go to the unit 3 site: Earth as a Planet
go to the unit 1 site: What is Science
Unit 2:
The Universe:
The Entirety of Space and Time
Essential Questions:
- What have we “figured out” through careful observation and scientific problem solving about the origin, organization, mechanics, and dynamics of our universe?
- How does exploring the universe beyond Earth broaden our understanding of our own planet?
- What is a star and why does it have a life cycle if it is not alive?
Enduring Understandings:
- The Earth exists in the Solar System, in the Milky Way galaxy, and in the Universe, which contains many billions of galaxies.
- The universe was created 13.7 billion years ago from a cosmic "explosion" that launched matter in all directions.
- The sun, the Earth, and the other planets were formed 4.7 billion years ago.
The Universe Preassessment Survey: What do you already know about the universe?
Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico
Introduction: Take a Grand Tour of the Cosmos
Unit Sections:
- Space, Energy, and Matter
- Origins and Organization of the Cosmos
- Stars: Energy in the Cosmos
- Our Solar System
Astronomy Simulations and Animations (includes calculators for complex equations)
The Scale of the Universe
Overview of Astronomy Class Presentation:
Astronomy.ppt
Online Astronomy Magazines
- Astronomy Magazine: Astronomy magazine
- Sky & Telescope: Premier magazine for amateur astronomers
- Stardate Magazine: McDonald Observatory, University of Texas, Austin
- Astronomy Now: Current data on astronomy
- Space.com: Current events in space science
6. NASA Science: Science News, Earth, Heliophysics, Planets, and Astrophysics
Other Links:
- Tonight's Sky: A monthly video guide to constellations, deep sky objects, planets and celestial events. What's going on in your sky this month? (Adobe Flash Player Required, Free Download)
- SkyWatch Podcasts: Listen to astronomy audio broadcasts on your iPod or other .MP3 playerfrom the show "SkyWatch"
- Windows to the Universe: An excellent online resource for astronomy students, notice at the top of the page that you can change the difficulty of the material from begginer to intermediate to advanced.
- Satellite Fly Bys: Enter your zip code to find when the ISS or other satellites will overhead.
This excerpt from A Pale Blue Dot was inspired by an image taken, at Sagan's suggestion, by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990. As the spacecraft left our planetary neighborhood for the fringes of the solar system, engineers turned it around for one last look at its home planet. Voyager 1 was about 6.4 billion kilometers (4 billion miles) away, and approximately 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane, when it captured this portrait of our world. Caught in the center of scattered light rays (a result of taking the picture so close to the Sun), Earth appears as a tiny point of light, a crescent only 0.12 pixel in size.
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
-- Carl Sagan, Cornell University, Pale Blue Dot, 1994
Unit Assignments
Life Cycles of Stars Reading assignment.doc
Dispersion of Elements Reading assignment.doc
Light and Chemistry Reading Assignment.doc
Estimating Large Quanities Lab.doc
Meet the Astronomers Beyond the Big Bang.doc
UNIT TEST REVIEW GAMES
-soccer, basketball, ping pong, golf, and more!!
Pick One of the 80 sets of review games on the following page: Universe, Stars and Solar System Review Games
The Universe Review
Expanding Universe Review
The Universe, Stars, and Origins Review
Heliocentric and Geocentric Models
Orbits and Ellipses
The Planets
Tons more basic astronomy games
Enjoy the game(s)! Keep in mind that some of the questions asked you may have not been taught. Use these games to help expand your science knowledge. Remember, science is a very visual subject, so these games cannot be the only tool you use to study for your exam.
Not great for review, but fun just the same:
Play Spaceplace Trivia
Play the Solar System Switch-a-roo Game
Play the Electromagnetic Spectrum Game
Cartoons:
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