Hubble Deep Field Academy
Lesson Plan: Details

The purpose of this lesson is to allow students to experience the processes actual scientists go through to organize and synthesize new information. They will have the opportunity to ask and answer questions of their own about a previously unknown region of space and then to compare their analysis to that of real astronomers currently working on the same tasks. Our goal is that students will come to appreciate the importance of collaboration among scientists as well as the possibility of more than one acceptable answer to any scientific inquiry.

1. Generate questions that can be answered using scientific inquiry

2. Collect and interpret scientific data

3. Describe the characteristics used to classify galaxies and explain the relationships between those characteristics

4. Apply estimation skills to scientific data

5. Begin to conceptualize the vastness of the universe

6. Appreciate the interactive capabilities of the Internet

Before attempting to complete this lesson, the student should have had experience:

1. Completing and interpreting data tables

2. Estimating based on representative samples

3. Visualizing the structure of the universe (stars and planets make up solar systems which make up galaxies).

atmosphere>
Big Dipper
deep field
galaxy
Hubble Space Telescope
light pollution
light year
Milky Way Galaxy
orbit
star
telescope

Students will probably have an understated idea of the size of the universe, not realize that the points of light they can observe in the sky are not necessarily individual stars, and believe that the size of an object in the sky is indicative of its distance from Earth.

Allow appropriate time to go over the lesson.

3-4 class periods depending on the length of the class and the ability levels of the students.

Teachers may decide whether students will work individually or in small groups of two or three. To maximize learning, no more than three students should share a computer. Adaptations can be made to accommodate a classroom that has one computer with Internet access. Some suggestions include using an overhead projector with an LCD to project the computer image onto a screen or connecting the computer to a television monitor.

The "Hubble Deep Field Academy" can be used offline. Different software programs provide offline access to the Internet. These programs allow students to save Web pages to a local hard drive. Using the browser, students can open the Web pages locally and complete the lesson as if they were on the Internet. However, if this option is selected, students will not be able to view the references in the "Grab Bag" section on the Web.

• Computers with Internet access for as many students as possible.
• "Hubble Academy Log"
• Pen or pencil

Though the goal of this lesson is to make as much use of the Internet as possible, it has been arranged in a modular fashion so that any portion may be completed using computers or a paper version of the activity. Teachers should be aware that the number of computers directly connected to the Internet and the speed at which your system can process images may significantly alter the time to prepare this lesson.

• Engagement activity:

  In the introductory activity of the Hubble Deep Field lesson, the student is introduced to Professor WifPic of the Hubble Academy, an alien creature who will help guide them through a brief history of the development and use of the telescope. The professor will then provide a hook for the students into the four lesson activities by addressing them as cadets recruited to help plan a daring mission to explore the Hubble Deep Field image of the edge of the known universe. To get them thinking as scientists the student will be required to write several questions that they want to have answered about the objects in the Hubble Deep Field image.

• Step-by-step instructions:

  Activity One: Students will practice estimation skills in this activity as they begin to explore the Hubble Deep Field image. They will first give a rough estimate of the number of objects in the image. They will then go through several steps to use representative sampling techniques to improve on their original estimates. Finally, they will calculate the number of galaxies in the universe based on their own estimate.

  Activity Two: In this Activity, students will classify selected objects from the Hubble Deep Field image based on their color and shape. Students will classify one Camera, (A, B, or C), containing 15 objects. Students will then compare their classification to a similar chart made by astronomers.

  Activity Three: In this Activity, the problems and difficulties of determining the distances from Earth for objects in space will be addressed. Students will attempt to arrange 6 objects in the Hubble Deep Field image according to their distance from Earth. After making a guess based on visual observations alone, the students will view a 3 dimensional representation of the objects. Lastly, students will try to explain the discrepancies between their answer and those of the astronomers.

  Activity Four: This Activity is intended to be a review of the concepts presented in the other activities as well as an assessment of students' understanding of the lesson. Students will use a clickable galaxy icon to review information from the activities as they answer questions on paper. Students will then view an image of an object from the Hubble Deep Field image, the "oddball" object, that has been difficult for astronomers to classify. Students will make their own interpretations of the object based on knowledge acquired from the lesson. Lastly, an astronomers' interpretation will be presented for students to compare to their own answer.

The "Hubble Academy Log" entries as well as Activity Four can be used as an effective basis for measuring students' success in the lesson. Other suggestions are:

• Have the students prepare oral reports based on what they learned after performing each activity

• Ask students to come up with a list of potential applications for which they would use the skills learned in this lesson: (1) representative sampling, (2) classifying and identifying objects, and (3) determining distances

Lesson plans giving students the opportunity to visualize the size of very large numbers. All these lessons are included in the Grab Bag as downloadable activities.

• "What Does a Million Look Like?" -- by Kirk Fitch, Montgomery County, MD
  
• "999,999 Cans of Soda on the Wall?" -- by Kirk Fitch, Montgomery County, MD
  
• "How Many's a Million? Billion? Trillion?" -- by Kirk Fitch, Montgomery County, MD

Classrooms without computers:

If your classroom is not equipped with a computer, try one of the following:

If you have access to a computer with Internet access and a printer in the school library or at home, you may print selected parts of the lesson as paper copies or transparencies.

If your school has one or more computers located outside your classroom, students may experience the lesson individually or in small groups as a learning station.

Some students may have computers with Internet access at home. If so, consider assigning sections of the "Hubble Deep Field Academy" activities as homework or extra credit.

NASA offers free Hubble Deep Field lithographs and posters, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope Deep Field Lesson Package (EG-1997(01)-002-GSFC), which are available at your nearest NASA Educator Resource Center: http://spacelink.nasa.gov/Instructional.Materials/NASA.Educational.Products/