The Our Cosmic Connection and the Stellar Cycles image sets, with activities and supporting materials, have been posted on the Chandra website and presented at conferences for several years. Educators have been able to request classroom sets of both images. Workshop participants have been requesting additional image sets to use in addition to or in combination with the existing sets over the past few years.
If you are not familiar with the existing activities and card sets mentioned above, you should use them in the classroom first, as they have several versions (pencil/paper, flash, and webquest), answer keys, teacher guides, and supporting materials. The Our Cosmic Connection and Stellar Cycles materials are listed under the topic of Stellar Evolution at:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/edu/formal/index.html.
This supplemental card set – which will be referred to as the Stellar Evolution set contains objects that will work with both Our Cosmic Connection and Stellar Cycles , either augmenting those card sets or as an addition. This set that will be used at conferences and workshops during the fall of 2016 and spring of 2017. During the summer of 2017, the feedback from educators about this new card set will be used to determine if this card set will replace Our Cosmic Connection and Stellar Cycles or remain as an additional set. Our Cosmic Connection and Stellar Cycles card sets may not be restocked when they have all been requested until final decisions have been made about which sets to use. This set may replace both previous sets. The images in the Stellar Evolution image set have been designed for Science Olympiad coaches and teams to use for both the middle school Reach for the Stars and the high school Astronomy space science events. During 2016-2017 a webinar will be produced using Science Olympiad content and the image set for Science Olympiad coaches and their teams to gain a basic understanding to begin preparation for competition in the space science events.
The Stellar Evolution card set is available as an immediate download; however they will be available for request once they have been produced. If you elect to use any of the Stellar Evolution images with the Our Cosmic Connection and/or Stellar Cycles activities, please use the contact information below to give feedback and/or suggestions about the cards. If there are objects or stellar evolutionary stages that you think are not good representations for your students or Science Olympiad teams, please send your comments.
When the new images sets have been developed and are available online, the teacher guides, card descriptions, possible answer keys, PowerPoint presentations and other supporting materials will be revised accordingly.
Please send your comments and suggestions to:
Donna L Young
Lead Educator Chandra X-Ray Center E/PO Office
madonna@aavso.org