Table of Contents

Module 6: The Milky Way and Beyond

Lesson 2: Hunting for galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field

Timeframe:

This activity requires approximately one 30-minute class

• In this class, students will examine the Hubble Deep Field images and identify different types of galaxies.

Objectives:  Pan-Canadian Curriculum Objectives

204-7: plan a set of steps to solve a practical problem and to carry out a fair test of a science-related idea (e.g., plan a procedure to test a hypothesis in a simulated moon crater activity)

General Objectives:

Through this activity, students will become more familar with the physical characteristics of galaxies and will begin to learn how to classify galaxies. Students will also gain a deeper understanding of the grand scale of the universe.

Curricular Connections:

• Language Arts
  • Descriptive writing

Lesson Overview:

This activity involves having students analyze the Hubble Deep Field images to identify galaxies. Students also will classify and sort galaxies according to the physical characteristics. Students will be required to write explanations for the classification techniques they used.

Materials and Resources:

Nota : This page contains documents for which the access may require a particular software. If the software is not installed, you can download it and follow the instructions for installation.

• Hubble Deep Field images (PDF format, 263 KB)
• Galaxy shapes handout (PDF format, 709 KB)
• Hubble Tuning Fork diagram (PDF format, 629 KB)

Vocabulary:   Astronomy Glossary

• galaxy
• elliptical
• spiral
• barred spiral
• Hubble Deep Field
• Hubble Space Telescope

Developing the Lesson:

1. Assign students to groups of two

2. Expain that before they begin, all students must write down an explanation for the differences between stars and galaxies, as well as an explanation of how they are going to classify the galaxies in the images.

3. Dismiss students to begin working

Closure:

The teacher distributes the Galaxy shapes handout and begins a discussion as to how the students chose to classify the galaxies. Teacher should elicit feedback from the students as to the frequency with which certain types of galaxies appear in the images and a corresponding rationale.

Use the Hubble Tuning Fork HTML page to explain classification.

• Hubble's tuning fork diagram

Evaluation:

The key to this activity is having students look at esentially raw data in order to determine and justify a means of classifying galaxies. Students should be evaluated on the rationael they include for their classification techniques, and also on their ability to work within their groups.

The following rubric may be helpful for evaluations.