Standalone Lessons

If you have questions or need help, you can email binap@googlegroups.com and your question will go to the group of teachers that made these lessons. These teachers are:

• Rita Ciambra, Peoples Academy High School, Morristown, Vermont
• Olivia Kuper, North Greene High School, Greeneville, Tennessee
• Tom Rutherford, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee / King University, Bristol, Tennessee
• Ace Schwarz, The Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

If you use any of these lessons please fill out this Google Form

High School / Astronomy 101

OpenStax Astronomy Textbook - This is a free Astronomy textbook for use as a reference.

What is a Star and How does a Star Form? - This is a short slideshow about star formation with an embedded activity.

Waves and the Electromagnetic Spectrum - This is a short slideshow with an embedded activity about waves and energy.

Filters - This is a short slideshow with an embedded video and activity explaining filters.

What is a YSO? - This is a short slideshow describing the different classes of young stellar objects (YSOs).

What is a Color-Magnitude Diagram? - A short set of notes describing a color-magnitude (Hertzsprung-Russell) diagram.

Creating a Color-Magnitude Diagram using Gaia Data and IRSA - This is an activity that has students use IRSA viewer to filter Gaia data and use that data to create color-magnitude diagrams of clusters. Students use the color-magnitude diagrams to answer analysis questions about each cluster.

What is a Color-Color Diagram? - This is a short explanation of what a color-color magnitude diagram is and what it can tell you.

What is Color? - This is a slideshow explaining color and how it is used for color-color diagrams. It has embedded activities related to color and making color-color plots.

Cracking the Color Code - This is a hands-on activity on color, in the form of a mystery about sharpie markers. It introduces how color and color-color diagrams work in astronomy. Involves measuring and a lot of graphing. Includes instructor notes and "cracking the color code" solution.

Classifying Stars with Spectra - K20 lab for HS utilizing SDSS data and stellar spectra to find patterns and classify stars - has data for 20 stars, ppts, and group comparison.

Where Does the Data Come From? - This is a slideshow with examples of different satellites and surveys that collect data in multiple wavelengths.

What are SEDs and How to Interpret Them - This is a slideshow that explains blackbody curves and spectral energy distributions.

Using IRSA to Make Three-Color Images - This is an activity that teaches students what they will see when they search for an image on IRSA. It also walks students through how to make a three-color image in IRSA.

IRSA - Uploading a Catalog and Image Inspection - This is a slideshow explaining how to upload a catalog to IRSA. It also explains how to accomplish image inspections for young stellar objects (YSOs).

Middle School

What is a Star and How Does it Form? - This is a short slideshow for middle school students.

What is a Star and How Does it Form? Open-Ended Questions - This is an activity where middle school students write about what they learned about star formation.

A Universe Without Supernovae - This is a simple activity incorporating star life cycle with events and ties elements made during supernovae to daily life.

Waves and the Electromagnetic Spectrum - This is a short slideshow for middle school students.

Waves and the Electromagnetic Spectrum 3-2-1 Summary with Reading - This allows students to review the EMS and connect wavelength, frequency, and energy.

Filters - This is a slideshow for middle school students with embedded lab explaining filters.

What is a YSO? - This is a slideshow for middle school students describing the different classes of YSOs and H-alpha emission lines.

What is a Color-Magnitude Diagram? - This is a short slideshow for middle school students that explains what H-R diagrams are and includes a hands-on activity at the end.

What is a Color-Color Diagram? - This is a presentation for middle school students about color-color diagrams with a short activity at the end.

How We View the Universe (where does the data come from?) - This is a slideshow for middle school students about different telescopes that collect data in multiple wavelengths. There is a virtual telescope building activity at the end.

Understanding and Interpreting SEDs and Blackbody Curves - This slideshow is for middle school students and explains what SEDs and blackbody curves are, and it explains how to interpret a SED.

Creating a Three-Color Image - This activity is a guided exploration of IRSA Finder Chart and IRSA Viewer. It will help students create 3-color images.

Image Inspection with IRSA - This slideshow is for middle school students and shows them how to inspect images with IRSA.