Center for Astronomy Education
Dedicated to improving teaching and learning in Astronomy 101
Classroom Instructional Materials
Images from Lecture-Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy, Third Edition
Here you will find individual .jpg versions of all the artwork in Lecture-Tutorials for Introductory
Astronomy, Third Edition. You will also find Power Point slides of each image grouped by sections
in the book.
Voting Card
- A-B-C-D Voting Card (PDF, 115 KB)
Instructional Strategy How-To Guides
- Think-Pair-Share How-To Guide (PDF, 238 KB)
- Lecture-Tutorial How-To Guide (PDF, 250 KB)
Here are classroom-tested Think-Pair-Share and Astronomy Assessment Questions. Many of these questions were created alongside the Lecture-Tutorials, Ranking Tasks, and Concept Inventory development programs to support the teaching of Astro 101. Be sure to thoroughly review any questions before using them in your classroom. Note; there are often several variations on a question topic.
The Night Sky
Fundamentals of Astronomy
Nature of Light and Astronomy
Our Solar System
- Position and Motion (Word, 778 KB)
- Seasonal Stars (Word, 135 KB)
- Solar vs. Sidereal Day-Ecliptic (Word, 125 KB)
- Star Charts (Word, 2.3 MB)
Fundamentals of Astronomy
- Kepler’s Second Law (Word, 105 KB)
- Newton’s Laws and Gravity (Word, 379 KB)
- Apparent and Absolute Magnitudes of Stars (Word, 34 KB)
- Parsec, Parallax, and Distance (Word, 20 KB)
- Spectroscopic Parallax (Word, 21 KB)
Nature of Light and Astronomy
- EM Spectrum of Light (Word, 111 KB)
- Telescopes and Earth’s Atmosphere (Word, 22 KB)
- Luminosity, Temperature, and Size (Word, 110 KB)
- Blackbody Radiation (Word, 404 KB)
- Types and Spectra (Word, 56 KB)
- Light and Atoms (Word, 161 KB)
- Analyzing Spectra (Word, 291 KB)
- Doppler Shift (Word, 111 KB)
Our Solar System
- Cause of Moon Phases (Word, 76 KB)
- Predicting Moon Phases (Word, 1.5 MB)
- Path of the Sun (Word, 86 KB)
- Seasons (Word, 624 KB)
- Observing Retrograde Motion (Word, 44 KB)
- Earth’s Changing Surface (Word, 21 KB)
- Temperature and Formation of Our Solar System (Word, 26 KB)
- Sun Size (Word, 25 KB)
- Greenhouse Gas Effect (Word, 270 KB)
Stars, Galaxies, and Beyond
- HR Diagram (Word, 105 KB)
- Star Formation and Lifetimes (Word, 38 KB)
- Binary Stars (Word, 299 KB)
- Motion of Extrasolar Planets (Word, 1.4 MB)
- Stellar Evolution (Word, 28 KB)
- Milky Way Scales (Word, 3.7 MB)
- Galaxy Classification (Word, 5.8 MB)
- Galaxy Collisions (Word, 21 KB)
- Looking at Distant Objects (Word, 28 KB)
- Expansion of the Universe (Word, 958 KB)
- Sun Spots (Word, 20 KB)
- Galaxy Rotation Curves and Dark Matter (Word, 103 KB)
- Big Bang (Word, 23 KB)
- Gravitational Microlensing (Word, 165 KB)
- Hubble’s Law (Word, 135 KB)
- Lookback Times and Distances (Word, 33 KB)
- Making Sense of the Universe and Expansion (Word, 308 KB)
Detecting Exoplanets with the Transit Method Curriculum
- Lecture-Tutorial: Detecting Exoplanets with the Transit Method (DOCX, 1.71 MB)
- Lecture Slides: Detecting Exoplanets with the Transit Method (PPTX, 2.31 MB)
Detecting Exoplanets with Gravitational Microlensing Curriculum
- Lecture-Tutorial: Detecting Exoplanets with Gravitational Microlensing (DOCX, 625 KB)
- Lecture-Tutorial Instructor's Guide: Detecting Exoplanets with Gravitational Microlensing (DOCX, 39 KB)
- Lecture Slides: Detecting Exoplanets with Gravitational Microlensing (PPTX, 1.37 MB)
- Homework: Detecting Exoplanets with Gravitational Microlensing (DOCX, 201 KB)
- Homework Solutions: Detecting Exoplanets with Gravitational Microlensing (DOCX, 203 KB)
Radio Curriculum
- Lecture-Tutorial: Rotation, Vibration, and Synchrotron Radiation – Astronomical Interactions of Light and Matter (DOCX, 951 KB)
- Lecture Slides: Rotation, Vibration, and Synchrotron Radiation – Astronomical Interactions of Light and Matter (PPTX, 3.94 MB)
- Assessment Questions: Rotation, Vibration, and Synchrotron Radiation – Astronomical Interactions of Light and Matter (DOCX, 695 KB)
Unpublished Ranking Tasks
Apparent & Absolute Magnitude
Doppler Shift
Gravity
Kepler's Laws - Orbital Motion
- Activity 1 (PDF, 151 KB)
- Activity 2 (PDF, 78 KB)
- Activity 3 (PDF, 80 KB)
- Activity 4 (PDF, 70 KB)
Doppler Shift
- Activity 1 (PDF, 145 KB)
- Activity 2 (PDF, 72 KB)
- Activity 3 (PDF, 70 KB)
- Activity 4 (PDF, 68 KB)
Gravity
- Activity 1 (PDF, 95 KB)
- Activity 2 (PDF, 346 KB)
- Activity 3 (PDF, 64 KB)
- Activity 4 (PDF, 287 KB)
- Activity 5 (PDF, 398 KB)
- Activity 6 (PDF, 74 KB)
- Activity 7 (PDF, 116 KB)
Kepler's Laws - Orbital Motion
- Activity 1 (PDF, 170 KB)
- Activity 2 (PDF, 93 KB)
- Activity 3 (PDF, 165 KB)
- Activity 4 (PDF, 70 KB)
- Activity 5 (PDF, 66 KB)
Luminosity of Stars
Phases of the Moon
The Seasons
Motion of the Sky
- Activity 1 (PDF, 64 KB)
- Activity 2 (PDF, 72 KB)
- Activity 3 (PDF, 72 KB)
- Activity 4 (PDF, 71 KB)
- Activity 5 (PDF, 67 KB)
Phases of the Moon
- Activity 1 (PDF, 102 KB)
- Activity 2 (PDF, 105 KB)
- Activity 3 (PDF, 84 KB)
- Activity 4 (PDF, 121 KB)
- Activity 5 (PDF, 120 KB)
The Seasons
- Activity 1 (PDF, 223 KB)
- Activity 2 (PDF, 135 KB)
- Activity 3 (PDF, 154 KB)
- Activity 4 (PDF, 198 KB)
- Activity 5 (PDF, 191 KB)
Motion of the Sky
- Activity 1 (PDF, 95 KB)
- Activity 2 (PDF, 96 KB)
- Activity 3 (PDF, 114 KB)
- Activity 4 (PDF, 96 KB)
- Activity 5 (PDF, 114 KB)
Stellar Evolution
Stellar Evolution & Lookback Time
Size & Scale
- Activity 1 (PDF, 75 KB)
- Activity 2 (PDF, 58 KB)
- Activity 3 (PDF, 74 KB)
- Activity 4 (PDF, 76 KB)
Stellar Evolution & Lookback Time
- Activity 1 (PDF, 69 KB)
Size & Scale
- Activity 1 (PDF, 987 KB)
- Activity 2 (PDF, 1.03 MB)
- Activity 3 (PDF, 67 KB)
- Activity 4 (Word, 29 KB)
Exam Banks
Spring 2008
Fall 2008
Fall 2008
Syllabi
- MWF Syllabus (PDF, 58 KB)
- TTH Syllabus (PDF, 69 KB)
Lecture PowerPoint Presentations
- 1. Introduction (PPT, 4.69 MB)
- 2. Foundations (PPT, 4.08 MB)
- 3. Star Position and Motion (PPT, 2.66 MB)
- 4. Path of the Sun (PPT, 371 KB)
- 5. Seasons (PPT, 381 KB)
- 6. Moon Phases (PPT, 988 KB)
- 7. Eclipses (PPT, 392 KB)
- 8. Retrograde Motion (PPT, 730 KB)
- 9. Capernicus,_Brahe_Kepler (PPT, 1.4 MB)
- 10. Kepler_Galileo_Newton (PPT, 2.56 MB)
- 11.Telescopes (PPT, 1.55 MB)
- 12. Light Part I (PPT, 782 KB)
- 13. Light Part II (PPT, 1.68 MB)
- 14. Light Part III (PPT, 241 KB)
- 15. The Solar System (PPT, 5.93 MB)
- 16. Earth (PPT, 7 MB)
- 17. The Sun (PPT, 1.25 MB)
- 18. Stars Part I (PPT, 389 KB)
- 19. Spectral Classification and the H-R Diagram (PPT, 1.01 MB)
- 20. The Lives of Stars (PPT, 661 KB)
- 21. The Death of Stars (PPT, 747 KB)
- 22. The Milky Way (PPT, 2.43 MB)
- 23. Galaxies (PPT, 1.54 MB)
- 24. Cosmology Part 1 (PPT, 3.46 MB)
CAE Workshop Slides
Presentations
Additional Resources
Images
Instructional Strategies
Instructional Resources
Professional Organizations