Teaching Resources

These are some Astronomy powerpoints and other resources that I have used to teach Astronomy and in particular a course on Astronomy and Space Science. The most up to date versions along with pdf copies (and ones with notes) are available here on my Google Drive. Click on the images to be taken to the relevant Google Drive folder.

Useful Dates:

Feb 11th - March 8th - Women and Girls in Astronomy start is International Day of Women and Girls in Science, end is International Women's Day
March 11th - 20th - British Science Week
March 14th - Mars Day (part of Mars week and Mars Hour at 11am), 2022 only atm
April 22nd - Earth Day
April 22nd - 30th - International Dark Sky Week
May 1st - National Space Day (UK)
May 7th - International Space Day
May 13th - International Astronomy and Astrophysics Competition (IAAC) round 1 deadline
July - LaSciL Summer School, linking large observational instruments and their data to school settings
September - AstroPi Mission Space Lab applications open
Oct 1st - CanSat deadline to register
Oct 1st - 10th - World Space Week
Oct 1st - 4th - 100 Hours of Astronomy (IAU) ran 2021, unsure 2022

The Royal Astronomical Society has resource links here and the curated International Astronomical Union resources are here. openstax has an open source Astronomy textbook. Also be sure to check out the Global Hands-On Universe project GHOU and the Galileo Teacher Training Program GTTP.

John Kolena maintains a list of image processing resources here. Christine Hirst Bernhardt's Astronomy resource collection. Free book - Exploring the Planets. NISE Celestial Events Calendar - nisenet.org/seasons.

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PDFs

Some of these PDFs are more finished than others! Check the card details for more info. The Unit 16 PDFs were used when teaching the BTEC Applied Science: Astronomy and Space course (discontinued) so they are online as is and won't be developed further. All of these resources (par the Awesome Amateur Astronomer's Guide) were written with Unit 16 LA A, The Sun and the Solar System, and B, Observing the Night and Daytime Sky, in mind.

Intro to Unit 16

Introduction for students to BTEC Applied Science Unit 16: Astronomy and Space Science.

Only covers LA A

Unit 16 Objectives

Objectives and big ideas for Unit 16 for students and educators.

Only covers LA A

Unit 16 Log

Observation Log for Unit 16 learning aim B.

Unit 16 Log EXEMPLAR

Completed Observation Log for Unit 16 learning aim B.

Unit 16 Assignment Briefs

LA A Brief broken down into four assignmnets for students with checklists.

Only covers LA A

Astronomy Tutorials

Astronomy tutorials for use in the classroom!

COMING SOON

Astronomy Activities

Astronomy related practicals and activities for use in the classroom.

7 Activities covering Unit 16 LA A

Coding Supplement

Introduction to the coding activities for students (aimed at BTEC medical students) using jupyter.org/try.

Astronomy Club Guide

Adapted from unawe resources this booklet for students has activities to work through to get stickers and then their awesome astronomer badge at the end!

Astronomy Club Observation Log

An extra observation log to supplement the main Astronomy Club Guide.

Powerpoints

Astronomy powerpoints! Click on the images to be taken to the Powerpoint folder on my Google Drive. Update 2021/07: I'm re-working the ppts with more AfL and proper notes for the non-specialist, plus adding the final few that are not online.

Introduction to Astronomy

Introduction to astronomy and big ideas - where are we, why are we here?

Astronomy A History

Archaeoastronomy, models of the solar system.

Solar System Structure

Structure of the solar system and its formation.

The Planets

Rocky planets and gas giants, internal structures, atmospheres (a tiny bit).

Planetary Surfaces

Formation of planets, sources of heat, rocky planet surfaces, Martian and Venusian geology.

The Earth

Interior and composition, seismics, imaging the surface, atmosphere and G'House effect, magnetosphere - aurora etc.

The Moon

Interior, surface, tidal locking, phases, Apollo (brief).

Solar Radiation

EM Spectrum, spectra, blackbodies + Wien's Law, spectroscopy, spectral types, luminosity and the inverse square law, solar cycle.

Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear fusion, types of H fusion, PP chain, coloumb barrier, binding energy, fusion shells in stars.

Surface of the Galilean Moons

Supplementary slides for the activity AA005 Surface of the Galilean Moons (see Astronomy Activities pdf above).

World Space Week

Resources for World Space Week.

World Space Week 2020

Satellites and how they improve our lives. Six lessons 45-60 minutes long differentiated with 3 Geography lessons and booklets (differentiated versions included).

World Space Week 2021

Celebrating Women in Space for World Space Week 2021. View on GitHub to see the individual files, clicking on the image above downloads everything as a zip file.