STEM Club support - Secondary GOLD Booklet
The following information is supplementary to your booklets and will help guide you through the delivery of your STEM club. This may include short how-to guides for the different activities or additional resources that you can share directly with your students or use to increase your own knowledge.
Important Information
These resources are provided by The Schools' Observatory (TSO) project, which is part of the Astrophysics Research Institute of Liverpool John Moores University. This video introduces The Schools' Observatory.
The Liverpool Telescope (LT) is the World's largest fully robotic telescope; your students will learn to use it during this STEM club. More information about the LT, including its design and science capabilities, can be found on our web page: Liverpool Telescope.
We recommend you register for free as a Teacher before the first session you plan to run. Your students must have their own accounts set up so that they can use the Liverpool Telescope during this STEM Club. This detailed video explains how to set up student accounts.
The sessions do not need to be delivered as 6 x 1 hour sessions and you can split up the sessions and activities in the way that works best for you and your students. Nor do the sessions need (for the most part) to be done in the order presented.
Some activities involve sticking pictures into the student's booklets, so scissors and glue sticks will always be useful to have on hand.
Session 1: Designing a Telescope
The first session is primarily a research and discussion based set of activities that aim to introduce participants to looking at the feasibility of building an advanced observatory. It focuses on the development of a telescope to observe the optical (at wavelengths the eye can see) activity that may accompany a gravitational wave source. In other words, we are not looking for the actual gravitational waves, which require an altogether different form of technology, but for the light that may be created at the same time.
Introduction
Before starting the session, you might want to show participants one of these short video guides on what gravity waves are:
Video - Gravitational Waves Guide (3 minutes)
Video - LIGO Detects Gravitational Waves (5 minutes)
The booklet contains detailed instructions on how best to run this session, but before you begin, you will need to download these resources for the first three activities:
You can expect each of these activities to take between 10 to 15 minutes, although you may need to keep participants on track with regular reminders of how much time is left.
Time management is key in this session.
If there is time in the session, you may want to mention that the Schools' Observatory's own university (Liverpool John Moores) is currently in the process of building what will be the largest fully robotic telescope in the world: The New Robotic Telescope, which will cost around £25 million. Remind participants that he UK remains at the forefront of telescope technology and that many opportunities will be open to those who wish to pursue a career in space science.
Session 2: Comparing Stars
This session introduces the idea of spotting patterns and trends in the data from astronomical observations, and how such trends can further our knowledge of the Universe. In particular, participants will focus on one of the most powerful relationship charts in astronomy that was discovered back in 1910: the Hertzsprung–Russell Diagram. This chart (or graph) compares the brightness of stars to their temperature, and from it we can track the progress of stars through their typical life cycle.Although we did look at the life cycle of stars in the Silver booklet, it might be worth showing participants this 5-minute video on the Life Cycle if Stars as a reminder, or get them to explore our own Stellar Evolution page in a web browser.
Activity 1 is just a recap of what participants will have covered in previous booklets, but acts as a useful reminder. You might want to make several copies of page 10 of the activity booklet (link above), or display in on screen, which participants can use as a reminder.
In activity 2, participants will be plotting stars on a large Hertzsprung–Russell Diagram that you (as leader) will have provided. Make sure that it's at least of A3 size, although the bigger the better. You can get the plottable stars from the following link but make sure these are cut out in advance:
Video - Star Circle for Activity 2
Once attendees have taken turns in plotting all the stars, ask them if they can see any trends. The booklet covers in detail how you might guide them to the answer. You can expect this session to take at least 30 minutes, but it's important for participants to carefully plot each star.
Activity 3 is all about transferring what they see on the chart into their booklets and answering a couple of questions. It does not need to be a work of art, but make sure they have the four important components (white dwarfs, main sequence, giants and supergiants) highlighted.
Session 3: The Shape of Galaxies
Just as we classify many things in nature, such as plants and birds, scientists are also able to classify galaxies. Galaxies are huge collections of stars, planets, asteroids, dust and gas, all held together by gravity. They come in many shapes and sizes, but the astronomer Edwin Hubble developed a way of classifying them back in 1926, which we now know as the Hubble Tuning Fork diagram.
This session introduces the topic of galaxy classification and looks at how gravity brings galaxies together to form clusters of galaxies. As an introduction, you might want to show your STEM Club the following 5-minute video:
Types of Galaxies in our Universe
Now take some time to run slowly through the galaxy type descriptions and Hubble Tuning Fork categories in the student booklet before moving on to activity 1.
In preparation for the first activity, print and cut out the galaxy images on page 17 to 20 of the leader's booklet, which also provides suggestions on how to best guide participants through the task of classifying each galaxy according to its appearance.
Activity 2 looks at how galaxies tend to live in clusters, and gets participants to plot some of the galaxies that inhabit the same cluster as our own Milky Way Galaxy, known as the Local Group. Keep in mind, however, that some of these supposed "local" galaxies are several million light-years away.
Session 4: Colour Image: Part II
The main aim of this session is to get participants to use archive observations from the Liverpool Telescope (LT) to undertake an activity they were shown in session 6 of the silver booklet; namely, to create a 3-colour image of an astronomical object. The online archive is where we store all telescope observations taken in the past. It is a useful alternative for when our new observations are not yet available, or where we want to re-examine the work of others.
As it may have been some time since you completed the silver level, it may be worth running over how one creates a 3-colour image. Although the booklet provides detailed instructions on this, you might also want to view and/or show our handy video guide that takes you through the process step-by-step:
How To Align, Shade & Contrast And Create 3 Colour Images
Hopefully you will still have our LTImage image processing software on your laptops or a USB memory stick but if not, you can downloaded it again from the following link:
At the end of the session you may want to print out your images, so that you can display them in a showcase at the end of level party (session 6).
Session 5: Careers in Space
The fifth session explores the many opportunities available to those that wish to pursue a career in the space industry, and does so through the conceptual activity of planning a mission to a distant and newly discovered dwarf planet in our Solar System.
This is mostly a discussion based activity and the leader's booklet provides ideas on how to guide participants through the process. Before they start, however, you might want to show a short video on space careers, for which one the following may be suitable:
Careers in Space and Physics (7 mins)
or if you have more time:
Building skills for a career in the space industry (18 mins)
50 great jobs in the space industry (21 mins)
Following the activity, you might also want to direct participants towards our space heroes section, where they can explore the backgrounds and achievements of many individuals that have seen success in the sector:
Session 6: Star Party
The final session of the gold level and the end of the secondary STEM Club gives participants an opportunity to reflect upon and celebrate what they have achieved over many weeks. The leader's booklet lists several suggestions on what format the party can take, but feel free to include your own activities, as long as they are space related. The most important advice is to have some fun.
If you plan to present completion certificates at your event then these can be ordered at the following link, but please allow at least a week to receive them:
Congratulations on finishing the secondary STEM Club