NASA NuSTAR Educator's Guide
The NuSTAR Educator's Guide includes four classroom activities that are aligned to Next Generation Science Standards, and Common Core Mathematics and Literacy Standards. Also included is background information about NuSTAR's instrumentation and the detection of x-rays. Two of the activities (Focusing X-rays and Building a Stable Mast) engage the students in exploring physical properties that were important to the design of the NuSTAR spacecraft and instrumentation. The other two activities are scientific literacy activities: in one activity students analyze news reports about discoveries made with NuSTAR, and in the other, they compare and contrast different types of medical x-ray technologies.
Active Galaxy Educational Unit
This education unit was developed for the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope E/PO program, but addresses one of NuSTAR's main scientific objectives: the study of galaxies with massive black holes at their cores. All three activities are aligned with the national science and mathematics standards. A beautiful poster illustrating an active galaxy features one of the three activities on the reverse side.
Black Holes FAQ Sheet: From Here to Infinity
This black hole Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) sheet, developed as part of the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope E/PO program, explores some of the most interesting questions concerning black holes. What happens when you fall into one? How do they form? Can they be used for time travel? Find out here!
Black Holes Educator Workshop: From Here to Infinity
The SSU group, in collaboration with DMNS, has created an educators' workshop based on the planetarium program 'Black Holes: From Here to Infinity", complete with an educators' guide with well-tested activities from different Astrophysics division missions to teach the basic concepts outlined in the planetarium program.
Guide Presentations:
Black hole science web sites
The following websites have excellent scientific descriptions of black holes, designed for curious minds of all ages.
For young readers:
For young adults:
For advanced readers:
Black hole science web sites
Black holes are an excellent way to engage your student and increase their curiosity and wonder of the world around them. Here are some sites that have classroom activities which explore the concepts of how black holes behave, and teach basic concepts in science and math. Interactive education matrix for educators interested in teaching about black holes (this includes links below and more).
Cool black hole games for all ages
What better way to treat the endpoints of all matter, space, and time, than with a game? These websites features games - both online and board/card games - that are not only fun to play, but are educational and standards-based.
Great black hole resource pages
There are many more great sites on the web dealing with black holes, how they work, how they affect their neighborhoods, and what scientists hope to learn from them. Listed below are a few of these places where you can learn even more about black holes.
Educator Ambassadors
NuSTAR is supporting one Educator Ambassador to help develop, test and disseminate materials that include NuSTAR science.
The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array science operations center is located on the campus of the California Institute of Technology
