PBS
Data Plots of Exoplanet Orbital Properties
Scientists discovered the first exoplanet in 1995 and by early 2018, they confirmed the existence of more than 3,700—that's a lot of data! As part of the PBS 9-12 Space series, scholars interpret data about exoplanets. They compare...
PBS
Exoplanets through Kepler’s Laws
The majority of all confirmed exoplanets relied on Kepler's laws to discover their locations. Scholars learn how to apply Kepler's laws and then practice using data to discover exoplanets. They benefit from NASA video footage, NOVA...
PBS
Analyzing Light Curves of Transiting Exoplanets
Scientists detected exoplanets by measuring how the brightness of stars changed over time. Young astronomers interpret and analyze the same data that led to exoplanet discoveries. They learn to apply light curve graphs and connect the...
NASA
Exploring Exoplanets with Kepler
Calculate the movement and properties of planets like professional astronomers! Scholars use Kepler's third law to find Mercury and Venus's distance from the sun. Using changes in brightness of distant stars and Kepler's third law,...
Las Cumbres Observatory
Agent Exoplanet
Not everything revolves around the sun! Believe it or not, there are planets, called exoplanets, that orbit stars other than our sun. Learners use an interactive online resource to research several of these planets. They learn about the...
PBS
Light Curves of Kepler's First Five Discoveries
The Kepler missions discovered and confirmed more than 2,650 exoplanets to date. A video shares the data from the first five discoveries. It provides graphs and diagrams to put each discovery in perspective to help scholars discuss the...
Curated OER
Kepler-The Hunt for Earth-like Planets
In this hunt for planets activity, students read about the Kepler satellite used to detect exoplanets. Students solve 6 problems including drawing a sun disk and determining the scale in kilometers/millimeter, finding the area of the Sun...
Curated OER
Areas Under Curves: An Astronomical Perspective
In this area under the curve worksheet, students use a graph of the number of exoplanets discovered and the year they were discovered to solve 5 problems. Students find the total area under the curve, they find the total number of...
Space Awareness
The Engine of Life
There is a specific zone, or distance from a star, that a planet must be in order to have water in a liquid form. The activity demonstrates how flux density depends on its distance from the source. A photovoltaic cell gets power to drive...
Curated OER
Fitting Periodic Functions-Distant Planets
For this periodic functions worksheet, students use given data of the speed of a star and find the best fit periodic function that follows the trend in data. They determine the amplitude, offset phase and the formula for the angle. They...
Curated OER
Power Functions: A Question of Magnitude
In this power functions worksheet, high schoolers read about determining the brightness of stars using a magnitude scale. Students solve 4 problems including finding the magnitude differences of stars and determining equivalent magnitudes.
Curated OER
Sticky Spiders
Students learn about spider webs. In this spider web lesson, students listen to and read the transcript of a discussion with science reporter, Bob Hirshon about spider webs. They answer comprehension questions based on the transcript.
Curated OER
Star Systems
Learners study a star system and see how the planets move around stars. In this star system activity students complete an activity and see what an eclipse is.