American Museum of Natural History
Planetary Mysteries
A website all about planetary mysteries—it's a one-stop-shop for all things, stars, planets, and space travel. Scholars read an astronomy overview to discover the page's big ideas, then choose from the plethora of resources, including...
Curated OER
Space Science: Star Scramble
Students play a matching and sequencing game to discover facts about star life cycles. In small groups, they attempt to match their star stage and stage description cards in chronological order. Students can also research the terms and...
Curated OER
How Hot and How Big?
Young scholars explore star color and size. In this space science lesson, students conduct various inquiry activities to explore how the color of a star affects the amount of heat produced. They also investigate how the color of stars...
Curated OER
Angular Diameter of the Sun
Starting with a paragraph of information presenting the different ways we can observe planetary objects, pupils work through these instructions to see how they can observe and measure angles. Your class will discover how these angles...
Curated OER
Classifying Stars and Constellations
Students examine stars and constellations. In this space science instructional activity, students visit selected websites to discover information about the classification of stars. Students also practice identifying constellations.
Curated OER
Shapes, Colors, and Sizes Spelling Quiz
In this spelling quiz worksheet, students study the four multiple choice options for the shape, color, and size words. Students then write the letter of the correctly spelled word in the blank.
Curated OER
Gazing At Cosmic Pinballs
Students explore the world of stars. They see that the color of a star tells how hot or cold it is, that stars come in different sizes. and that stars are moving through space. They draw lines connecting start to star.
Curated OER
Exploring the Night Sky: Summer
Young scholars explain how moon phases occur. They describe and explain at least two common misconceptions that people have about the moon. Students explain what a star is. They explain 3 ways that the night sky has been used throughout...
Curated OER
The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
In this astronomy worksheet, students use a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram to examine the relationship between the average temperatures of stars and their absolute magnitude. After viewing the diagram, they complete 10 short answer questions.
Curated OER
Lives of Stars
Learners take notes on the lives of stars. In this lesson on stars, students take notes alongside a PowerPoint presentation about the lives of stars.
Curated OER
Star Maps and iPads: Explore The World Above
Use these helpful stargazing tips and tools to enjoy the night sky this summer.
American Museum of Natural History
The Milky Way Galaxy
Just how big is the galaxy? Learners read information about the size of the Milky Way galaxy to better comprehend its size. Pupils develop an understanding of the number of stars in the galaxy by finding just how big a billion is and...
Curated OER
Perimeters: Which Constellation is the Longest?
High schoolers use diagrams of the constellation Orion and the constellation Ursa Major which show the distances between the stars of the constellations. They calculate the perimeters of each, find the average distance of the stars for...
NASA
Blinded by the Light!
Pupils learn of multiple ways astronomers look for planets outside of the solar system. By completing a hands-on activity, scholars discover that trying to see the planets directly because of the glare from the nearby star is nearly...
NASA
Discovering Some of Your “Yardsticks” Are Actually “Meter-sticks”
The Milky Way gets great reviews on Trip Advisor — 100 million stars. The activity allows scholars to rethink their assumptions and prior knowledge. Pupils observe a set of two lights at equal distance and brightness, but they believe...
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
Space: Our Star, the Sun, and Its Friends, the Planets
Students examine the solar system. In this space lesson, students identify the order of the planets and their relative size to the sun. Students create a scale model of our solar system using a variety of household objects.
Curated OER
Habitable Zones
Students focus on stellar luminosities to estimate size of habitable zones, map out habitable zone around hot light bulbs that serve as models of stars, investigate how size of model "habitable zone" around light bulbs depends on...
Curated OER
A Star Sheds a Comet Tail!
In this comet tails and stars learning exercise, students read about the star Mira and the vast clouds of gases it emits. They use a photograph from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite to solve 5 problems about the scale of the...
Curated OER
How Bright are the Stars?
Learners observe the brightness of stars and are introduced to the concept of apparent brightness as a measure of how much light hits a detector of a surface area during a given time. In this star lesson, students make connections...
Curated OER
Hoe Long Does it Take to Get to a Star
Students calculate the distance in light years. In this geometry lesson, students solve problems involving distance, using the distance formula. They rewrite big numbers using scientific notations and apply their knowledge of everyday...
Curated OER
The North (Wall) Star
Students engage in a lesson which shows them that celestial navigation is the art and science of finding one's geographic position by means of astronomical observations, particularly by measuring altitudes of celestial objects - sun,...
Curated OER
Biography of a Star: Our Sun's Birth, Life, and Death
Students examine how astronomers use parallax to determine the distances of stars in the Sun's neighborhood. They construct a pinhole protractor, and measure angles and calculate distances.
Curated OER
A Star to Steer Her By
Students determine their latitude using a protracdtor and/or cross-staff to find the altitude of Polaris.