Learning about the Sun

There are at least four reasons to study the sun that make it an interesting topic for a wide range of people ranging from the general public, to high school students, to astronomers:

its connection to our climate;
the impact of solar weather on us, such as the disruption of electrical grids and radio waves;
using our knowledge of the sun to understand other stars; and,
understanding its physical processes, especially fusion that could be the solution to our energy crisis.

Instead of spending many hours researching these connections on your own, why not get a good overview by reviewing some materials that were created especially for this purpose? Although designed for high school, others can profit from these materials.

Studying the sun is ideal for high school students, because it can be observed during the day when students are in school, and because there are some good activities that will allow teachers to satisfy off numerous skills, application and content curriculum expectations.

The materials include a complete lesson plan with supporting PowerPoint presentations that are fully integrated with the lesson plan. Curriculum expectations are referenced as footnotes throughout. The activities include: a pinhole image calculation of the diameter of the sun; calculating the rotation of the sun using the movement of sunspots; Internet research; and, graphing and predicting sunspot activity.

You can view these materials at http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/~percy/epo/sun/index.htm

Please forward this URL to any educator who might benefit from it.

An aside from John Percy:
This project was done by Fabiano Micoli, who has just completed a BEd in Science Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. It builds on his background in Physical Science, and his interest in astronomy. Ontario is in the process of revising its high school science curriculum, and this project is designed for the Astronomy/Space Unit in the Grade Nine curriculum. Few teachers have any background in astronomy, or astronomy teaching, so it is important for us to provide support.

I'm cross-appointed to OISE. Each year, I do workshops on astronomy teaching, for the teacher-candidates in Science. The BEd program includes a one-month Internship, in April-May. This year, I was fortunate to attract Fabiano as an Intern. This is all part of the benefit of having contact between an astronomy department, and an education faculty!

If you have comments about the project, or about linkages between astronomers and education faculties, please contact us:

Fabiano Micoli (f_micoli@hotmail.com)
John Percy (john.percy@utoronto.ca)