For Educators

Greetings educators, These activities are being designed and developed to enable you to bring first-class astronomy research to the classroom with the goal of inspiring science learning. We are guided by the philosophies related to inquiry methods, i.e. we aim to promote learning by enabling students to explore their scientific environment, generate and test hypotheses, and It is our hope that by integrating current astronomical research we can excite students' curiosity and engage them in scientific learning. Currently, the bulk of the materials have been developed for secondary education with physics and chemistry curricula in mind. This includes concepts of temperature, light, atomic structure, chemical composition, velocity, and basic quantum mechanics. The tools are very generic, however, and can easily be modified to address new curricula. Furthermore, they are constructed as 'stand-alone' tools. One can develop lesson plans that integrate several of the tools (e.g. the lab experiments that we present) or use individual tools as demos in class to illustrate specific curriculum. Please follow the links under "For Educators" to examine the tools and experiments that we have developed to date. We will be generating additional content as the days go by and we greatly encourage you to get involved. Even the simplest of feedback is appreciated (contact information is listed under the "Contributors"). Sincerely, The Contributors