Videos note: this page still under construction

To Scale: The Solar System:  A group of young dudes take to the Nevada desert to build a scale model of the Solar System.  Extremely well-done and professionally filmed, this one's definitely on my must-watch list. 
​7 mins

Neil DeGrasse Tyson "The Most Astounding Fact"  [Max Schlickenmeyer]:  Every classroom needs more Neil D. Tyson.  Here he is doing what he does best - tying astronomy into the human experience and seriously expanding our minds. Kids need this kind of stuff more than ever.
​3 min 35 sec [VIMEO] 

2013 Russian Meteor [NY Times]:  This comprehensive report shows footage from multiple sources and includes an interview with an MIT professor.
5 1/2 mins

Star Size Comparison [morn1415]:  Shows the scale of the stars compared to earth and the sun.  Commonly elicits "Whoa"s from my students, which is just the best.
​2 1/2 mins

The Known Universe by AMNH:  Well done video by the American Museum of Natural History showing scale of the universe.  [note:  I show only up to 3:05 because the stuff after that is over the heads of my high school students]
6 1/2 mins

Peering into A Black Hole [NY Times]:  Explains current effort to take the first picture of a black hole using a network of radio telescopes.  High quality, pro-shot.
2 1/2 mins

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How Can We See a Black Hole?  Students just love themselves some black holes.  Here's a simple video geared toward grades 6-9 explaining black hole basics.
2 1/2 mins

Scale of the Observable Universe:  A zoom out from Earth and then zoom back in shows the scale of universe.
​3 1/2 mins

Live Footage from International Space Station:  The official live feed via Ustream.

Here's more continuous footage from the ISS on Youtube, but I don't think it's in real time.

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Doppler Effect/Red Shift - Minivan Horn:  The most basic example of the Doppler Effect. Low budget, low resolution but good to show as an intro to this topic.
9 secs

Doppler Effect/Red Shift Explained:  Good explanation with some good visuals.
3 mins

Doppler Effect by Charlieiscool:  Well done video that really benefits from the fact that it is made by a teenager.  Students seem to naturally be more attracted to this video for that reason.
4 min 10 sec

​more videos to come...

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2nd String videos - on the fringe of the topic

Candid Tour of International Space Station:  An interesting tour of the ISS and cool footage of the zero gravity of space. A student favorite!
Sleep station shown at 0:35 sec.
Teeth brushing at 2:40
Space potty at 4:50
Kitchen at 7:10
8 mins 41 sec

This video shows the very cool ISS cupola as well at the exercise equipment.

Halley's Comet:  Brief but good overview.  
2 mins

Part 2 is here (2 mins)

Comet C/2011 L4: Very cool video.  Filmed over 2 nights in Florida in 2013, this is excellent real-word footage of this comet.  Great use of time lapse.
2 mins

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​Northeast Meteor May 17, 2016:  Pretty cool dash cam and surveillance camera footage from NY, VT and ME.
1 min

WEBSITE:  Stuff in Space: interactive site showing all the human-made objects orbiting earth.  Pretty cool.     

VantaBlack - The Darkest Material Ever Made [Sci Show]:  Overview of this new material that absorbs 99.965% of all light.  Very good to use with any lesson on reflection and absorption of light.  
3 min 52 sec   

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Meteor Crater, Arizona [Smithsonian Channel]:  Great sweeping visuals of the Earth's most prominent  meteor crater.
1 min 06 secs    

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Animations/Simulators: Click around and click-and-drag on things within these simultators as most of these are very interactive.  The full list of 125+ simulators from the U Nebraska-Lincoln can be found here

Doppler Shift Demonstrator:  A great tool to show how the Doppler Shift is generated.  Being able to show students the motion of the waves is huge.

Retrograde Motion:  Oh man, explaining retrograde motion has always been so difficult for me.  This should help.

Kepler's Laws Planetary Orbit Simulator:  Very good to teach the elliptical shape of orbits and eccentricity.  You can show the to-scale orbits of the 8 planets or use the slider to change the eccentricity of the orbit as you like.  The Kepler's 2nd Law tab on the left side enables you to show "sweeps" of varying duration which is really cool.

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Zodiac Constellations:  Click and drag the red pointer to see what zodiac constellations are visible throughout the year.  Provides a good perspective on why we see different stars at different times of the year. 
​UPDATE:  It looks like they have it backwards in regards to day and night, which is not good.

Rotating Sky Explorer:  On the right side under "Star Controls" I click Big Dipper to show students the relationship between what an observer on earth sees and the earth rotation view.  I also like the "add random star" feature.

Solar System Properties:  Super-basic in that it just shows bar graphs for 6 properties of planets in our solar system (such as orbital period, mass, # of satellites, etc).  But it helps you get a feel for the properties better than just a numerical chart (NY ESRT, I'm looking at you...)

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Additional Resources

Article:  "Flecks of Extraterrestrial Dust, All Over the Roof" [NY Times 3/10/17]:  Interesting article on an amateur collector of space from Norway.  It's cool to think that small pieces of meteorites are mixed in with the dust that covers...well, pretty much everything.    

PODCAST: 20,000 Hertz Podcast, "Space" Episode:  20,000 Hertz "explores the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds."  This episode looks at space and the planets of our solar system from the perspective of how sound would work on each.  A refreshingly unique concept and very well done.  This would be a great HW assignment for students. 
19 mins.    

I did get around to making it into a HW.  I also made a quiz for it to keep students honest.  Note: the quiz is to ensure students did in fact listen to the podcast. It is not designed to test facts or information included in the podcast. Click below to download.

Students directions

293_space_20k_hertz_podcast.doc
File Size:	60 kb
File Type:	doc

Download File

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Quiz

quiz_293_space_20k_hertz_podcast.doc
File Size:	60 kb
File Type:	doc

Download File

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