6-9 Planet Hunters Education Guide. Lesson 6: Using Planet hunters. (page 75) This lesson acquaints students with the Planet Hunters (www.planethunters.org) citizen science project by researching its goals, learning about the project’s science, and participating in the search for exoplanets. This lesson is part of a nine lesson unit that takes learners through engaging activities that feature habitability, identifying and characterizing exoplanets, and citizen science. NASA . https://s3.amazonaws.com/zooniverse-resources/zoo-teach/production/uploads/resource/attachment/122/Planet_Hunters_Educator_Guide.pdf
6-9 Planet Hunters Education Guide. Lesson 7: Creating and Interpreting light curves (page 81). In this activity, students interpret light curves to determine exoplanets’ characteristics, including size, period, and distance from a star. Students calculate the orbital period and use it to identify the distance between the detected planet and the host star using graphs displaying calculations based on Kepler’s Third Law. This lesson is part of a nine lesson unit that takes learners through engaging activities that feature habitability, identifying and characterizing exoplanets, and citizen science. NASA . https://s3.amazonaws.com/zooniverse-resources/zoo-teach/production/uploads/resource/attachment/122/Planet_Hunters_Educator_Guide.pdf
6-9 Planet Hunters Education Guide. Lesson 9: Planetary Possibilities (page 102.) In this activity, students apply information they have learned about the solar system, star types, habitable zones, and exoplanet systems in previous activities to design and draw a planetary system model of a candidate planet. Students base their designs on exoplanet data from a list of confirmed exoplanets. This lesson is part of a nine lesson unit that takes learners through engaging activities that feature habitability, identifying and characterizing exoplanets, and citizen science. NASA . https://s3.amazonaws.com/zooniverse-resources/zoo-teach/production/uploads/resource/attachment/122/Planet_Hunters_Educator_Guide.pdf
6-10 SpaceMath Problem 197: Hubble Sees a Distant Planet. Students study an image of the dust disk around the star Fomalhaut and determine the orbit period and distance of a newly-discoveblack planet orbiting this young star. [Topics: calculating image scales; circle circumferences; unit conversions; distance-speed-time] https://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/astrob/5Page62.pdf
6-12 Astrobiology Math. This collection of math problems provides an authentic glimpse of modern astrobiology science and engineering issues, often involving actual research data. Students explore concepts in astrobiology through calculations. Relevant topics include Kepler-The hunt for Earth-like planets (page 63), The Earth-like planet Gliese 581g (page 85), and Kepler’s First Look at Transiting Planets (page 67). NASA . https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/637832main_Astrobiology_Math.pdf
6-12 A Needle in Countless Haystacks. Out of billions of galaxies and billions of stars, how do we find Earth-like habitable worlds? What is essential to support life as we know it? In this TEDE d five-minute video, astrobiologist Ariel Anbar provides a checklist for finding life on other planets. TED -ed. https://ed.ted.com/lessons/a-needle-in-countless-haystacks-finding-habitable-planets-ariel-anbar
7-12 Cosmic Questions: Is There Life on Other Worlds? The Drake Equation (page 59). In this lesson, students estimate the number of worlds in the Milky Way Galaxy that have life. Students think about the size and composition of the galaxy and how it affects the possibility of extraterrestrial life. This collection of eight 30-45 minute lessons was developed to support the information in the informal education exhibit Cosmic Questions. Harvard-Smithsonian/NSF/NASA. https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/seuforum/exhibit/resources/CQEdGuide.pdf#page=18
8-10 SpaceMath Problem 396: Kepler 10b – A matter of gravity. Students use the measured properties of the Earth-like planet Kepler 10b to estimate the weight of a human on its surface. [Topics: evaluating formulas; mass = density x volume; volume of a sphere; scientific notation] https://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/astrob/7Page58.pdf
9-12 SpaceMath Problem 331: Webb Space Telescope: Detecting dwarf planets. The ‘JWST ’ will be launched some time in 2014. One of its research goals is to detect new dwarf planets beyond the orbit of Pluto. In this problem, students use three functions to predict how far from the sun a body such as Pluto could be detected, by calculating its temperature and the amount of infrared light it emits. [Topics: evaluating square-roots and base-e exponentials] https://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/astrob/6Page146.pdf
9-12 Mission: Find Life. Finding Life in the Universe. These brief video clips are from The Mission: Find Life! exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, WA. They show how astrobiologists search for life elsewhere in the Universe, studying extreme environments to understand the potential habitability of extraterrestrial environments, and examining how life might arise on planets orbiting stars different from our Sun. The exhibit features research at the Virtual Planetary Laboratory and ran March 18-September 4, 2017. VPL . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJMp9Whqu7A&list=PLaKWGoQCqpVDiJl9NBwJ4E7Nwf3tn-yzB&index=2
9-12 Planet Hunters Education Guide. Lesson 8: Calculating Exoplanet Characteristics. (page 91). In this activity, students calculate the orbital period, semi-major axis, radius, mass, density and surface temperature of a candidate exoplanet transiting a star. Students use light curves from the Planet Hunters website to perform these functions, by gathering data about the planet candidates and using it to determine what types of planet they may be. Students also discuss whether the exoplanet may be habitable. This lesson is part of a nine lesson unit that takes learners through engaging activities that feature habitability, identifying and characterizing exoplanets, and citizen science. NASA . https://s3.amazonaws.com/zooniverse-resources/zoo-teach/production/uploads/resource/attachment/122/Planet_Hunters_Educator_Guide.pdf
