Scavenger Hunt

Teacher Notes

This project is a fun introduction to SkyServer and to the types of objects astronomers study. Students go on a "scavenger hunt" with the SkyServer Navigation tool, looking for 20 objects in a specified amount of time. Students learn about stars, galaxies, and asteroids, and learn how the magnitude scale provides a quantitative measure of how bright a star or galaxy is. If you E-mail us the names of groups that win the Scavenger Hunt in your classes, we'll post the names of the winners on to the "winning groups" page of the student project, giving your students real-world authentication for their work.

• Overview gives a description of the project, its target audience, and the concepts it teaches

• Background gives scientific background about the project, including references, to help you answer student questions

• Lesson Plan gives all the information you will need to teach this project in your classroom

• Teaching Tips gives specific advice on how to use each stage of the project

• Assessment gives ideas for evaluating student work

• Standards links this project to national science, math, and technology standards.