Space Math from NASA

Description

This collection of activities is based on a weekly series of space science problems distributed to thousands of teachers during 2004-2005 school year. They were intended as extra-credit problems for students looking for additional challenges in the math and physical science curriculum in grades 7 through 9. The problems were designed to be authentic glimpses of modern engineering issues that come up in designing satellites to work in space, and to provide insight into the basic phenomena of the Sun-Earth system, specifically ‘Space Weather’. The problems were designed to be ‘one-pagers’ with the student work sheet (with the top line for the student’s name) and a Teacher’s Guide and Answer Key as a second page. This compact form was deemed very popular by participating teachers. Acknowledgments ………………………………………………… i Background Reading …………………………………………….. ii Alignment with Standards iii Aurora Timeline. Students read two accounts of an aurora and construct a timeline of events from the narrative to identify common elements. ……………………………………………………. 1 Aurora Drawing. Students read a detailed description of an aurora display and create a picture or drawing of some element of the display. ……………………………………………………………… 2 Radiation Effects. Students read a book excerpt about solar radiation storms and answer questions about radiation dosage and safety. ……………………………………………………………… 3 Solar Flares and CMEs. Students construct Venn Diagrams to analyze the statistics of solar flares and coronal mass ejections. ... 4 Do big sunspots make big solar flares? Students study tabulated data and draw statistical conclusions about sunspots and solar flares. ……………………………………………………..…. 5 Solar Storms and Satellite Orbit Decay. Students compare the annual sunspot counts against satellite re-entries to explore the practical consequences of space weather. ……………………….... 6 Solar Electricity. Students calculate the areas of simple solar cell patterns and calculate the total power for these shapes. ……….… 7 Solar Power Decay. Students interpret a graph of solar power loss versus time to learn that solar flares can damage solar cells and reduce the power available to operate satellites the longer they are in space. …………………………………………………..…. 8 Space Weather Crossword. Students evaluate simple expressions involving positive and negative numbers such as - 3 ( - 12 + 9 ) to decode a crossword puzzle.………………………. 9 Bird’s-eye Look at the Sun-Earth System. Students solve for X in formulae such as 4x – 4 – ( 3x – 4) +3 = 0 to decode an essay on space weather. They then answer some questions about what they have read. …………………………………………………..……. 10 The Height of an Aurora. Students use the properties of triangles to measure the angles in a triangle that helps them determine the height of an aurora, based on techniques used by scientists in the 1800’s. ………………………………………... 11 Earth’s Wandering Magnetic Pole. Students interpret a plot of the location of the NMP since 300 AD and determine its speed of movement and distance traveled. …………………………….. 12 The Plasmasphere. Students interpret an image taken by a NASA satellite to determine the size and characteristics of Earth’s outer atmosphere. …………………………………………. 13 Magnetic Storms. Students interpret a plot of a magnetic disturbance to learn about the duration and scope of changes to Earth’s magnetic field in events called magnetic storms. …… 14 The Coronal Mass Ejection. Students learn about these violent releases of matter from the sun by estimating their speed from a narrative story. ……………………………………… 15 Plasma Clouds. Students fill in the missing information in a table by using a simple formula and a calculator. They learn about radio waves and their reflection from plasmas. ………….. 16 An Application of Pythagorean Theorem to Magnetism. Students determine the strength of a magnetic field from its three components to assess its strength in a number of cities across North America. ……………………………………………... 17 Magnetic Forces and Particle Motion. Students solve an algebraic equation for the velocity of a charged particle and substitute numerical quantities to determine particle speeds in various physical systems. …………………………………………. 18 The Solar Wind and the Bow Shock. Students solve an algebraic equation for the distance to the bow shock region, and investigate how this changes for various types of solar storms. ………………………………………………………………. 19 Kinetic Energy and Voltage. Students solve an algebraic equation to determine the kinetic energy of various charged particles compared to their voltages. Space physicists typically use voltage as a measure of particle kinetic energy. ………….. 20