IR+Astronomy+at+MESTA+and+MSTA+Conferences

Presentations were made at both the Michigan Earth Science Teachers Association Fall Conference in Hudsonville, MI and the Michigan Science Teachers Association Conference in Detroit, MI about our school's involvement in the Spitzer Teacher and Student Research Program. Hands-On activities were done by the session participants involving how we can detect different types of light, including infrared.

One activity came from Active Astronomy. Active Astronomy is a series of activities about the nature of light that was developed by the SOFIA project's E/PO team back when this mission to develop an aircraft based IR observatory first began. A pdf file for all the activities can be found at their website: []



The other activity - Build Your Own Light Sensor - is based on something I read many years ago and can no longer find to credit the original developer. My apologies. In it, you build a simple circuit between a LED and a digital multimeter. When a light is shone on the LED, electrical current flows into the multimeter and you can read off a voltage. Varying the color of light shone on the LED varies the voltage produced. This also works with an infrared LED and will lead (soon!) to the development of activities based on the concept of what in space can affect the amount of light of different wavelengths that can reach a detector on Earth (or near Earth, like the Spitzer!)

Copies of the student activity sheets and answer keys are available at the "Links to Activity Guides" in the Navigation panel to the left.

=Materials and Sources = This link is to a pdf file from SOFIA that lists sources and prices (from 2002) for the materials used in all of their activities. This includes 2 sources for the type of solar cell I used in my session at MESTA's conference in September 0f 2008. Also the alligator clip wire leads.



[|Click here] **Jumbo LEDs **
 * Additional materials for the Make Your Own Light Sensor Activity**

[|Click here] **Digital Multimeters **

If you prefer shopping locally, Radioshack should be able to order what you need, if they don't have it on hand at their store.  Sally wrote a grant proposal that was funded to incorporate elements of the IR Astronomy presentation at MESTA's Fall Conference last fall into her classroom. Her students will learn about simple electrical circuits, light, and IR Astronomy.
 * Stoney Grant Winner - Sally Wood-Hoskin Hartland High School, Hartland, MI 2009**

Congratulations Sally!

She will be sharing her sources for the supplies needed to do the activities referenced on this site (many cheaper!) soon.