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Year #
Workbook
Astronomy and
Sustainability
Table of contents:
Part 1: Astronomy
1. What’s in this topic
2. Vocabulary
3. Planet Map
4. Exercise about the Solar System
5. Days, months, seasons, and years; the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
6. The Sun and other stars
7. Exercise about the Sun and stars
8. Review questions
9. Project ‘Astronomy’, 4 periods
Part 2: Sustainability
10. Introduction to sustainability, is there a second Earth?
11. Introduction to the 3 R’s of sustainability
12. Renewable Energy, Renewable Island
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13. Saving trees and rivers
14. Mini-project. Poster on the 3 R’s
15. Common Assessment Task (on both topics)
Welcome to Year # Science...
Introduction:
In this part of the book, you will be learning and practicing some of the important skills that you will need for success this year in Science.
This will include the BYOD rules of use and skills that you will need to complete your class work as well as giving you an introduction to some of the key concepts and ideas of the subject.
Before you start.
The correct use of devices in Science:
IMPORTANT: read and remember.
1. It is your responsibility to have your device charged in preparation
for the day’s work. Do the charging at home or in your free time.
2. Your device must stay closed in your bag or on the desk until your teacher allows you to open it.
3. You may only use the device for activities that are relevant to the tasks you have been instructed to perform.
4. Only use headphones with your teacher’s permission.
5. If your teacher tells you to “half-close the device” you must stop working on it and close it enough for you not to be able to use it while other activities are going on.
6. If your teacher gives the instruction “Hands off” you must immediately take your hand off the device and/or mouse.
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7. You are not to use, or even touch, another student’s device unless you have his permission.
8. If you choose not to follow these basic rules you may lose the right to use your device for a period set by your teacher.
Accessing and using Google Calendar
1. Find and select the Apps menu in the top right corner. 2. Click on Google Calendar .
3. Click Create.
4. Enter the details, i.e.” Astronomy project due”.
5 Click Save.
Astronomy &
Sustainability
What’s in this topic?
Focus of learning/topic: Our planet, what lies beyond it, and how we can
protect it.
Key Concepts
• Astronomy
• Earth, the Moon,
and the Sun
• The Solar System
• Reducing
• Reusing
• Recycling
Learning outcomes
• Explain how days, seasons, months, and years.
• Recall the planets of our Solar System, their
properties, and their satellites.
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• Describe our Sun and other Stars
• Describe how the actions of humanity have
impacted our planet
• Describe how we can save the planet and trees
today
Processes
Inquiry Values Exploration:
Social Decision
Making:
• Collect
information about
astronomy and
conservation
• Identify different
classifications of
astronomy
• Find the results of
astronomical
events
• Individual project
on the Solar
System
• Individual
conservation
research
• What makes
astronomy an interest
between people
today?
• Why are some people
against proven
astronomy?
• Describe how our
actions have change
as we continue to
destroy our planet
• What could have
been done to boost
the history of
astronomy?
• Who and what
could have
changed
everything we
know about space?
• Exercise: What
would you do to
save the planet?
Vocabulary
There is a certain vocabulary that we use in this topic. As you proceed
through the topic you need to learn this. You can add to it if you want to.
Term Definition
Astronomy The study of space and everything that lies in it.
Universe Everything that is thought to exist.
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Moon, Natural
Satellite A satellite is an object that orbits a planet, either
man-made or natural.
Planet A planet is a body that orbits a star. The Earth is a
planet.
Exoplanet An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star other than
the Sun. A famous example is 55 Cancri e, nicknamed
“Janssen”.
Star A star is a ball of elements heated up to the plasma
stage.
Galaxy A group of stars bound together by gravity.
Astrology A belief that the movement of stars and planets and
their positions during a person’s birth relate to what
will happen in their lives.
Constellation A group of stars in the night sky arranged to form a
pattern.
Year The time it takes for a planet to orbit its parent star.
Day A period of time it takes for a planet to spin on its axis
once.
Luminosity How much light energy is emitted from an object.
Sustainability Avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in
order to maintain an ecological balance.
Reducing Limiting the usage.
Renewable Anything renewable can be used for a long period of
time and has sources that do not deplete.
Energy Anything has energy. Energy cannot be seen or
created but can be converted from a form to another.
Resources Things needed for anything, whether compulsory or
recreational
Ecology,
ecological
Anything to do with the Earth and the organisms
living in it.
TASK 1: Introduction to Astronomy
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Astronomy is the subject of Science about space and the objects that lie in it. Many famous scientists, such as Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Albert
Einstein, Tycho Brahe, and Isaac Newton have been enthralled for astronomy and are famous for their contributions to it. Astronomy was also the fascination of famous Muslim scientists. Prior to astronomy,
there was Astrology, which was the belief that the constellations, stars, planets, and their positions on a person’s day of birth affect the person’s
life. Astrology has been phased out as pseudoscience, or disproved science.
Optional: Write a report on the lives and contributions to astronomy a famous astronomer had.
TASK 2: Planet Map
Copy & paste below a picture of the Solar System’s main bodies lined up in terms of distance from the Solar System barycentre. Choose an image that shows the planets to size. Suggestion:
Google ‘Solar System bodies’ and go to ‘images’. You do not need a map of all the solar system bodies, only the major ones. This
image will serve as your “planet map”, telling you the order of the distance of the planets from the Sun and their sizes.
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TASK 3: The Solar System
Fill in the blanks.
The Solar System has _ planets orbiting it. They are in order, Mercury, _____, Earth, ____, _______, Saturn, Uranus, and _______. Mercury, Venus, _____, and Mars are the terrestrial planets and are made out of
rock. ______, ______, Uranus, and Neptune are the gas giants are made out of gas, with a rocky core. Between Mars and Jupiter is the
________ belt, which contains _________. They are lumps of rock that are irregular shaped. The only round one is the largest of them, 1 Ceres. The asteroids, planets, and dwarf planets are all named after figures in _____ and _____ mythology. Like asteroids are the ______ – irregular masses of rock and ___ that have oval-shaped (__________) orbits.
They form “_____” of heated-up gases once they approach the Sun. The most famous of these is Halley’s Comet. Beyond Neptune are the dwarf planets, which were once considered planets. They include Pluto, ______, ________, and Eris (also known as
2003 UB13). There are much more, like Sedna, Orcus, and 50000 Quaoar. These dwarf planets all have their
orbits shaped like ________. Many scientists believe this is because the gravity of a _th planet, called ______ ____ (right) is stretching the dwarf
planets towards it.
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[TEACHER’S NOTE: Moons, or satellites, are small bodies of rock that orbit
another planet. The Earth has a moon made of dust and rock. Jupiter has the most
moons, at over 80. Its interesting moons include Io, which is covered in volcanoes,
Europa (named after the same Greek figure whom the European continent is named
after) has a surface of cracked ice and could have an ocean below its surface,
Ganymede is larger than Mercury making it the largest known moon, and Calisto has
the oldest surface known in the Solar System. One asteroid, called 243 Ida, has a
moon.]
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TASK 4: The Sun, the Moon, and Earth; the days, months, seasons, and
years A day is the time it takes the _____ to spin around its ____ once. It is
day time on the side of the Earth that is ______ the Sun. When it is night time, that side of the Earth is facing away from the Sun. It takes __ hours
for the Earth to spin once, so that is one day. A month is based on the period of time between two full _____. A year is the time it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun, which is ___.25 days. The extra .25 adds up to form a ____ year every 4 years. Seasons relate to specific points in
Earth's trip around the sun. When it is summer in the northern hemisphere, the Earth's axis is ______ so that the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, giving the northern hemisphere more heat and light and making it winter in the southern __________. The vice versa
occurs when it is winter in the northern hemisphere, making it summer in
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the southern ______ and fall occur when the Earth's axis is tilted so
that the equator is pointing towards the Sun. The solstices define the _____ and end of a season, the ______ solstice is
June 21 and the summer solstice is December 21.
a. Can you explain how days, months, seasons, and years are defined? b. Why is there a leap year every 4 years?
TASK 5: The Sun and other stars The Sun is the ____ at the centre of our Solar System. Like other stars,
it is a ball of elements, mostly ________, heated to a state of matter called plasma. It is 5,772 degrees ______ in temperature. Huge
explosions called _____ ______ (or prominences) occur on its surface. Areas on the Sun are cool and look dark; they are called ________. The Sun has a diameter of 1,___,000 kilometres. The Sun’s radius (696,000 km; half of the diameter) is represented by the symbol Rʘ, which is used
to measure the radius (half of the diameter) of other stars.
List five properties of the Sun. Use your own words and do not copy and paste:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The Sun and other stars: How big are the stars?
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There are many stars in the universe. Stars can be red, orange, yellow, white, or blue, and vary in luminosity and sizes. The hottest stars are white and blue, while the least hot are red, orange, or yellow. The
most massive stars (usually the hot stars) grow into cool red supergiants by fusing
elements heavier than oxygen before ending their lives under an explosion
called a supernova. Stars other than the Sun also have planets; these are called exoplanets. The closest star to the Sun, red dwarf Proxima
Centauri, has an exoplanet named Proxima Centauri b orbiting it.
After watching the video, fill out the table to the bottom using the websites provided. They are not the only ones you can use. The Sun and the largest known star have already been filled in. Some of the stars in the table are not in the video. You can add to this list.
Watch:
Really Big Stars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVbjYc57-Ws (Note: the star in the video
referred to as “Deneb” is blue in color, not orange.)
Star Name Constellation Radius (in Rʘ)
Sun none 1
Alpha Centauri (3 stars in all) (do all three)
Sirius
Vega
Pollux
Stars of Orion’s belt (Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka)
(do all three)
Arcturus
Aldebaran
Rigel
Deneb
Antares
Betelgeuse
Pistol Star
Mu Cephei
VV Cephei (two stars in all) (do both)
VY Canis Majoris Canis Major 2,000
• Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org,
recommended starter page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L
ist_of_largest_stars)
(even though anyone can
edit it, there at lots of peer-
reviewed publications at the
bottom. Scroll down and find
what they say, because
that’s what Wikipedia will say
too)
• STARS by Jim Kaler
(http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/
sow/sowlist.html)
• https://earthsky.org/brightest-
stars/deneb-among-the-
farthest-stars-to-be-seen
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A group of stars bound together by gravity is
called a galaxy. The galaxy our Sun is in is the
Milky Way galaxy, which is more than a billion
times larger than the largest known star, VY
Canis Majoris. There are more than 100 billion
galaxies, but the naked eye can only see four of
them!
The Milky Way resides in the Local Group of
Galaxies. The Local Group is dominated by two
major galaxies – the Milky Way and the
Andromeda galaxy – which is slightly larger than
the Milky Way.
Group of unrelated stars in the night sky that
seem to form a pattern are called constellations.
The patterns themselves are not real.
Recognisable constellations visible anywhere on
Earth are Orion, the hunter, and Scorpius, the
scorpion. Recognisable constellations in the
northern hemisphere are Ursa Minor, the little bear,
which contains Polaris, the pole star, and its larger
twin, Ursa Major, the larger bear. One recognisable
constellation in the southern hemisphere is Crux, the
Southern cross, which appears on the flag of New
Zealand.
List down five constellations. Include visuals of
them so that you can recognise their shape and
what they represent.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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Hertzsprung-Russel Diagram and Stellar Classification:
The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram is a scatterplot used to classify stars into groups. It
was invented by astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung (an astronomer from Denmark) and
Henry Russell. Notice how the colors of the stars put them into different classes, each
marked with a letter (on the bottom): O, B, A, F, G, K, M, and N (for Carbon Stars).
Can you memorise them? A useful mnemonic is “Oh be a fine girl; kiss me now!”
The letters were proposed by Annie Jump Canon, who took them from classifications
by Angelo Secchi, which are shown at the bottom.
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Project: Individual work. You have # periods in
class to complete this.
Year # Science Project 2018
Astronomy
• This project counts towards your final grade for the topic ‘Astronomy’ and your
knowledge and understanding will be tested in the full topic assessment in Week #.
O
B A F G K M/N
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• Double-check that all areas are covered. There are no excuses for handing in
incomplete projects and you will get a ‘Not Achieved’ grade if you do.
• The final presentation is your choice; a poster, a PowerPoint presentation, a booklet,
etc. Present the work in the same order (A-C and in as in the tasks below, and under
the same headings.
• For revision purposes you must each have a copy of your finished project.
• You may ‘copy and paste’ maps, graphs, and photos only.
• Make your answers short and to the point and write them in your own words.
• Although you will do some work at school this is mainly your HOMEWORK.
Due date: #
Your project must cover the following tasks and
questions:
A. Our Solar System
Explain what the Solar System is, describe all the planets of our Solar System (including
the dwarf planets) and their properties. Use images and write key/important words in
colors.
B. Days, Months, Seasons, and Years
Explain how days, months, seasons, and years are defined. You must cover all of them.
C. The Sun and Stars
Describe the Sun and other stars.
Optional: Include the 7 or 8 classifications of stars and give an example in a graph (see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_Classification).
You must also talk about star sizes, like in the video shown. Include mention of Galaxies.
TASK 6: Introduction to sustainability The Earth is our only home, and thus we need to take care of it.
However, people are trashing our planet by polluting it, littering, and destroying our landscape. All of us need to start small by keeping our
school clean.
Is there a second Earth?
There are planets that orbit other stars, but the most Earth-like of them is Kepler-22 b. It is no worth
colonizing because it is located more than 400 light years away from Earth.
Introduction to the 3 R’s of sustainability
Watch:
The 3 R’s by Jack Johnson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USo_vH1Jz7E
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Name the three ways Jack Johnson mentions how you can be sustainable: 1. 2. 3.
Later at home, you can play a game about saving as much power in a house here: (Note: This site is blocked in some schools.) https://web.archive.or\g/web/20110826100758/http://pbskids.org/eekoworld
Renewable Energy
Many of the Earth’s resources include wood, oil, gas, metals, and geothermal energy. However, we are abusing these resources and thus
are destroying our environment. Petroleum, for example, releases harmful gases into the air when burnt inside a car, and will eventually run out. Thus, we have renewable energy; pollutant-free sources of
energy that do not deplete over time. They include wood, solar power, the wind, water, and geothermal energy. The chemical potential energy
in food can also be used as a renewable source of energy.
Exercise: Renewable Island
In groups, design an island that only uses all forms of renewable energy as its source of power. On an A3 poster, give your island a name,
describe its citizens, describe their jobs, and label all the sources of energy and how the island receives it. Hand the posters to your teacher.
Saving the trees Every second, about 2.4 acres of trees are
cut down in the rainforest every second. That is a lot of trees. So why are we not doing
anything about it?
In the table below list three ways we can save the trees. You can add more to it if you want.
1.
2.
3.
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River Pollution and Dumping
Most of the rivers that once dominated the land are in threat of
destruction. Dumping of chemicals and waste is what destroys them.
The Yellow River in China, for example, is considered the second most
polluted river on the planet. Algae and chemicals have dyed the river
other colors and have made it almost completely inhabitable. List down
three ways humans can reduce river dumping:
But what substance, however, is responsible for
contaminating the oceans? Many marine organisms
consider it food, eat it, and choke on it. They also can’t
digest it. This substance has formed a gigantic “patch”
called a gyre larger than the United States in the
northern Pacific Ocean, centred on Midway atoll/island.
What is it? _______
Extension activity: Find out more about the artist
Chris Jordan-Bloch and his artworks made from plastic
that parody famous artworks (appropriation).
To right: “Caps Seurat”
Mini Project: The 3 R’s of sustainability
and saving the planet
For a mini-project, make an aesthetic poster on why we must reduce,
reuse, and recycle, as well as saving the planet. Include examples on
how to do so. Remember to be vibrant and use pictures!
Common Assessment Task (CAT):
1.
2.
3.
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Yes, final assessment time:
• Your project counts for #% of your final mark • The assessment of your knowledge and understanding of your
project counts for #% • The assessment of your overall knowledge and understanding of
the topic counts for #%
There are some basics rules for studying: • Start well in advance; not the night before
the CAT. • Make sure that you have all the work in
your workbook. • Make sure you know what you are tested
in. • Take notes, close the workbook, and
write in your own words. • Study for max. ½ hour at a time; then
have a little break. • Do this many times. It will stick.
Common Assessment Task:
You must revise:
• The vocabulary for both topics
• The names of planets, their moons, dwarf
planets, and their order from the Sun
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• How days, months, seasons, and years are
defined, and the effect of the Sun and Moon on
Earth and us
• The Sun and other stars, possibly including
radii
• How we can be sustainable and make a change
in this world, especially through recycling and
avoiding deforestation
Common Assessment
Task
and end of topic !!!!!!!
Did You Know???
Fact: Human pollution does not only affect the
surface of the Earth. Earth’s orbit is filled with space
junk – this is high-speed debris orbiting us that is usually
the remains of old satellites. A fragment of space junk
can hit an orbiting satellite at high speed and damage it.
Written by Stig Røschmann
Edited by Joey Pelobel, Natalia Evyanova, and Daniel “Danny” Willson
Images from Wikimedia Commons, European Southern Observatory, and Martha Speaks
(top image)