Learning Objectives

  • Students will learn about the different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.
  • Students will learn what it means for a star to have color.
  • Students will learn about the connection between temperature and color.
  • Students will learn about infrared light and how it was discovered.
  • Students will use NASA data and excel to create plots.
  • Students will use plots to draw conclusions about data.
  • Students will learn how star brightness is measured.
  • Students will learn about stellar evolution, from how new stars are formed to what happens at the end of a star’s life.

New York State Standards Met

  • The central purpose of scientific inquiry is to develop explanations of natural phenomena in a continuing, creative process.
  • Beyond the use of reasoning and consensus, scientific inquiry involves the testing of proposed explanations involving the use of conventional techniques and procedures and usually requiring considerable ingenuity.
  • The observations made while testing proposed explanations, when analyzed using conventional and invented methods, provide new insights into phenomena.
  • Information technology is used to retrieve, process, and communicate information as a tool to enhance learning.
  • Knowledge of the impacts and limitations of information systems is essential to its effective and ethical use.
  • Information technology can have positive and negative impacts on society, depending upon how it is used.
  • Models are simplified representations of objects, structures, or systems used in analysis, explanation, interpretation, or design.

Grades 5-8

  • Use spreadsheets and database software to collect, process, display, and analyze information. Students access needed information from electronic databases and on-line telecommunication services.
  • Collect data from probes to measure events and phenomena.
    • Collect the data, using the appropriate, available tool
    • Organize the data
    • Use the collected data to communicate a scientific concept
  • Use simple modeling programs to make predictions
  • Understand the need to question the accuracy of information displayed on a computer because the results produced by a computer may be affected by incorrect data entry.
    • Critically analyze data to exclude erroneous information
    • Identify and explain sources of error in a data collection
  • Identify advantages and limitations of data-handling programs and graphics programs.
  • Understand why electronically stored personal information has greater potential for misuse than records kept in conventional form.
  • Use powers of ten notation to represent very small and very large numbers.
  • Different forms of electromagnetic energy have different wavelengths. Some examples of electromagnetic energy are microwaves, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma rays.

Grades 9-12

  • Stars form when gravity causes clouds of molecules to contract until nuclear fusion of light elements into heavier ones occurs. Fusion releases great amounts of energy over millions of years.
  • The stars differ from each other in size, temperature, and age.

Physical Science

  • Angular momentum is conserved in a closed system.