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Curriculum

• AAVSO Hands-On Astrophysics
Hands-On Astrophysics is a unique and innovative educational curriculum and set of materials developed by the AAVSO and funded in part by the National Science Foundation. Users of HOA will be able to experience the excitement of doing real science with real data - variable star data taken from the unique database of the AAVSO, and data they collect themselves by making their own variable star observations. This multi-media curriculum is extremely flexible, and it supports the National Standards for Science and Math Education by directly involving students in the scientific process. HOA is ideal for educators and students, amateur astronomers, astronomy clubs, and anyone who is interested in exploring science through variable stars and variable star observing.
• Everyday Classroom Tools
Elementary School Teachers!! Here It IS!!
The medium of the web allows us to integrate the ideas presented in our curriculum with related topics found on the Internet. For each investigation, there is a page of links to sites we felt would integrate well with students' discoveries, topics such as social studies, math, literature, and the creative arts. We call this style of interwoven ideas and investigations The Threads of Inquiry, and over the next year, we plan to create two more sets of Threads centered on the big ideas of size & scale and life. Presently, we are developing a hardcopy format and a CD-ROM of Long Shadows, along with ECT-tailored fiction stories to accompany the investigations.
From two years in the classroom, the response from teachers is that students are relying heavily on their own ideas and data, driving their own learning, and making their own theories about the world around them. Their desire to understand and think like a scientist has made them curious, skeptical, careful, and open minded in all subjects in and out of school.
•  Astronomy Education Projects: Astronomical Society of the Pacific
An annotated Catalog of National Astronomy Education Projects
•  Universe at Your Fingertips

        Several hands-on astronomy activities from our "Universe at Your Fingertips" collection of activities
•  Women in Astronomy: Astronomical Society of the Pacific
A resource list for learning more about the role of  women in astronomy, with books, articles, and web links
•  Web Site List of Resources: Astronomical Society of the Pacific
An annotated list of web sites about teaching astronomy to non-science majors at the college level
•  Project Astro: Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Information about Project ASTRO, which sets up partnerships between professional or amateur astronomers and local 4th-9th grade teachers (now operating in nine regional sites around the U.S.)
• NASA Learning Technologies Project
The goal of NASA's Learning Technologies Project (LTP) is to promote the growth of a national information infrastructure using the vast amount of information the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has acquired since its creation. Access to this knowledge will allow the public and industry to contribute to rapid and significant advances in science, engineering, and technology. LTP is part of a larger government initiative, the High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) program, whose mission is to accelerate the development, application, and transfer of high-performance technologies to the US engineering and science communities. These programs and all of the LTP projects will increase public access to scientific databases, develop new applications and pilot programs for using science data, and create new curriculum products and tools for K-12 and K-14 education -- all of this via the Internet.
• Internet in the Classroom
The Internet in the classroom. Bringing NASA science to educators and students everywhere. That's what the Learning Technologies Project (LTP) is all about, and NASA's Quest project -- located at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California -- exemplifies how the merger of science and technology produces classroom tools that are accessible, educational…and fun!
• Pupil Researcher Initiative
The project was established to support the teaching and learning of science in the 14 to 16 age range. Many teachers in partnership with the science and engineering research community are involved in all aspects of the project. Above all, however, the success of the project can be judged by pupil’s enthusiasm for science and by the quality of their learning. The site provides: Resources - teaching and learning materials for lessons, Information - about the many services PRI provides, Networking - links to school Web sites and to researchers.
• Stanford Solar Center: Curriculum and Activities
This site presents a collection of fun educational activities based on Solar Oscillations Investigation (SOI) and Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) data. Students can explore the Sun's tangled magnetic field, its turbulent surface motions, the dramatic sunspot cycle, and even what magic happens in the solar interior, where instrumental eyes cannot penetrate.
• Introductory Astronomy: Lecture Notes, Homework, Quizzes
This website contains most of the class materials for the introductory Astronomy 100 course at Indiana University Northwest Fall 1996. A100 is a survey course covering a brief history of Astronomy, the physics and methods of Astronomy and a careful and comprehensive look at the Solar System.
• Bakersfield College Introductory Astronomy Curriculum
The course outline gives a brief description of the course, course syllabus, and course calendar. The Astronomy Notes are the on-line version of the course text written by Dr. Nick Strobel. The Astronomy Links page gives a set of links you will find helpful in answering questions that are not addressed directly in the Astronomy Notes.
• Imagine the Universe
This site is dedicated to a discussion about our Universe... what we know about it, how it is evolving, and the kinds of objects and phenomena it contains. Just as importantly, we also discuss how scientists know what we know, what mysteries remain, and how we might one day find the answers to these questions. Check out the Teacher's Corner.
• Windows to the Universe
This site offers a user-friendly learning system on the Earth and Space sciences for use by the general public. Windows to the Universe is a project to the University of Michigan funded by NASA through the NASA Office of High Performance Communications and Computing (HPCC) Information Infrastructure Technologies and Applications (IITA) Remote Sensing Data Base Applications Program and the NASA Space Physics Division.
• The Solar System: Lecture Notes and Class Materials
This website contains most of the class materials for the introductory Astronomy 100 course at Indiana University Northwest Fall 1996. A100 is a survey course covering a brief history of Astronomy, the physics and methods of Astronomy and a careful and comprehensive look at the Solar System.
Athena Earth and Space Science: Activities and Curriculum
This is one of the most extensive and exhaustive curriculum and activity site on the Web. Track drifter buoys in the world's oceans, forecast today's space weather, investigate tropical storms viewed from space. Athena engages students in observing phenomena using remote-sensed data to construct knowledge about the world. Data sets and instructional pieces are related to oceans, the atmosphere, Earth resources, and space/astronomy. Real-time data is used where possible. The material is intended for direct use by students with appropriate assistance from teachers. The goal of Athena is to enhance the K-12 science curriculum, and facilitate use of the powerful computational tools in classrooms networked to the Web. Scientists and educators work together developing instructional material for K-12 science teaching based on data acquired via Internet. The materials include data sets with appropriate explanation, student activities, and teacher background information delivered to classrooms via pages on the World Wide Web. Project staff train teachers and provide support for eighteen pilot sites in Seattle area classrooms. We support the pilot classes with on site visits and e-mail, solicit feedback, and continue writing material in light of the classroom experience. The project is a collaboration between SAIC, the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the school districts of Seattle, Bellevue, Lake Washington, and Northshore. This project fills a need by making scientific data accessible to students in an understandable form. It does this by involving educators in planning and writing and piloting the material in classrooms. It provides a template for lessons and a model for collaboration between schools, business, and the government.
 
• Amazing Space:Lessons related to Space Satellite
Amazing Space is a set of web-based activities primarily designed for classroom use, but made available for all to enjoy.
• Hands On Universe
Hands-On UniverseTM (HOU) is an educational program that enables students to investigate the Universe while applying tools and concepts from science, math, and technology. Using the Internet, HOU participants around the world request observations from an automated telescope, download images from a large image archive, and analyze them with the aid of user-friendly image processing software.
• Eyes on the Sky, Feet on the Ground
If you are on a curriculum committee and looking for a complete package ... this is it. This is curriculum in a box, and what a nice box. This is a K-6 curriculum that is activity oriented and in step with current science education theory and practice. This is an Inquiry based curriculum with a focus on inquiry as an integral process of science. The nature of Inquiry based science education is explained and explanations of how to incorporate inquiry into your existing structures is provided. There are hundred of activities included. This could be used as a stand alone curriculum or could provide parts for your existing curriculum.
• Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy Curriculum
Outstanding web site. In addition to the actual course content you will also find a complete section dealing with the curriculum design and philosophy, as well as a compete set of assessment tools.
• Reaching the Red Planet Curriculum
Reaching for the Red Planet is a multi-purpose curriculum focusing on planning a Mars colony. The project entails learning general facts about the planets, learning about the Earth's environment, choosing a purpose for a colony on Mars, and planning and designing a colony on Mars. The students will use drawings, creative writing, research skills, team work, math, and the scientific method to explore their own environment, and design an artificial one for Mars. Several assignments, a teacher's tour guide to the planets, a guide to the question of life on Mars, and a guide to current and planned Mars missions are included in Reaching for the Red Planet and experiments for the students to perform in class are explained in detail. I hope your students will find Reaching for the Red Planet to be a fun and educational experience.
• StarDial: Images of Night Sky: Homework Assignments
Read about the logistics, motivation, science, and philosophy behind this project to bring astronomy education to the world via the web. Share in the excitement of the astronomical adventure with these images and movies from actual Stardial data.
• Astronomy Web Sites for Children
There are a large number of activities for the younger children here. Among these activities you will find: Sea and Sky: The Sky Features a picture gallery, information and images about the solar system and space exploration, Java games, links to interactive Java applets about space, and links. This site is by amateur astronomer J.D. Knight. My rating: 4/5. Solar Eclipse: Stories from the Path of Totality This excellent Exploratorium site features live coverage of the solar eclipse on February 25 and 26, 1998, plus audio and QuickTime clips, and lots of pictures and information about eclipses. My rating: 5/5. What's in a Comet Anyway? Guess which 5 ingredients are in a comet? My rating: 3/5. NASA's Kids' Space Read animated stories, take a space quiz, unscramble pictures, solve word puzzles, color pages, find out what you'd weigh on the moon, and visit the Space Cadet Academy for kids to learn about space exploration. Some pages use Shockwave and FutureWave. My rating: 5/5. NASA Life Science "Just for Kids" Page Learn about about space flight, and what happens to your body in space. This page has word finds, connect-the-dots, and a hangman game. My rating: 4/5. Space Coloring Book NASA offers pictures of spacecrafts, astronauts and planets for you to copy, print and color. My rating: 4/5. Space ABC's Students at Buckman Elementary School created an illustrated and narrated alphabet book to show you what they learned about space.
Build a Pathfinder Model Download and print these 4 pattern pages to make your own stand-up Mars rover. Each pattern page is available as a JPEG or as a smaller GIF image. Limited instructions are included on each pages.
NASA's Observatorium : Play games, learn about the Earth, space exploration and space science, see cool pictures, and more. Games require Java.
Mars Pathfinder Mission : See lots of pictures of Mars, find out the status of the Pathfinder rover and the current weather on the planet.
• Course Notes for Astronomy 45 at Harvard
An introduction to the concepts and methods of astrophysics, including a brief survey of astronomical objects, a discussion of astronomical measurements and units, and a systematic introduction to the astrophysical nature of radiation, orbital dynamics, tidal interactions, stellar structure, and many-body dynamics.
• Star Child Project
This site contains educational materials on the following subjects: Astronomy, The Earth, Galaxies, The Moon, Planets, Space, Stars, The Sun, The Universe.
• Astronomy Village
Astronomy Village: Investigating the Universe is a CD-ROM based multimedia program that provides teachers and students with ten complete investigations in astronomy intended to complement and extend the science curriculum in 9th and 10th grade classes.
• Astronomical Data Center for Students and Educators
A collection of resources for learning about or teaching astronomy. Here you will find examples for using astronomical data in the classroom and links to astronomy related themes.
 
• High School Astronomy Course
This class will require you to be self-motivated. You will be discussing what you understand and misunderstand about a topic area. After reading a section of a chapter, you will post what you understand, what you are confused about, and what section(s) of the book or sites on the World Wide Web might help with resolving your confusion. Then, other members of the class -- or its teachers -- will help you to understand.
• Dark Matter Tutorial
Cosmology - the study of the beginnings, formation, and evolution of our Universe - is currently in a badly confused state. At the moment, scientists don't know what makes up 99% of the Universe. This, needless to say, is a rather embarrassing situation. Although much of what is visible in the Universe is becoming comprehensible, with great recent strides in understanding star formation, galactic structure, and spectacular events such as supernovae, it would appear that there is another component of the universe - possibly making up most of its mass - which we cannot see, and we do not understand. References to this `Dark Matter' have been circulating the popular science presses for over a decade now, and even found its way into a really bad episode of the X-files. What is it, really? How do we know that it's there? How do we `see' it if it's `dark'? Here, I'll try to answer those questions, and explain what my research is about. I hope that this will be educational and fun; Java applets will be used so that you can see what I'm talking about, and I'll do my best to avoid unneccesary jargon
• Constellations and Their Stars
Topical materials covered include: What are constellations?, Constellations (alphabetical), Constellations (by month), Stars (alphabetical), Stars (by bright star catalog number), Messier objects, Milky Way Photos, Interactive Sky Charts, The 26 brightest stars, The 26 nearest stars, References, Resources and Links .
• NASA Observatorium
NASA's Observatorium is a public access site for Earth and space data. We have pictures of the Earth, planets, stars, and other cool stuff, as well as the stories behind those images.
 
•  CERES
Through funding from NASA, faculty at Montana State University and classroom teachers from across the nation have developed an extensive library of on-line and interactive K-12 science education materials for teaching astronomy. Closely aligned with the NRC National Science Education Standards, these web based lessons make maximum use of exciting on-line NASA resources, data, and images. In addition to classroom-ready materials using contemporary teaching strategies, CERES has developed several on-line NASA data search engines and two graduate level distance learning courses, available over the internet to K-12 teachers.

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