Transit Math

This series of activities from NASA take a mathematical approach to looking at transits, eclipses and occultations. They are intended as supplementary problems for students looking for additional challenges in mathematics and physical science from age 11 to 19 years.

The problems were created to be authentic...

The Rotational Period of the Sun

This activity, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, introduces students to ways of combining errors (uncertainties) from two independent measured quantities. Using the equation for Doppler shift, the error in the rotational velocity and time period are calculated.

The content of the files are identical,...

The Age of the Universe

This activity, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, looks at Hubble’s law, whereby students use real data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to plot a graph from which they can obtain the Hubble constant. Students then look at the possible sources of error in their data and use this to calculate the uncertainty in...

Where Would You Photograph? (7-11)

In this activity children take on the role of Earth observation scientists submitting a request for an image they would like for their research. This gives them the opportunity to consider the possibilities of pictures taken from orbit (and the limitations) and to write scientifically for a specific audience. It...

Space Weather Math

This series of activities from NASA take a mathematical approach to looking at space weather. They are intended as supplementary problems for students looking for additional challenges in mathematics and physical science from age 11 to 19 years.

The problems were created to be authentic glimpses of modern...

Seeing Temperatures

This activity allows students to investigate how images are produced from data streams by using first a spreadsheet and then an image-processing program. They then go on to see how the usefulness of such a monochromatic image may be enhanced by using lookup tables and calibration. The materials used focus on the...

Getting Gaia going

Gaia is a European Space Agency satellite, mapping one billion stars in the Milky Way. 

This worksheet guides students through some calculations on the power requirements for the Gaia spacecraft, the content is suitable for GCSE and A-level Physics.

A teacher's guide gives worked solutions.

Gaia's place in space

Gaia is a European Space Agency satellite, mapping one billion stars in the Milky Way. 

This worksheet uses the context of the orbit of the Gaia spacecraft to look at circular motion and the gravitational force between two bodies.  The content is suitable for GCSE and A-level Physics.

A teacher's...

Fission and Fusion: a Physics Kit

This resource, produced by SEPNet and Queen Mary University of London, uses Lego to represent the building blocks of matter. Different colour and size Lego bricks are assigned to protons, neutrons and electrons. Fusion is shown by joining bricks together and fission by breaking large collections of bricks apart....

Electromagnetic Math

This series of activities from NASA take a mathematical approach to looking at electromagnetic radiation. They are intended as supplementary problems for students looking for additional challenges in mathematics and physical science from age 11 to 19 years. The problems were created to be authentic glimpses of...