Physics & Physical Science Demos, Labs, & Projects for High School Teachers

At NSTA I met an earth science/astronomy teacher named Jay.  In one of the lectures Jay attended on the Chandra, there were playing cards showing the steps of stellar evolution.  He told me the cards are free and I found the site and ordered a set of them for my classroom today.  One way the cards were used was to ask as question, like “What are the steps to a star becoming a white dwarf?”  You can then choose a subset of the cards and have the students create the proper order of the star’s evolution.

http://chandra.harvard.edu/edu/formal/stellar_ev/cosmic/

To order the material, the bottom of the page has a link saying “request.”  You must be an educator to order this material, so if you are just a space nut, sorry, find a teacher friend or give up your high paying job to become a poorly paid teacher so that you can get free stuff for your classroom.  There are additional links and request forms for posters, you will find it on the first order page.

Whoever is responsible for the Chandra site has a real clue about education.  There are actual lessons and activities that a teacher can use with little or no modification.  I’m finding this to be a rarity; usually the sites have quick activities or thoughts they post as lessons.  The link to the Chandra Educational site is here:

http://chandra.harvard.edu/edu/formal/index.html

There is an awful lot here, I plan on spending more time digging when I have some reading time.