Exploring Our Universe: From the Classrom to Outer Space
I. SPECTROSCOPY

The information and activities in the kit address the following content standards from the National Science Education Standards (National Academy Press, 1996), for Middle School and High School respectively.

Content Standard A:

As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop:

• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
  
  • Identify questions that can be answered through scientific inquiry
  • Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze and interpret data
  • Communicate scientific procedures and explanations
  • Use mathematics in all aspects of scientific inquiry
• Understandings About Scientific Inquiry
  • Different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of scientific inquiry
  • Technology used to gather data enhances accuracy and allows scientists to analyze and quantify results of investigations

Content Standard B:

As a result of their activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop an understanding of:

• Properties and Changes of Properties in Matter
  • A substance has characteristic properties.
  • A mixture of substance often can be separated into the original substances using one or more of the characteristic properties
• Transfer of Energy
  • Energy is a property of many substances;
  • Energy is transferred in many ways
  • Light interacts with matter by transmission (including refraction), absorption, or scattering (including reflection) *The sun's energy arrives as light with a range of wavelengths, consisting of visible light, infrared and ultraviolet radiation

Content Standard G:

As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop understanding of [the] Nature of Science

• Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models
• In areas where active research is being pursued, it is normal for scientists to differ with one another about the interpretation of the evidence or theory being considered.

Content Standard A:

As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop:

• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
  • Formulate and revise scientific explanations and models using logic and evidence
  • Communicate and defend a scientific argument
• Understandings about scientific inquiry
  • Scientists rely on technology to enhance the gathering and manipulation of data
  • Mathematics is essential in scientific inquiry

Content Standard B:

As a result of their activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop an understanding of:

• Motions and Forces
  • Laws of motion are used to calculate precisely the effects of forces on the motion of objects
  • Gravitation is a universal force that each mass exerts on any other mass
• Interaction of Energy and Matter
  • The energy of electromagnetic waves is carried in packets whose magnitude is inversely proportional to the wavelength
  • Each kind of atom or molecule can gain or lose energy only in particular discrete amounts and thus can absorb and emit light only at wavelengths corresponding to these amounts.
  • These wavelengths can be used to identify the substance

Content Standard D:

As a result of their activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop an understanding of:

• Origin and Evolution of the Universe
  • The "big bang" theory places the origin between 10 and 20 billion years ago
  • Stars produce energy from nuclear reactions. These and other processes in stars have led to the formation of all the elements

Content Standard G:

As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop understanding of

• [the] Nature of Scientific Knowledge
  • Because all scientific ideas depend on experimental and observational confirmation, all scientific knowledge is, in principle, subject to change as new evidence becomes available.

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