4-6 SpaceMath Problem 325: Kepler Spies Five New Planets. Students count squares on a Bizarro Star to study the transit of a planet, and determine the diameter of the planet. This demonstrates the basic principle used by NASA ’s Kepler satellite to search for Earth-sized planets orbiting distant stars. [Topics: counting; graphing; area of a square] https://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/astrob/6Page113.pdf
5-12 Exoplanet Travel Bureau. . Downloadable posters and visuals of the surface. A charming combination of gorgeous posters that depict images of travel to worlds orbiting stars other than our own Sun and artist renditions of what it would look like to stand on these distant worlds. Just as mid-century travel posters enticed would-be travelers to exotic locales such as the islands of the Caribbean and South Pacific, we are similarly beckoned to consider places beyond our imagination – beyond our Solar System! NASA . https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/alien-worlds/exoplanet-travel-bureau/
5-12 Eyes on Exoplanets. . Get set for launch with this web interactive. “Eyes on Exoplanets” flies you to any planet you wish—as long as it’s far beyond our solar system. This fully rendered 3D universe is scientifically accurate, allowing you to zoom in for a close look at more than 1,000 exotic planets known to orbit distant stars. Highly interactive and immersive, students let their curiosity guide them into the wonderful world of exoplanets and their stars. Students can find facts, hypothesize patterns and explore the habitable zone of each star system. JPL /NASA. https://eyes.jpl.nasa.gov/eyes-on-exoplanets.html
5-12 Astrobiology Graphic Histories. Issue 6: Living Beyond the Solar System. 7.4. These astrobiology related graphic books are ingenious and artfully created to tell the story of astrobiology in a whole new way. The complete series illustrates the backbone of astrobiology from extremophiles, to exploration within and beyond the solar system. This issue reaches out beyond the Solar System to explore life’s potential on worlds that orbit distant stars. In recent decades, astronomers have discovered a huge number of such worlds known as exoplanets. NASA . https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/resources/graphic-histories/
6-8 SpaceMath Problem 213: Kepler: The hunt for Earth-like planets. Students compare the area of a star with the area of a planet to determine how the star’s light is dimmed when the planet passes across the star as viewed from Earth. This is the basis for the ‘transit’ method used by NASA ’s Kepler satellite to detect new planets. [Topics: area of circle; ratios; percents] https://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/astrob/5Page87.pdf
6-8 SpaceMath Problem 405: Discovering Earth-like Worlds by their Color. Students use recent measurements of the reflected light from solar system bodies to graph their colors and to use this in classifying new planets as Earth-like, moon-like or Jupiter-like [Topics: graphing tabular data; interpreting graphical data] https://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/astrob/7Page68.pdf
6-8 SpaceMath Problem 360: Kepler’s First Look at 700 Transiting Planets. A statistical study of the 700 transits seen during the first 43 days of the mission. [Topics: percentages; area of circle] https://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/astrob/7Page7.pdf
6-9 Rising Stargirls Teaching and Activity Handbook. Design your own exoplanet (page 37). In this activity, students think creatively and critically about the types of exoplanets that may exist, what planets might look like and why, and what elements of a planet might be conducive to life or detrimental to life. Rising Stargirls is a 10-day workshop dedicated to encouraging girls of all backgrounds to learn, explore, and discover the universe through interactive astronomy using theater, writing, and visual art. This provides an avenue for individual self-expression and personal exploration that is interwoven with scientific engagement and discovery. Rising Stargirls. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54d01d6be4b07f8719d7f29e/t/5748c58ec2ea517f705c7cc6/1464386959806/Rising_Stargirls_Teaching_Handbook.compressed.pdf
6-9 Planet Hunters Education Guide. Lesson 4: Exoplanet detection. (page 53). In this lesson, students first engage in an activity that offers an opportunity to use various methods of observation to identify an object without being able to directly observe it with their eyes. Next, students are asked to research and present to the class one of the direct or indirect methods that scientists use to detect planets around distant stars. 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) and Earth-like Planets by the Score! (page 69). NASA . https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/637832main_Astrobiology_Math.pdf
6-12 Science Fiction Stories with Good Astronomy & Physics: A Topical List: Exoplanets. 7.3 The Astronomical Society of the Pacific created this list of short stories and novels that use more or less accurate science and can be used for teaching or reinforcing astronomy or physics concepts including planets orbiting other stars. https://astrosociety.org/file_download/inline/621a63fc-04d5-4794-8d2b-38e7195056e9
8-10 SpaceMath Problem 458: Playing Baseball on the Earth-like Planet Kepler-22b! The recently-confirmed Earth-like planet Kepler-22b by the Kepler Observatory is a massive planet orbiting its star in the temperature zone suitable for liquid water. This problem explores the gravity and mass of this planet, and some implications for playing baseball on its surface! [Topics: scale models; proportions; scientific notation; metric math; evaluating equations] https://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/astrob/8Page31.pdf
8-12 SpaceMath Problem 333: Hubble: Seeing a Dwarf Planet Clearly. Based on a recent press release, students use the published photos to determine the sizes of the smallest discernible features and compare them to the sizes of the 48 states in the USA . They also estimate the density of Pluto and compare this to densities of familiar substances to create a “model” of Pluto’s composition. A supplementary Inquiry Problem asks students to model the interior in terms of two components and estimate what fraction of Pluto is composed of rock or ice. [Topics: scales and ratios; volume of sphere; density=mass/volume] https://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/astrob/6Page143.pdf
