Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Properties of Dust: Grades 6 - 8
Properties of Dust: Grades 6 - 8
Pass out copies of the pages “About the Spitzer Space Telescope” 10-5 (0.00001) (no name) bacteria, pollen
and “Resources” from the back of the poster for students to read. interstellar dust,
10-6 (0.000001) micrometer
fungal spores, bacteria
bacteri
Ask students to respond to the following questions:
3. What are the unique capabilities of the Spitzer Space 10-7 (0.0000001) (no name) smoke, bacteria
Telescope that astronomers need in order to investigate 10 (0.00000001)
-8
(no name) smoke
interstellar dust?
10 (0.000000001)
-9
nanometer molecules
4. Based on your classroom dust investigation, what
challenges do you think astronomers have to overcome
in order to investigate interstellar dust hundreds of light- This tiny speck of dust shed
years away? from a comet is only about 6 by
10 micrometers, but it is huge
compared to interstellar dust.
Evaluation Rubric
Most interstellar dust grains are
Engagement: 0-20 points one micrometer (the size of the
• Students actively engage in the activity, with each small white scale bar) or smaller.
member contributing to the investigation objectives.
h t t p : / / w w w. j s c . n a s a . g o v /
Methodology: 0-40 Points jscfeatures/images/hires/IDP.jpg
NASA
http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/classroom/ For comments or questions contact [email protected] © 2004 The University of Texas McDonald Observatory
Properties of Dust