From Stargazers to Starships

          by David P. Stern

    Lesson Plans for Teachers


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     (1) Your name (2) Address (3) E-mail (4) School (5) Grade-s for which this material is to be used (6) Parts to be used (or "all") (7) Any special interests or comments.

    Send them to the author, Dr. David P. Stern, Goddard Space Flight Center.

    Lesson Plans

    Astronomy of the Earth's motion in space:

    1.     The Sky Above Us
     1a.    Finding the Pole Star
    2. The Path of the Sun, the Ecliptic
     2a.    Building a Sundial
    3. Seasons of the Year
    4. The Angle of the Sun's Rays
    5. Latitude and Longitude
     5a.   Navigation
     5b.    Coordinates
    6. The Calendar
    7. Precession
    8. The Round Earth and Christopher Columbus
          Includes 8a. Distance to the Horizon
     8b.     Parallax
     8c.     How Distant is the Moon?--1
     8d.     How Distant is the Moon?--2
        The central role of the Sun
     9a.    Aristarchus: Is Earth Revolving around the Sun?
          Includes 9b. The Earth's Shadow
     9c.    Copernicus, Galileo, and the Discovery of the Solar System
    10. Kepler and his Laws
    11. Graphs and Ellipses
     11a.    Ellipses and Kepler's First Law
    12. Kepler's Second Law

    .

    Newtonian mechanics

    13. The Way Things Fall
    14. Vectors
    15. Energy
    16. Newton and his Laws
    17. Mass       Includes:
     17a.    Mass Measurements aboard Space Station Skylab
     17b.    Comparing Masses without the Use of Gravity
    18. Newton's Second Law
     18a.    Momentum
    19. Motion in a Circle
    20. Newton's theory of "Universal Gravitation"
    21. Kepler's Third Law       Includes:
     21a.    Applying Kepler's Third Law
    22. Frames of Reference: The Basics
     22a     Airplane Flight
    23. Frames of Reference: The Centrifugal Force
    24. Rotating Frames of Reference in Space and on Earth

    .

    The Sun

    S-1.     Sunlight and the Earth
    S-2.     Our View of the Sun
    S-3.     The Magnetic Sun
    S-4.     The Many Colors of Sunlight
    S-5.     Waves and Photons
    S-6.     Seeing the Sun in a New Light
    S-7.     The Energy of the Sun
        S-7A.     The Discovery of Atoms and Nuclei

    Helpful Material

    Questions and Answers by users of "Stargazers".
    Hints to users.
    A Glossary of Terms     (Cross-linked, keyed to the text)
    Timeline          (A chronology).
    Annotated Timeline   (With added dates from history). .
    Of special interest to teachers:
      Inventory of concepts, calculations and stories, by section.
      A list of problems related to the material.
      "Using Space to Teach Physics"    (draft of article in The Physics Teacher, Feb.'99)

    "From Stargazers to Starships" follows an earlier site "The Exploration of the Earth's Magnetosphere". "Stargazers" deals with the world of gravity--of massive planets and stars, and the way spaceflight is achieved despite their strong pull. "Exploration" on the other hand looks at the hot (but usually rarefied) gases which fill most of space, which are ruled by magnetic and electric forces rather than by gravity. The polar aurora, the radiation belts, the solar wind, magnetic storms, "space weather", cosmic radiation--this is the site which tells you all about them.

    Back to IndexNASA Home PageGoddard Space Flight Center

    Author and Curator: David P. Stern
       NASA/GSFC Code 695
      u5dps@lepvax.gsfc.nasa.gov
    Web Design: Conway Carter
    Image Editing: Eddie Welker

    Last updated: 14 July, 1999