Star Light, Star Bright
Teacher Page: Lesson Plan

The purpose of this lesson is for students to acquire information about the electromagnetic spectrum and how its interpretation enables scientists to gather information about the universe. Star Light, Star Bright provides students with an interactive and flexible learning environment that allows students to follow their curiosity and to learn at their own pace.

1. Explain how light is a form of energy that travels in waves.
2. Describe how electromagnetic radiation exists beyond what we can see with our eyes.
3. Describe how different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum (such as ultraviolet, visible, infrared, radio) correspond to specific wavelengths and frequencies of electromagnetic waves.
4. Explain the relationship between temperature and the peak color of emitted light.
5. Show how the electromagnetic spectrum can be used to determine the temperature of stars.
6. Describe how to estimate the temperatures of galaxies based on their color.

Before attempting to complete this lesson, the student should:

1. Have a general understanding of the visible light spectrum.
2. Know how to do basic graphing skills.
3. Be able to use a computer mouse to point and click on choices.
4. Know that light can be reflected, refracted, or absorbed by an object.

It might be helpful to survey the students background knowledge as it relates to these prerequisites in a number of ways before using the computer lesson. You might do this by:

1. Organizing a general class discussion that reviews the key ideas about light and color.
2. Performing a series of simple demonstrations and discussing how they show the key ideas about light, for example, using a diffraction grating to show the components of white light.
3. Asking true or false questions based upon the "General Misconceptions" that are listed on these lesson plan pages.

1. amplitude
2. constellation
3. electromagnetic spectrum
4. frequency
5. gamma ray
6. infrared
7. intensity
8. nanometer
9. micrometer
10. radiation
11. radio
12. star
13. temperature
14. visible spectrum
15. wave
16. wavelength
17. x ray

• Space is empty between planets, stars, and other objects.
• All radiation is harmful.
• The spectrum of electromagnetic radiation consists of only visible light.
• The Sun is not a star.
• We view all space objects with only an optical telescope.
• The Hubble Space Telescope can view all objects in space by traveling there to get a better image.
• Stars are on fire and can burn out.
• "Red hot" is hotter than "white hot".

• Time necessary to download computer software to support the lesson (Netscape Navigator 4.0).

• We suggest that teachers allow time to preview the science background information. They can become familiar with each of the four learning modules "Catch the Waves," "Making Waves," "Heating Up," and "Stellar Encounters." When looking at these modules special attention can be given to examining such features as "Light Facts," "Brain Teasers," "What do you Know?," and "Beats Me-You Explain It."

The amount of time needed to complete any of these modules will vary depending on such factors as the length of available teaching time and the number of computers to the number of students who need to use them. One possible way to jump start your lesson and eliminate the trial and error approach that is sometimes needed to become familiar with a new lesson, is to do one or a part of a module with the students as a directed activity using an overhead, a LCD, or TV monitor to project the lesson to the class. The following are estimated times:

• "Catch the Waves" -- 40 minutes
• "Making Waves" -- 20 minutes
• "Heating Up" -- 40 minutes
• "Stellar Encounters" -- 40 minutes

Teachers may decide whether students work in small groups of two or three, or individually. No more than 3 students should share a computer in order to maximize learning. Adaptations can be made to accommodate classrooms with only a single computer with Internet access. These might include using an overhead projector with a LCD that projects the computer image on a screen or a hookup from a computer to a television monitor.

You can also do the Star Light, Star Bright lesson off-line! Different software programs, available through commercial vendors, provide off-line access to the Internet. These programs allow you to save Web pages to your local hard drive. Using your Netscape browser you are able to open the Web pages locally to experience the lesson as if you were on the Internet. Using this option will deny students' access to the rest of the Web pages available on the World Wide Web.

This lesson requires a computer with a color monitor and Internet connection. The Web browser used must have at least the capability of Netscape's Navigator 4.0. For additional information read the Computer Needs section.

This is a self-directed interactive computer activity. Students may work independently or in small groups to complete each lesson module. They will investigate different concepts related to the electromagnetic spectrum by examining relationships among wavelength, color, and temperature. Using what they have learned from the three modules "Catch the Waves," "Making Waves," and "Heating Up," students will be ready to do the final module "Stellar Encounters," where they determine the temperature of a variety of stars found in images from the Hubble Space Telescope and other sources.

• Engagement Activity:

  Here are some suggestions:

  1. Use images of stars and galaxies taken directly from the Space Telescope Science Institute's web site and project them on a screen or television monitor to generate a discussion on what could be learned about the light coming from these objects in space.

  2. For students who are able to conceptualize on a higher level, discuss the idea of false colors in the Hubble images. Have students design their own false color images of familiar objects and discuss how changing their color can change our interpretation of how we see them.

  3. Have students use a prism or diffraction grating to separate visible light into a spectrum. Discuss why and how light can be separated in this manner, and how light helps scientists learn about objects in space. If using diffraction grating, have students view the spectrum with red and blue gel filters and discuss how this changes what they observe.

  4. Review the electromagnetic spectrum using the Electromagnetic Spectrum Poster available from STScI’s Office of Public Outreach. (This poster can be requested by emailing amazing-space@stsci.edu.) Discuss how the images at the bottom of the poster show the Whirlpool Galaxy in different types of light/wavelengths. Have students identify features of the Whirlpool Galaxy that are visible in some types of light but not others.

• Step-by-step Instructions:

  Star Light, Star Bright is divided into four modules, "Catch the Waves", "Making Waves", "Heating Up", and "Stellar Encounters". The first three modules can be done in no particular order. However, the "Stellar Encounters" module is an application activity that asks students to practice what they have learned in the three previous modules. Many of the individual pages of this lesson have additional related facts and thought questions about the topic being developed. This information is not visible to the student unless the cursor is placed on "Light Facts" or "Brain Teasers" which causes a new information window to pop up on the screen. A robot serves to direct the student to these places by pointing to the choice selected. Both "Light Facts" and "Brain Teasers" can be printed and used in a variety of ways. The students could select topics of their interest to do homework assignments, oral reports, or perhaps an independent research paper. Teachers may find that using selected topics from the "Facts" and "Teasers" windows is an interesting way to challenge new thinking about light and color. The four lesson modules are structured in the following way.

  Catch the Waves introduces the students to the electromagnetic spectrum. Students will view the spectrum in its entirety and become familiar with the characteristics of a wave. Images of the sun in different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum illustrate that the Sun and other bodies emit light in regions of the electromagnetic spectrum that our eyes cannot see.

  Making Waves provides students with a method to generate waves on the screen. They choose the energy they want the waves to have, and then they are asked to measure the frequency and wavelength. Students uncover the relationships among frequency, wavelength and energy.

  Heating Up introduces the idea that everything emits electromagnetic radiation, including students. Students discover how the light emitted from the robot changes as they heat the robot to higher and higher temperatures. At each temperature, a graph pops up to show the amount of light the robot emits in each wavelength region. The students will be asked to relate the peak of the emitted light to the color it appears to us, connecting the color of a radiating object with its temperature. They will apply this information to plot the peak wavelengths of 4 stars of their choice, and then they will determine the temperature of each.

  Stellar Encounters asks the students to use what they have learned in the previous modules to determine the temperatures of stars. Students will use Hubble Space Telescope images to pick out different stars from other galaxies and from clusters of stars within our own Galaxy. They will order these from the hottest to the coolest.

At the end of each of the modules, "Catch the Waves," Making Waves," and Heating Up," there is an activity called "What Do You Know?" that summarizes key lesson ideas. Also included is a more challenging level of thinking called "Beats Me-You Explain It." This activity asks the student a series of thought provoking application type of questions related to the concepts that were developed in the module. "Stellar Encounters" is an assessment module that bases its information on what has been learned in the other three modules. Here, the students are asked to apply their knowledge in a way that astronomers would use it to interpret the light received from distant stars and galaxies.

CATCH THE WAVES:

Questions | Answers

MAKING WAVES:

Questions | Answers

HEATING UP:

Questions | Answers

Students may be given new images and data found at the Space Telescope Science Institute home page. This could be shown directly to the class using an overhead projector and a LCD or television monitor. This information could also be printed out as a paper copy to be analyzed and compared to what they have learned about light and the electromagnetic spectrum in the "Star Light Star Bright" computer lesson. Picture images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope are also available at your closest NASA Educator Resource Center.

Connections to other disciplines can be used to broaden classroom discussion of the general principles learned in Star Light, Star Bright.

• Biology: In the "Brain Teasers" and "Beats Me-You Explain It" sections, we have included questions that relate to subjects, such as biology. Here are the questions that connect with Biology:
  Q: Snakes' eyes are sensitive to infrared radiation. This makes them good hunters at night in the dark. Why?

  Q: Bees have eyes that see ultraviolet radiation as well as visible light. If you were a flower who wanted only bees and not moths to visit you, what could you do to make sure bees (and not moths) get the message?

  Q: Humans are nearly blind to most wavelengths of light. If you lost your ability to see visible light, but could choose another wavelength region of the electromagnetic spectrum, what would you choose? Describe how you would see the world around you.

  Q: When you have an X-ray taken at the hospital, and you see your bones on the photographic plate, what are you really looking at? Hint: It's not your bones that you see!

  Q: Just like the invisible light waves that we cannot see with our eyes, are there sound waves that our ears don't hear?

• English: Ask students to write rainbow poems or stories

• Social Studies: Have students research how different cultures have looked at rainbows and their explanations for what caused them.

• General science:
  • Do a rainbow bubble lab. Students working in small teams blow half dome bubbles with a straw on a cafeteria tray. The classroom lights above will appear as mini rainbows on the surface of the bubble. Students observe how the rainbow changes in appearance with time and with size of the bubble.
  • Review the electromagnetic spectrum using the Electromagnetic Spectrum Poster available from STScI’s Office of Public Outreach. (These posters can be requested by emailing amazing-space@stsci.edu.) Discuss how the images at the bottom of the poster show the Whirlpool Galaxy in different types of light/wavelengths. Have students identify features of the Whirlpool Galaxy that are visible in some types of light but not others.

     

• Math: Student can graph their data from the bubble experiment. They can plot size of the bubble versus the time it lasts; size of the bubble versus the time the rainbows last.

It is recommended that teachers project the images from the computer onto a classroom screen using a overhead LCD or television screen. To facilitate a more organized and predictable large group presentation and not encounter last minute glitches that can always occur when using a computer, the following are some suggestions you might want to consider. Bookmark a selected part of the lesson such as one of the modules that you wish to use and download it onto your hard disk. This will eliminate the inconvenience of unexpectedly going off the Internet. Another way to prepare is to print ahead of time selected parts of the lesson as paper copies. Possible choices to consider might include "Light Facts," "Brain Teasers," "What Do You Know," and "Beats Me-You Explain It." Students can use this information to do additional research on a question or topic area that interests them.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Teachers may print the "Light Facts," "Brain Teasers," "What Do You Know," and "Beats Me-You Explain It" sections in the Star Light, Star Bright lesson to make transparencies. Questions included in these sections can be used as introduction to the light and color unit or at the end as an assessment exercise.

2. NASA has available FREE at your closest NASA Educator Resource Center a poster called: "The Electromagnetic Spectrum" which can be used as a teaching tool in the classroom.

3. Classroom demonstrations that relate to the topic of light and color include:

   (1) using a diffraction grating to demonstrate that visible light can be separated into colors. Further exploration can be conducted using red and blue gel filters.
   (2) using a spectrum power supply and gas discharge tubes with diffraction grating to demonstrate that different gases produce different spectra.
   (3) attaching one of a rope to a door knob to create waves by moving one end of the rope up and down.

4. If your school has one or more computers located outside your classroom, i.e. library, computer lab, students may experience the lesson individually or in small groups as a learning station or as a supplement to your light and color unit.

5. Nowadays, many students have computers at home with access to the Internet. If that's the case with your students you may want to consider assigning sections of the Star Light, Star Bright lesson as homework.

Send your comments about this page to: amazing-space@stsci.edu