plans.
Our Group
| Name | Task |
| Jim Pizagno | Laboratory Exercises |
| Andrew Connolly | Google Sky and WWT for Classroom |
| Robert Gibson | Develop Lesson Plans |
| Željko Ivezić | Develop Lesson Plans |
| Vaishali Bhardwaj | Comment on Existing Web Pages; find relevant websites |
| Amy Kimball | Develop Lesson Plans |
| Susan Swan | Gather Older Lesson Plans |
| John Wisniewski | NSF Outreach; Develop Active Learning Exercises; find relevant websites |
| Jeremiah Murphy | Introduction Texts |
Developments
From Last Meeting: Our current short term goal is to develop lesson plans for two main topics: "The life Cycle of a Star" and "Evolution of the Universe". These would be in the form of two packets, which are around 5 pages each. Each packet would include internet resources, exercises, and a topic introduction.
We would also discussed inviting the teachers to the Astronomy
Department's Planetarium to demonstrate its usefulness in
classrooms.
From Jim Pizagno:
The "Wonders of Our World" program provides Physics and Chemistry in-class experiments, among others.
It can be found here:
http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/wow/
Jim Pizagno used to volunteer for this program. It could be upgraded for
High School students by including Algebra. Many of the experiments, updating
to the appropriate level, could be excellent for in-class demonstrations.
From John Wisniewski: Project ASTRO produced an enormous binder of astronomy hands-on learning activities for K-12. These activities are found in "The Universe at Your Fingertips": http://www.astrosociety.org/education/astro/astropubs/universe.html I will look to see if I still have my copy available (otherwise it is available for purchase for $39.95 from the ASP).
Time Line
Our next meeting: Nov. 20 3:30pm
We plan to go over "Key concepts" in stellar evolution and go through the Parallax activity.
Relevant Links
Seattle Public Schools: http://www.seattleschools.org/area/main/index.dxml
Astronomy Department: http://www.astro.washington.edu/
Astronomy Department Outreach: http://www.astro.washington.edu/outreachtools.html
The "Wonders of Our World" program : http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/wow/
State Science Approved June 2009: http://www.k12.wa.us/CurriculumInstruct/Science/pubdocs/WAScienceStandardsFINAL.pdf
Roly-Playing Execises by Paul Francis: http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~pfrancis/roleplay_copies.html
Contact Information
Feel free to contact Jim Pizagno at: jpizagno - at - u.washington.edu
or Susan at: smswan - at - seattleschools.org
Washington State Science Standard (pg. 101)
Content Standards:
"Stars have 'life cycles.' During their active periods, stars produce heavier elements, starting with the fusion of hydrogen to form helium. The heaviest elements are formed when massive stars "die" in massive explosions.
Students are expected to: Connect the life cycles of stars to the production of elements through the process of nuclear fusion.
The Big Bang theory of hte origin of the universe is based on evidence (e.g. red shift) that all galaxies are rushing apart from one another. As space expanded and matter began to cool, gravitational attraction pulled clumps of matter together, forming the stars and galaxies, clouds of gas and dust, and planetary systems that we see today. If we were to run time backwards, we would find that all of the galaxies were in teh same place 13.7 billion years ago.
Students are expected to: Cite evidence that supports the "Big Bang theory" (.e.g. redshift of galaxies or 3K background radiation)."
Cosmology Key Concepts and Ideas
- Cosmology is the study of the structure and evolution of the Universe.
- The largest structures in the universe are galaxies, collections of galaxies, the absence of galaxies (voids), so cosmology is intimately related to the study of galactic evolution.
- Galaxies are islands of stars. How did they come about? - The Universe is expanding (dynamic)
- Simply rewind the clock; this implies the Big Bang. - Universe is infinitely big (as far as we can tell), but not infinitely old. - Evidence of expansion - Hubble's Law - CMB - It's expansion is currently accelerating
- (key concept) redshift due to expanding space-time. - (key concept) light speed and lookback time. - Big Bang Nucleosynthesis - Open questions:
- Dark matter and dark energy are the largest constituents of the Universe. What are they?
- Small perturbations in the initial universe became large perturbations
to form small galaxies. These eventually combine to form larger galaxies.
Cosmology Demonstrations
- Expansion of the Universe
- draw a "wave" on a rubber band and stretch it show the expansion - draw "galaxies" on a balloon, and blow up the balloon.
Stellar Structure and Evolution Key Concepts and Ideas
Write-up by Amy on stellar evolution: - The PDF: http://www.astro.washington.edu/users/akimball/SPS/stellar_evolution.pdf - Text of the PDF: http://www.astro.washington.edu/users/akimball/SPS/stellar_evolution.txt
- Star formation
- collapse of giant molecular clouds - Nuclear fusion begins = star's birth - Stars form in groups/clusters (not isolated)
- Stellar parameters
- Mass determines a star's lifetime and death - Temperature: hot = blue, cool = red - High mass = large, hot, bright - Low mass = small, cool, dim
- Death of stars
- Low mass = planetary nebula
- High mass = supernova
- Metals come from supernovas
Stellar Structure and Evolution Demonstrations
- temperature
- show the heating of metal with a bunsen burner
- spectra as a tool
- use Sun light diffracted in a prism
Stellar Structure and Evolution Websites
- Star Life Cycle
- walks you through the full star formation/evolution process - has nice animations, java-based learning exercises http://aspire.cosmic-ray.org/labs/star_life/starlife_main.html
- Intro to Stars
- from NASA's Observatorium suite of webpages - illustrated content http://physics.ship.edu/~mrc/astro/NASA_Space_Science/observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/exhibits/stars/star_0.html http://physics.ship.edu/~mrc/astro/NASA_Space_Science/observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/space/stellardeath/stellardeath_contents.html
- Hubble Space Telescope gallery
- provides really nice imagery for any stage of stellar evolution http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/star/
- Star Formation
- basic steps of star formation accompanied by relevant HST imagery http://nrumiano.free.fr/Estars/birth.html
Formative Assessments
Emmys Moon and Stars (http://www.astro.washington.edu/~jmurphy/sps/Emmys_Moon_and_Stars.pdf)
Earth Science (http://www.astro.washington.edu/~jmurphy/sps/Earth_Science.pdf)
Objects in the sky (http://www.astro.washington.edu/~jmurphy/sps/Objects_in_the_sky.pdf)
dropping balls (http://www.astro.washington.edu/~jmurphy/sps/dropping_balls.pdf)
Talking About Gravity (http://www.astro.washington.edu/~jmurphy/sps/Talking_About_Gravity.pdf)
Example: Stellar Evolution
Last meeting, we talked about putting together a set of about 10 steps to go from a physical concept (e.g., temperature) to an astronomical concept (e.g., stellar evolution). Here's a start. Obviously, there's a lot of ways to expand on this very brief outline.
What is temperature?
- (Need to see what science textbooks say to tie it in to known concept.) - We think of it as "hot or cold" - It can be measured on different scales; but what do the numbers mean? - It's related to energy; as you put more energy into something, its temperature rises. (For example, if you heat it up.) - Temperature is a measure of how much energy each particle has; as you add energy, the particles speed up and the temperature rises.
Follow-up lab to describe temperature in more detail
- Etc.
What is pressure?
- Similar discussion as for temperature
Follow-up lab to describe pressure in more detail
- If you trap a ping-pong ball with a paddle, and slowly lower the paddle to the ground, the ball bouncing between paddle and ground speeds up. Increasing pressure is adding energy to the ball with each bounce. (Umm, check the details on that. That kind of stuff, though.) - Etc.
Temperature and pressure are related
- (Assuming roughly constant volume) pressure increases when temperature increases - could have a nice description of a steam engine, if you like them
What else happens as you raise temperature?
- chemical reactions - state changes - oxidation (fire) - ionization - fission - fusion - Gnab Gib?
Where do stars come from?
- How does a big cloud of cold gas turn into a star? - Hayshi track... thermal radiation (but not fusion) - key is when temperature (and density) high enough for fusion
The Main Sequence
- boring time, pressure supports gravity - but there's a timer ticking... (burning up H) - what will happen when fuel runs out?
Uh-oh. Ran out of fuel.
- get even more qualitative at this point - find another fuel source (at higher temperature, burn He) - stop burning and settle down to retire (WD stage) - "too big to fail:" the big guys do more explosive things
The extreme cases
- Eta Carina, black holes, neutron stars, supernovae, etc. - (Lots of pretty pictures for this.)
Academics:SeattlePublicSchools
