Resources

This page contains some on-line resources and links that will be used to study the Sun. Teacher workshops will be running from the planetarium on how to make and use some of these devices.

They are very useful tools in developing the idea of the scientific process.  Firstly the magnetometer detects an invisible force in the classroom, when this is observed the cause (sun spots and magnetic storms of the Sun) can be viewed using a solar scope or the NASA Sun-Earth viewer (see below) should it be cloudy.&nbp; The conclusion is to observe the effect on the Earth, by encouraging children to watch out for the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) in the night time sky - caused by particles ejected from the Sun during these storms (the solar wind) that reach the Earth and excite the gas in our atmosphere making it emit light (a bit like Neon signs).

Three simple, but powerful devices, can be used seperately and in conjunction to study the Sun with school children. They can be used to study the chemical make-up of the Sun, predict an aurora, observe sun spots and track solar storms:

Solar Spectrometer

Used to study the absorption lines (spectra) from the Sun’s photosphere, known as Farunhofer lines. We can use these to discover some of the chemical make-up of our local star. A PDF document can be downloaded below and the following site contains some great information.

www.cs.cmu.edu/~zhuxj/astro/html/spectrometer.html

Solar Magnetometer

Used to study storms on the surface of the Sun we can measure the affect of the Solar Wind on the magnetic field of the Earth. PDFs on how to make a pop-bottle magnetometer can be downloaded below and the following site contains further information.

image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/workbook/magnet.html

Solar Scope

These are devices that can be used to safely observe the SUN in visible light (with care). The most notable solar features that can be seen with these are Sun Spots, which are locations of high activity on the photosphere of the Sun - solar storms. Solar scopes are not easy to fabricate and we have 20 to give away free to the first schools to register with us for this education programme.  For those not quick enough to register for the free scopes the standard model can be bought for £35 and a larger educational model for £60 from Greenwich Observatory.

www.greenwich-observatory.co.uk/acatalog/Solar_Scopes.html

Being cloudy for a lot of the time in the UK it’s not always possible to observe the Sun directly and it isn’t always possible to get pupils together to use a magnetometer as solar storm events are unpredictable and don’t neatly fit into a school timetable. Teachers and pupils alike can use on-line NASA observatories to get real up-to-date information form professional terrestrial scientific instruments and space satellites.

The NASA Sun-Earth viewer can be accessed from two seperate websites:

sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/media_viewer/flash.html
ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/viewer/flash/

The NASA solar storm tracking observatory websites:

son.nasa.gov/tass/tools.htm

Both of these resources have instructional information and suggestions upon how they can be used accessible from the NASA Sun-Earth Day site:

sunearthday.nasa.gov/

The STFC (formerly PPARC) also produce a range of free educational leaflets, posters and teachers notes for all aspects of astronomy and particle physics that are covered in the curriculum from Key Stage2 to A-level. The planetarium stocks a range of these, should you not wish to order your own on-line - please contact us for details on (01740) 630544. The fantastic new poster on The Sun is one of those we stock and it is also available to download as a PDF from this page.

VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Stockton CLC has provided as part of their Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) a Forum and Virtual Classroom environment to assist the planetarium in delivering this project across the North-East.  Parts of the programme will be accessible on-line to participating schools, including sessions to ask scientists questions about the Sun and how to get the most from the resources described above.  Teachers and students can be registered to use the VLE by contacting the Planetarium on 01740 630544 or e-mail director@wynyard-planetarium.net  The VLE means that schools do not have to travel to either the Planetarium or the CLC to take part in one or all aspects of this programme!  The on-line sessions using the VLE classroom environment will also include live link-ups to the Faulkes Telescopes.

The planetarium virtual classroom makes use of ElluminateLive! version 8 and participating schools will need to load this Java environment onto a PC to join in with sessions on-line.  Assistance can be obtained with this by contacting Stockton CLC or Wynyard Planetarium The ElluminateLive! system is available to download at:

http://www.elluminate.com/support/

Stockton CLC will give any support that may be required to this installation but schools within the Stockton LEA may need to contact their technician from SICTU.

• A recording of first on-line session can be viewed by clicking here.  The session is about 1h 30m long and includes some Q&A’s from a local primary school.
• A recording of second on-line session can be viewed by clicking here.  The session is about 1h 6m long and includes a link-up with the Faulkes Telescope North.
• A recording of second on-line session can be viewed by clicking here.  The session is about 59m long and includes a link-up with the Faulkes Telescope South.

Please note that you must have installed the JAVA plug-in for your web-browser from the support site above before you will be able to view this session, you can use the slider at the bottom of the screen to advance through the session.

Downloads

Below are a series of pdf files ranging from worksheets on space and the Sun for KS2 and above, to detailed instructions on how to make some of the devices/teaching resources mentioned above: