Rice University
Characteristics of the Sun
After reading about how the sun gets its energy, and about the layers and features of the sun's atmosphere, heliologists complete a comprehension worksheet. On it, they label features on a diagram of the sun and match terms from the...
Curated OER
Sunspots and Space Weather
This assignment is out of this world! It is an online instructional activity about sunspots and solar cycles, a sort of WebQuest if you will. Links to two NASA websites and spaceweather.com are written into the questions so that your...
Space Awareness
Meet Our Neighbors: Sun
The sun isn't just a ball of yellow! Young scientists learn about the features of the sun using a hands-on modeling activity. They build models of the sun using common household items to represent sunspots, solar prominence, and the...
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Auroras
Learn the science behind one of the most beautiful acts of nature. A comprehensive lesson explores the causes and characteristics of auroras. The instruction also explains the differences among auroras and what the differences indicate...
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
Features of the Sun
An engaging tutorial teaches all about the sun. Learners see its different layers, explore the sun using different filters, and read about its different features. They then choose one feature to research and explore further.
It's About Time
The Sun and Its Effects on Your Community
Why is the sun round? Examine this question, and others, with your pupils while teaching them how to live in a more earth-friendly environment. Pupils explore Sun composition and discuss how solar wind, sunspots, and solar energy affects...
PHET
Features of the Sun
There are so many things to discover about the sun! Pupils discuss their knowledge of the sun, explore its features, apply their knowledge by labeling photographs, and then reflect on their learning by working in groups to draw and label...
Mr. E. Science
Our Solar System
The presentation starts with the scientists who made discoveries about our solar system: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo, Brahe, Kepler, and Newton. It also covers the planets, inner, outer, and Pluto, satellites, and an in-depth discussion...
PHET
The Sun: Pre- and Post-Assessment
Want to see how far pupils have come since the beginning of the unit? This activity is designed to be a pre- and post-assessment for a unit on the Sun. The first in a series of 18 that can be combined to form a complete unit. Two...
Curated OER
Break the Code: Astronomy
Here is a quick puzzle-style activity for your aspiring astronomers. A code is printed at the top of the page and learners use it to fill in the blanks describing different phenomena or objects in outer space. The material does not even...
Curated OER
Solar Cycle
Students explore the solar cycle through a series of experiments. In this space science lesson, students construct and evaluate solar cycle graphs. They explain how this phenomenon affects the Earth.
Curated OER
Sunspots
Students examine what a sunspot is and how it is produced. In this sun instructional activity students locate and measure sunspots then view them through a camera.
Curated OER
Sunspots and the Sun's Rotation
In this sun worksheet, students use a Sunspotter to observe the rotation of the sun by identifying the presence of sunspots and watching them rotate over time. Students calculate how many days it takes to see the sunspots they observe in...
Curated OER
Solar Surface Details
For this solar surface worksheet, students use a photograph taken by the Swedish Vacuum Telescope to answer 6 questions about the solar features in the photograph. Students determine the scale of the image, they determine the smallest...
Curated OER
Hinode-Close Up of a Sunspot
For this solar sunspot worksheet, students use two photographs from the Hinode solar observatory showing a sunspot on the solar surface. Students solve 5 problems including finding the scale of the images, determining the smallest detail...
Curated OER
Sunspot Activity
In this sunspot activity activity, students are given a table with 3 types of flares produced by sunspots based on their brightness. Students answer 5 questions by interpreting the data and they determine the percentages of the different...
Curated OER
Solar Activity
In this solar activity worksheet, students complete a puzzle given a word bank with matching numbers. The numbers correlate to the answers to basic math problems that use the order of operations. Students use their mathematical answers...
Curated OER
Satellite Technology
In this satellite technology worksheet, students read about Low Earth Orbit satellites and the frictional drag from the Earth's atmosphere that causes them to fall back towards the Earth. Students use given data of the years the...
Curated OER
Sunspots
In this sunspots worksheet, learners use the given size of a sunspot and find the total number of Earth's it would take to equal the sunspot size. Students answer 3 questions about the sunspots and are given an extra credit problem with...
NASA
The Effects of Sunspots on Climate
In this sunspots and climate change learning exercise, learners use a diagram of a tree stump and its rings to determine the age of the tree. They use sunspot data from the internet and they construct an Excel spreadsheet to compare the...
Curated OER
Stormy Sunspots
In this sunspots worksheet, students determine how magnetic storms on Earth are related to sunspot activity. They plot data for sunspot activity between 1967 and 1997. They compare their plotted data with the data for magnetic storms on...
Curated OER
The Sun
For this sun worksheet, students are given a diagram of 8 structures of the sun and they label each structure with a given term. They also fill in 8 blanks to complete sentences about the sun, its characteristics and the layers of its...
Curated OER
Galileo's Battle for the Heavens
Young scholars view a video about Galileo's discoveries. They work together to create graphs showing the current sunspot cycle. They discuss how sunspots can cause communication devices problems.
Curated OER
Tracking and Tracing Sunspots
Learners examine sunspots. In this sunspot lesson, students use applets to investigate the movement of sunspots. Learners research sunspots and evaluate the rotation of the sun. Lesson references outside resources not available in this...