| Lab | Comments, Feedback, Other Information |
|---|---|
| Fundamentals of Astronomy | |
| Mathematical and Scientific Methods | Includes math review and scientific notation.
I think this is a really good introduction to scientific methods. The section about caluculating errors shows students that science doesn't have all the answers, but that we can know how confident we should be in our results. This is also shown in the section where students have to measure the diameter of galaxies. There are clearly a few different ways to do this. But which is "the best"? This lab focuses on giving students the tools to deal with scientific issues, but also asks several application and analysis questions which aren't simply correct/false answers. -- Stacy Palen |
| Kepler's Laws | This labs introduces kepler's laws using lots of diagrams of ellipses and orbits. At the end of each law, the student is asked to state that law in their own words, which I think is a good test of how well they understand what they've just been dealing with. It seems like a good way to get any misconceptions that students may have into the open. -- Stacy Palen |
| Spectra | Uses lab equipment |
| Spectral Analysis | |
| Telescopes | Requires our telescopes
This is an analysis of telescopes, where students have to break down a telescope into its optical and mechanical pieces, to understand how they work and why they were arranged how they are. Students have to draw a couple of pictures to illustrate. -- Stacy Palen |
| Data Collecting | Students love the piercing aspect, but find it difficult to make the connection to astronomy, so this must be strongly emphasized by the TA. Some math makes this lab take a long time for some students.
I like this lab a lot, because it relates astronomical data, which may seem kind of mysterious and far away, to something really familiar and concrete: percentages of people with ear and body piercings. Students get to figure out what they expect based on another study, then compute their own values based on data given to them. Then, by the magnitude of their uncertainty, they can infer whether the other study had a larger or smaller data set. IT does a good job of combining comprehension, application, analysis and synthesis questions. -- Stacy Palen |
| Angles | |
| Measuring Earth's Circumference | |
| Measuring the Mass of the Earth by Dropping Marbles | This method can make a horrible racket if done in a classroom setting. For some reason, the results are systematically too high for the acceleration due to gravity, on average students get 12 m/sec^2. Late on start and anticipating hit? -- Ana Larson |
| Measuring the Mass of the Earth Using a Pendulum | If using the Foulcault Pendulum in the A-wing of physic astronomy building, be sure to block the
answer given on the wall plaque. This is a lab that students enjoy doing. Allow them to come up with
a method of determining the length of the cable; however, measuring the angle of the swing and using
trig does not work. If doing on own, students can construct their own pendulum and make that part of
the lab. -- Ana Larson
Last night in my 'Conceptual Physics' class, we used your new procedure for measuring the mass of the Earth using a simple pendulum. The results (and the students' experience) were fantastic! We didn't have a large pendulum, so I gave each group a pool ball on a string, a yard stick, and a stop watch. The individual group results varied from g = 9.3 - 11.2, but the final result of the class average was g = 10.4 +/- 1.7 - quite good, considering everyone used their own method. The results were much better than dropping marbles from the balcony! In particular, I was impressed with the energy they threw into the project, due to the quality of the activity. They really had a good time. -- John Armstrong |
| Observing the Sky | |
| Planetarium Lab | A lab for the planetarium. Basic plotting and slope-finding. Takes only 5 minutes to gather data. Approximately 1 hour for plotting and answering questions. |
| Celestial Navigation 1 | All of these Sky Watch Labs are intended to be done outdoors, actually looking at the actual sky! They utilize simple tools and mathematics to figure out some basic motions. For more information, see Sky Watch Tips, or the Observing Tips Article. |
| Celestial Navigation 2 (a sample backup plan!) | |
| Angles | |
| Constellations and Movement of Stars | |
| Length of Sidereal Day | |
| Motion of the Moon | |
| Motion of the Sun | |
| Photographing the Sky | |
| Phases of the Moon | Requires "Moons" |
| Using Planispheres | Requires a planisphere |
| Sally's Sunshine Schedule | External website very slow if accessed by a whole class. TAs should save a current version of the calendar for the students to access locally. Takes approximately 1 hour if the site is accessible, or if it's been made local. |
| Observing the Night Sky | Requires a telescope or binoculars |
| Solar System labs are included in a separate listing. | |
| Stars | |
| Distance Measures | THis is another good lab that relates distance measures to commonplace arguments for radar, parallax and standard candle measurement techniques. It's very hands-on, with the students having to pace out distances (simulating a radar pulse travelling at c) and other similar methods. I think it would help students to understand both the ideas behind these different distance measures and also the methodology of how they are used, related to everyday things. Very helpful especially for students who learn by doing. -- Stacy Palen |
| Distance to Stars Using Measured Parallax | This exercise includes a tutorial and was created to include many opportunities for critical thinking by students. Exam results showed significant retention of the material between midterm and final exam when comparing autumn 2005 and autumn 2006 classes.-- Ana Larson |
| Distances to Stars in Leo | This lab reinforces the use of the H-R Diagram as a tool for determining the distances to stars. The mathematically challenged students will have initial problems with the power-of-ten concept. An on-line calculator is provided. -- Ana Larson |
| Properties of the Sun | |
| Properties of the Sun 2.0 | A computer-less version of Properties of the Sun. Development of math skills is suppressed. Suitable for larger groups. Approximately 1 hour. |
| Solar Spectrum | This lab deals with analyzing the solar spectrum using known fraunhofer lines. It's a very "sciency" lab in that students are dealing directly with naturally foreign things (emission lines) and are having to say something about the composition of the sun from this. THe questions deal largely with why there are differences between the students' results and the "true nature" of the sun. I think this lab will have a hard time reaching students who are really hands-on, because of the nature of the material, but that most students who get into it will learn a good deal about the subject and its methodology. -- Stacy Palen
Anonymous Evaluation |
| Spectral Classification of Stars | |
| 51 Pegasi: The Discovery of a New Planet | Students rediscover the amazing characteristics of this system. -- Ana Larson |
| Investigating the Crab Nebula | Students tend to enjoy the artistic touches of this lab, and marvel at the velocity that material is moving at in the center of the nebula. -- Ana Larson |
| Spectroscopic Binaries | |
| Distance to Hyades | One of those "first-principles" labs. The results tend to place the Hyades at a greater distance than what they really are, systematically. -- Ana Larson |
| Stellar Evolution and H-R Diagram | |
| Properties of Planetary Nebulae | |
| Properties of Planetary Nebulae 2.0 | The computer-less, shorter version of the above. Might still be too long for sections. |
| Properties of Supernovae | Requires search charts |
| Cluster Color-Mag. Diagram and the Age of Stars | No software is necessary, but the students will need two pieces of graph paper. |
| Determining Ages of Star Clusters Using CMDs | Students were having a difficult time when combining determining ages AND distances from CMDs in the same exercise. This exercise emphasizes determining only the ages, incorporates multiple questions requiring critical thinking, and includes a tutorial. Concepts start with familiar analogies and gradually build to include B-V as the x-axis. Additional tutorial: Star Formation and Lifetimes from Lecture-Tutorials by CAPER Team recommended. Was a very successful exercise in Astronomy 101, Autumn 2007. -- Ana Larson |
| RR Lyrae Stars and the Distance to M4 | Under Construction |
| Galaxies | |
| Distance to the Center of the Galaxy Using Harlow Shapley's Method | This lab was adapted from one used at the University of Victoria, Victoria, BC. Students use their results from a previous lab (or a reference distance) for the distance to the globular cluster M4 and use this information and its angular size to determine the distance to the center of the Galaxy. The distance to the center of the distribution of 16 globular clusters is based upon measurements of their angular sizes. The results are not always accurate (but easily within an order of magnitude), but students get a realistic view of how we can use basic assumptions to get a fair estimate of extremely large distances. |
| Galaxies | |
| Hubble Galaxy Classification | This lab deals with classifying galaxies and looking at the Hubble Law. Students have to deal with large time scales and an Earth History reference (What was happening on earth at that time?). I think that this is a fun lab, because the students get to look at lots of different pictures and deal with the difficult problem of how to break these objects into groups. It's a good analysis lab. -- Stacy Palen |
| Hubble Galaxy Classification for a large lecture hall | This lab deals with classifying galaxies and looking at the Hubble Law. Students have to deal with large time scales and an Earth History reference (What was happening on earth at that time?). I think that this is a fun lab, because the students get to look at lots of different pictures and deal with the difficult problem of how to break these objects into groups. It's a good analysis lab. -- Stacy Palen |
| Hubble Deep Field | This may be more suitably classed as an activity that bridges the student's knowledge between the galaxies and the large-scale structure of the Universe. -- Ana Larson |
| Dark Matter | 2nd iteration Background materials: Goals Prior Knowledge Required |
| Cosmology | |
| Hubble Law Lab: the Short Version | Under Construction |
| Hubble Law Lab | Ideally, at least 3 sections should be set aside for this lab. Students get a high sense of accomplishment upon completion. |
| The Expanding Universe | Need balloons and rulers.
This is the classic expanding balloon picture of the UNiverse, where students actually draw galaxies on a balloon and blow it up, then measure the new distances, and try to derive a Hubble Law from this. It's a nice way to picture an expanding universe, and a fun lab to do. There are some good analysis and comprehension questions at the end. When I was learning about the expansion of the universe in college 4 years ago, this is how I came to understand a nice linear Hubble Law. -- Stacy Palen
Students seem to run into a couple of problems consistently with this lab: 1) remind them to keep their galaxies away from the nozzle of the balloon (space tends to expand less there); 2) remind them to graph the first measurement column against velocity, and not the "difference" column. -- Ana Larson |
| Curvature of Space | |
| Particle Soup: Nucleosynthesis | |
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