Skip to main content
RETURN TO SEARCH RESULTS

OpenSciEd Physics + Earth & Space Unit 6: Stars & the Big Bang Student Edition

Author(s): NATIONAL CENTER FOR

CHOOSE FORMAT

OpenSciEd High School addresses all high school NGSS standards. This comprehensive science curriculum empowers students to question, design, investigate, and solve the world around them. 

  • Phenomenon Based - Centered around exploring phenomena or solving problems
  • Driven by Student Questions - Storyline based on students’ questions and ideas 
  • Grounded in Evidence - Incremental building and revision of ideas based on evidence 
  • Collaborative - class and teacher figure out ideas together
  • Equitable - Builds a classroom culture that values ideas and learning of all

The OpenSciEd model uses a storyline approach, introducing phenomena that anchors storylines developing disciplinary core ideas, concepts, and science/engineering practices. Students are encouraged to dive deep into key points and solve problems through five activities. 

P.6 Stars & the Big Bang Theory: Why do stars shine and will they shine forever?

This unit is anchored by historical accounts of stars that suddenly appear and disappear shortly later. Students wonder about how some stars appear unchanging while these stars change so drastically within such a short period of time. That makes students wonder why stars shine and what could cause stars to change. They organize their questions regarding matter, energy, and forces and decide to look more closely at the places in the sky where these historical events took place using modern technology. In Lesson Set 1 (Lessons 2-5), students investigate photos and spectra of the remnants of these events and then develop two sets of research questions to investigate in small groups before coming together to come to consensus in Lesson 5 around the fusion and the lifecycle of stars. Students’ small-group internet research is scaffolded by a set of tools introduced strategically across the unit: the Planning for Obtaining Information Tool, the Obtaining Information Tool, and the Evaluating Sources of Information Tool.

Student Procedures
Lesson 1: Why do some stars seem unchanging, while others appear briefly, change dramatically, and fade away?
Lesson 2: How does the matter in guest stars compare to stable stars?
Lesson 3: What is happening with matter and energy in stable stars, like our Sun, and how does this help us understand guest stars?
Lesson 4: How does running out of fuel cause a star to change?
Lesson 5: Why do some stars seem unchanging, while others appear briefly, change dramatically, and fade away?
Lesson 6: How has the matter in the Universe changed over time, and how do we know?
Lesson 7: How can we use the practices and crosscutting concepts we have developed to figure things out on our own?
References
Guest Star 1054 Location Reference
Periodic Table
Star Spectra
Evaluating Online Sources Overview
Galactic Spectra
Empty Space Spectra
Readings
Stellar LifeCycle-V2
Stellar Life Cycle-V1

NATIONAL CENTER FOR

OpenSciEd®​ was launched to improve the supply of and address the demand for high-quality, open-source, full course science instructional materials.  The goals of OpenSciEd are to ensure any science teacher, anywhere, can access and download freely available, high quality, locally adaptable materials.  Though the goal of providing full course materials is still a couple of years away, OpenSciEd is releasing six-week units of instruction as they are completed and externally evaluated as quality by Achieve’s Science Peer Review Panel.

OpenSciEd classroom materials are an open education resource and therefore free to download, copy, use, and/or modify.  You can download the instructional materials free of charge at Access Materials page on the OpenSciEd website.

In an effort to lower barriers for all educators to use OpenSciEd, Kendall Hunt and OpenSciEd have partnered to sell high quality printed books, professional learning and lab kits.