Accidental Discoveries
This segment from Swift: Eyes through Time traces the history military officers and engineers discovering a strange phenomenon in the sky that astronomers now know are gamma-ray bursts.
Collection Developed by:
WPSU
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5-8 |
QuickTime Video
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Accidental Discoveries
This lesson will help the students understand that science theories change in the face of new evidence, but those changes can be slow in coming.
Collection Developed by:
WPSU
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5-8 |
Lesson Plan
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Astronomical Images in Different Wavelengths
Visible light is just one portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that a telescope may detect. This collection of images produced for Teachers' Domain features radio wave, infrared, visible light, and X-ray images of distant stars and galaxies as well as images of the telescopes designed to detect the various wavelengths of radiation.
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6-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Astronomy Theories
This video segment from Swift: Eyes through Time deals with the advancement of science through changing existing ideas, refuting outdated theories, and incorporating new findings.
Collection Developed by:
WPSU
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5-8 |
QuickTime Video
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Birth of a Supernova, Type Ia
In this interactive activity from NOVA Online, learn about a
type of exploding star — a Type Ia supernova — that is so bright
that astronomers can measure the distance to the galaxy in which it
resides, and even learn which elements make up the star.
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6-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Birth of a Supernova, Type II
In this interactive activity from NOVA Online,
learn about a type of exploding star — a Type II supernova —
that is so large it has a mass 10 times greater than the mass of our Sun.
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6-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Earth, the Universe, and Culture
The following lesson will help the students understand the cultural nature of scientific research.
Collection Developed by:
WPSU
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5-8 |
Lesson Plan
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The Elements: Forged in Stars
The story of how elements from lithium to uranium are created by stars is illustrated through animation and a hands-on periodic table in this video segment adapted from NOVA.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Gravity and the Expanding Universe
This video segment, adapted from NOVA, traces the evolving history of theories about gravity and a force that may oppose it, along with our understanding of the impact of both of these forces on our expanding universe.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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How Big Is Our Universe?
This interactive resource from Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics uses images and activities to understand the scope and scale of our universe. Featured are technologies used by generations of explorers.
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3-12 |
HTML Interactive
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Hubble's Expanding Universe
This adapted video segment, using footage from NOVA and NASA,
examines Edwin Hubble's work and how his findings laid the foundation for the Big Bang
theory.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Hubble Telescope: Looking Deep
This video segment adapted from the Space Telescope Science Institute shows what
the Hubble telescope found when it stared at a single, nearly empty spot in the sky for 10
days in 1995. The unexpected result was a picture of a multitude of galaxies stretching into
the distance.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Infrared Search for Origins
This interactive resource from NASA illustrates how infrared technology has advanced space exploration and can offer insight into questions about star formation, planetary systems, brown dwarfs, and the origins of the universe.
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6-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Ingredients for Life: Carbon
This video segment adapted from NOVA illustrates why carbon is at the center of life on Earth. It also asks whether carbon-based life might exist on other planets.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Looking Back in Time
This video segment of Swift: Eyes through Time provides concrete examples to explain the concept that distance in space equals distance in time.
Collection Developed by:
WPSU
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5-8 |
QuickTime Video
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Looking Back in Time
This lesson plan will provide a concrete way for the students to understand the concept of “distance in space equals distance in time.”
Collection Developed by:
WPSU
|
5-8 |
Lesson Plan
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Monster Black Hole in Galaxy M84
This animation by Thomas Goertel of the Space Telescope Science Institute is an artist's conception of a spiral galaxy harboring a super-massive black hole. Observe how the material rotates faster the closer it is to the nucleus.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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The Origin of the Elements
This video segment adapted from NOVA explains the origin of the elements and how scientists use unique element profiles to identify supernova types.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Our Knowledge of the Universe
Students investigate the history of astronomy to see how major conceptual and technological advances have sculpted the current view of the universe.
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9-12 |
Lesson Plan
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Pulsars: Little Green Men
The story behind Jocelyn Bell's role in the discovery of pulsars
is told in this colorful, comic-book-style resource from
A Science Odyssey Web site.
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6-12 |
HTML Document
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Spin a Spiral Galaxy
This interactive activity from NOVA Online lets you spin a spiral galaxy, including our own Milky Way. It demonstrates that what you can learn from visible light observations of a galaxy is largely determined by the angle from which you are observing it.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Interactive
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Swift: Gamma-Ray Bursts
In this video segment adapted from Penn State Public Broadcasting's Swift: Eyes Through Time, learn about the Swift satellite — a NASA mission with international participation — and how it is collecting data about gamma-ray bursts that may yield important discoveries about the Universe.
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6-12 |
QuickTime Video
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Theories
This lesson will help the students understand that science theories change in the face of new evidence, but those changes can be slow in coming.
Collection Developed by:
WPSU
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5-8 |
Lesson Plan
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Universe Origins
This video segment from Swift: Eyes through Time covers gamma ray bursts; geocentric and heliocentric models; and, cultural interpretations of scientific data.
Collection Developed by:
WPSU
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5-8 |
QuickTime Video
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The Wall of Time
This illustrated timeline from the Lunar and Planetary Institute provides a journey through four-and-a-half billion years of time from the birth of our solar system to its current existence today.
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6-12 |
JPEG Image
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WMAP: "Baby Picture" of the Universe
View the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) image from NASA to see the first detailed map of the oldest light in the universe, from 379,000 years after the Big Bang, over 13 billion years ago. A second image offers a visual timeline to put the WMAP image in perspective.
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9-12 |
JPEG Image
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