The ultimate goal of the DSPIRA Astronomy Lessons Module is to give the teachers and students an opportunity to actually make observations in the sky using the DSPIRA Radio Horn Telescope. If you are starting from ground zero in this discipline, then they will need to develop some basic tools, whether it is where to look in your hometown skies, to understanding what electromagnetic radiation is and what can we learn from it.
Click here for a complete document of Teacher’s Notes for this whole activity sequence
Activity List
- Introduction to the ElectroMagnetic Spectrum
- The Doppler Effect
- Understanding Celestial Coordinate Systems
- Observing Celestial Coordinate Systems using Stellarium
- Introduction to Radio Astronomy
The first two activities center around the Nature of Light…
1. Introduction to the ElectroMagnetic Spectrum
This is an introductory activity to get the students to dig around the internet to fill out information on the full EM Spectrum.
> Click for link to Intro to the EM Spectrum Student Activity Document
Intro Video to the Importance of Spectroscopy
To get to main point, go to time 7:13 on the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjy-eqWM38g&feature=youtu.be&t=433
2. The Doppler Effect
Doppler Effect lessons and activities are common, but this DSPIRA lesson actually uses data received by DSPIRA teachers using radio telescopes.
> Click for link to The Doppler Effect Student Activity Document
3. Understanding Celestial Coordinate Systems
The next activities are to help the user get familiar with how we divide up the sky into different coordinate systems, and how we can use our location and knowledge of the coordinate systems to find our way around the sky for making observaations.
Student Activity Document
Teacher Notes
The following are videos from Dr. Loren Anderson at West Virginia University’s Astronomy department.
They are short clips from the his 2nd lecture given to the DSPIRA Teachers during July 2019.
Intro to Motion in the Sky
The Celestial Sphere
Earth’s Motion and Star Trails
More Celestial Sphere
Discussion of Common Misconceptions
4. Observing Celestial Coordinates using Stellarium
This activity is a nice introduction to using the Stellarium Web Online planetarium program
> Click here for Student Activity Document
> Click here for Teacher Notes Document
> A tutorial video Using Stellarium Online
5. Introduction to Radio Astronomy
If you are going to continue on with the DSPIRA Experience, then this is a great Introduction video to Radio Astronomy created by MIT students.
If you want to start to understand the nature of Neutral Hydrogen and the 21-centimeter radio waves it gives off, you have go to this website. Essentials of Radio Astronomy
This site starts with some nice basic explanations, but then continues into some very in-depth considerations if you wish to continue.