Stellar Evolution - Assessment

Your absent-minded astronomer friend suddenly realized she needed to be in Switzerland to address a meeting of international astronomers. She asked if you could do her a big favor while she was gone. She promised a local high school science teacher that she would do a slide show presentation for the tenth grade. The presentation would be on the life cycles of stars. She said she would supply you with the slides and the script. All you had to do was show the slides and read the script. She would drop them off on her way to the airport. You agreed to help her out.

She knocked on your door and handed you a manila envelope. "Thank you so much for doing this. Good luck," she exclaimed, as she dashed away.

You opened the envelope and saw a series of mixed-up slides. Lo and behold, there was no script! In her haste, she forgot to put the slides in order and include the script.

Fortunately, you have had several conversations with your astronomer friend about the life cycles of stars, and are familiar with the HR diagram. You decide you can still do the presentation for her.

Your task: Put the slides in the order that shows the stages in the life cycle of a star from birth to death. Write a short description of each stage that describes that stage in the life cycle. The description must be understandable to a tenth grade student.

Good luck! I'm sure you will put together a "stellar" presentation for the tenth grade class!

You will need a:

set of images
grading rubric

The easiest way to turn this project in would be to glue your images and descriptions onto a poster. You must show the evolution of (1) a mid-sized star, (2) a massive star, and (3) a mid-sized star ending in a Type 1A supernova event (make sure you label which is which. Some of the pictures may overlap for these three sequences. You do not need to print them twice - just branch off where you need to). EVERY SLIDE MUST BE USED!!!

Helpful links to help you identify the objects in the slides:
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Chandra X-ray Observatory Photo Album
The Hubble Project - Astronomy Images
The European Homepage for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope
AAVSO - Types of Variable Stars - shows sample light curves or variable stars and supernovae