Astro 101 Lab: this team of scientist/engineer educators designed and taught an inquiry lab activity through ISEE’s Professional Development Program

L-R: Georgina Anderson, Justin Roberts-Pierel, and Thomas Richardson

Venue:  Astro 101 Lab, University of South Carolina

Team Members:

Thomas Richardson (Design Team Lead): Graduate Student, Physics, University of South Carolina

Justin Roberts-Pierel: Graduate Student, Dept of Physics & Astronomy, University of South Carolina

Georgina Anderson: Graduate Student, Biology, University of South Carolina

Audience: 23 undergraduates

Activity name: Atomic and Blackbody Spectroscopy - A Star is Born

Learning Goals: 

Students will use the concept of atomic and blackbody spectroscopy to determine the physical characteristics, i.e. composition, temperature

• Each element has unique emission/absorption spectra that can be used to identify constituents
• Wien’s Law inversely relates the temperature and the peak wavelength of the star’s spectrum

This team funded by: NSF AST#1743117 and University of South Carolina; South Carolina Space Grant Consortium (NNX15AL49H)