Climographs, graphic plots of monthly temperature and precipitation, allow students to see how differences in insolation at various locations affect rates of heating and cooling. In this activity, students use climographs to plot locations using latitude and longitude, calculate annual temperature ranges, and relate unequal rates of heating and cooling to climate variations. They will also construct climographs for two locations in New York, analyze them, and answer questions about their observations.

The Codice Maya de Mexico has one primary story, it records the complex movements of the planet Venus across its 4 cycles. The 10-pages codex records 65 complete Venus Cycles, which takes a total of 104 years.

The Codice Maya of Mexico was written in 1,110 CE by a single Mayan scribe. It is the oldest book in all the Americas. This video will translate this 900 year old Maya Codex, page-by-page.

The book was found in the 1960s by looters, and it's taken more than 50 years to analyze and authenticate this book. But this Mexican book is 100% real.

The purpose of the resource is to produce a land cover type map from the digital file of a Landsat satellite image using MultiSpec software.

The purpose of this activity is to construct a model that will provide students with a visual representation of parts per billion. Students work in teams to construct cubes of different volumes and to compare them to get a feel for parts per million by volume and parts per billion by volume. The intended outcome is that students gain a feeling for the small quantities of gases, such as ozone, present in the Earth's atmosphere.

In this activity, students construct three-dimensional models from terrain information provided by two-dimensional topographic maps. This will allow them to visualize how changes in elevation over a certain distance can be represented on a flat piece of paper that can be folded up and tucked away. Each group is responsible for constructing a model of Mount St. Helens 'before' and 'after', a depression, a stream, and a hill. Discussion questions related to the different representations are also included.

This video segment adapted from the Atmospheric Radiation Program explains the differences in the formation of tropical convective cloud systems over islands and over the ocean.

In this video segment, ZOOM guest Cassie takes us on a tour of the coral reef near her home in Key Largo, Florida, and points out some of its unique features.

This AstroBulletin article takes an in-depth look at the newest technology and instruments used to study the Cosmic Microwave Background. The site includes text and a seven minute video. There are links to three essays: "What Is the Cosmic Microwave Background?", "Antarctica: A Hotbed of Cold-Weather Research" and "DASI Does It."

Everything around us is made from different chemical elements: carbon, silicon, iron, and all the other elements from the Periodic Table. The lighter elements were mostly produced in the Big Bang, but the rest were (and are) formed within stars and in the explosions of supernovae. In this series of short lecture videos, created to accompany her book Searching for the Oldest Stars: Ancient Relics from the Early Universe (Princeton University Press, 2019), Professor Anna Frebel reveals the secrets of stardust and explains the cosmic origin of the elements.

This 10-minute video lesson looks at the formation of the Earth which is a the byproduct of a local supernova. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 38 of 85]

This online article is from the Museum's Science Explorations, a collaboration between AMNH and Scholastic designed to promote science literacy. Written for students in grades 6-10, this article from Science World magazine has an interview with AMNH astrophysicist Mike Shara, in which he explains what space objects are and what happens when they collide. There are Web links that offer further opportunities for learning about space objects and their collisions.

In this activity, students learn about astronomical phenomena we can see in the universe and create their own music inspired by astronomical images. By performing original musical improvisations, students enhance their knowledge of what astronomical phenomena are represented in images and experiment with creative ways of representing these using music. This activity engages students in first hand exploration of music and astronomy connections.

In this lesson, students create a compass and apply their reasoning about magnetism to how compasses work to help us navigate around the globe while utilizing the Earth’s magnetic field.

In this activity, students construct a magnetometer. A materials list and instructions are provided.

These materials are generalizable to any STEM class. They were developed for Introductory Astronomy at Lane Community College. These assignments were developed with the Equity and Open Education Faculty Cohort, hosted by Open Oregon Educational Resources.

The overarching goal is to broaden participation in STEM and increase student success by using creative portfolio assignments which connect course content with various dimensions of students’ lives.

ASTR 121 - Astronomy of the Solar System
4 Credit(s)

ASTR 121, 122 and 123, may be taken out of sequence. This sequence provides an in-depth and comprehensive introduction to the science of astronomy. These courses are designed to serve non-science majors, but also offer a good introduction for prospective science majors interested in Astrophysics or Space Science. These courses have a significant lab component. ASTR 121 focuses on naked-eye astronomy and the science of astronomy focused primarily on our solar system and comparative planetology, the Earth and its Moon, detailed consideration of the individual planets, solar system debris including comets and asteroids, and modeling the origin of our solar system. Lab included.

Prerequisite: MTH 052 or MTH 060 or MTH 065 or MTH 070 or MTH 095 or MTH 111 or placement test.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Think and communicate based on familiarity with a wide variety of physical phenomena involving the solar system and the means by which it is described and explained.

2. Think and communicate based on familiarity, in part through direct practice, with observational tools, chains of reasoning and exploration and knowledge of scientific methods that are part of the practice of this area of astronomy.

3. Correctly use scientific reasoning regarding the formation of the solar system, and think and communicate with significant basic conceptual understanding of systems involved in present-day terrestrial and Jovian planets.

4. Converse and comprehend making use of elementary descriptions and laws of mechanical motion and gravity applied to the motion of objects in our solar system.

5. Engage this area of astronomy with an active scientific literacy, which includes use of public resources widely available as part of large scale astronomy investigation.

6. Think and communicate based on an elementary understanding of exploration of the solar system, drawing conclusions from experimental data about possible explanations of physical mechanisms of the solar system and its constituent parts.

7. Formulate questions to move their thinking forward concerning the subject matter of the class.

8. Think and communicate with a familiarity with elementary applications of basic physics underlying the formation and structure of the solar system, as well as interplay of planetary systems such as plate tectonics, volcanic activity and atmospheric evolution.

8. Reflect and communicate on possible uses and impacts of this physics knowledge regarding the solar system.

9. Converse and write about the nature of science with increased sophistication and see physics/astronomy as a science, rather than a body of knowledge.

10. Appreciate that the insights provided by Classical Mechanics and Newtonian Gravity are valuable and useful even though physics has developed beyond Newtonian Gravity and Classical Mechanics and beyond mechanical theories - of which Classical Mechanics is a premier example.

11. Appreciate current efforts to create new insights in this area of astronomy and have a sense of currently open questions within the astrophysics community.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists search for carbonized remains of plants preserved in lava flows to find out how long it has taken rain forests on Hawaii to regenerate after a volcanic eruption.

The relationship between mass, volume, and density is explored using chocolate. The mass and volume of solid chocolate bars, liquid chocolate, and small chocolate pieces are determined and used to compute density for comparison. The activity includes a worksheet that allows students to report their findings and infer density changes as a material goes from solid to liquid to gas.

In this activity, students measure the densities of samples of granite, basalt, peridotite/dunite, and an iron meteorite, which are used as representatives of the various layers of the Earth (crust, mantle, core). The samples are weighed to determine their mass, and the Archimedes Principle is used to determine volume. From these two properties, they calculate density, compare it to accepted values presented in the discussion, and answer questions about their observations.

This lesson provides experience working on a real-life scenario by allowing students the opportunity to use topographic maps to design a hiking trail system based on access from road, range of habitats, and other specified criteria. They will also complete a data sheet and produce an informational brochure.

Students learn about ultraviolet light in this Moveable Museum unit, where they detect UV rays and then explore ways to block them. The four-page PDF guide includes suggested general background readings for educators, activity notes, step-by-step directions, and information about where to obtain supplies. Students make a bracelet from beads that respond to UV light by changing color, and test it in different light environments.