Who s Got the Power? Exploring Science and Math Skills of Cosmic Magnitude

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3 Who s Got the Power? Exploring Science and Math Skills of Cosmic Magnitude I GOT THE POWER!!! Have you got the Power? Welcome to Who s Got the Power! This is no ordinary set of cards, it is one with POWER. The powers of TEN, that is. This deck has been designed so that students must use scientific notation (as well as other skills) to compete in games while reinforcing standards-based mathematics and science. Below you will find a brief description of the objects or phenomena found on the cards, a list of some standard card games that can be played with this special and powerful deck of cards (you might think of more!), and suggested classroom extensions. Information about the Cards There are 4 suits - Mass, Time, Energy, and Distance - chosen because they represent the four most basic properties of astronomical objects. Mass - Mass is defined by physical content, i.e., by the number of electrons, protons, molecules, etc. A bar of gold would have the same mass anywhere in the Universe. The mass of an object determines its own behavior and the behavior of objects around it. For example, a more massive object will have a larger gravitational effect on a nearby object than vice versa. One of the few characteristics of a black hole (the engine in most high-energy phenomena) that can be measured is its mass. Distance - Knowing the distance to an object allows us to understand not only how much energy it is actually producing, but also can help us determine important facts about the Universe itself, such as how fast it is expanding and how the rate of expansion is changing. Energy - The energy of an object determines much about how the object behaves. The energy of an object s emitted radiation tells us fundamental properties of the object - such as temperature and composition. It also determines what sort of instrumentation we use to observe it. Time - Objects change with time. If you wait even one minute after a gamma-ray burst does its stuff, you ll miss it. Most objects change on longer timescales, but everything changes with time...and that fact can sometimes tell us everything from an object s spin period to how old it is. There are 13 objects or phenomena. They are: Black Hole - the final state of a dead supermassive star, black holes have such strong gravity that, within the event horizon, not even light can escape from their pull. Comet - comets are known to be frozen iceballs of dust and gas. They travel around the Sun in elliptical orbits, with periods ranging from a year or two to tens of thousands of years. Halley s Comet, named for the man who discovered its orbit, Edmund Halley, is perhaps the most famous comet. It returns to the inner solar system about every 76 years.

4 Earth Objects - to keep things in perspective, here are some typical objects and events that you can fit into your number scale. NASA s Swift satellite is designed to explore the many mysteries of cosmic gamma-ray bursts. It is scheduled for launch in Milky Way Galaxy - our home, this average spiral galaxy contains about 200,000,000,000 (2 x10 11 ) stars. Gamma Ray Photon - represents the high energy, high frequency, short wavelength end of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, like all photons, it moves at the speed of light, 300,000 km/sec (3x10 5 km/sec) and has no mass. Gamma Ray Burst - the most powerful explosions in the Universe today, they light up the sky about once a day...but we don t see them with our eyes because they emit almost all of their power in gamma rays. Discovered in the late 1960s, we are only today making inroads into what causes this mysterious phenomena. GRBs are named using the designation GRB and the date of the burst. For example, GRB was seen to occur in 1999 on January 23 (01/23). Nebula with Pulsar - after a supernova explosion, the stellar core often collapses into a neutron star, while what used to be the star s outer layers form an expanding shell of gas called a nebula. Sometimes this is referred to as a supernova remnant. There can be interesting exchanges of energy between the pulsar and the nebula -- this is well observed in the Crab nebula. The Crab supernova took place in 1054 AD, and was diligently documented by Chinese astronomers. Optical Photon - represents the medium energy, medium frequency, average wavelength end of the electromagnetic spectrum - and the part we detect with our eyes! However, like all photons, it moves at the speed of light, 300,000 km/sec (3x10 5 km/sec) and has no mass. Pulsar - a spinning neutron star. It has the mass of a Sun, but is only about 20 km in diameter. That makes for a very dense object, with a large gravitational pull! Neutron stars also have strong magnetic fields -- more than 100,000,000,000 (1 x ) times stronger than the magnetic field of the Earth. Pulsars are often named using their coordinates on the sky and the designation PSR. A typical name might be PSR J , where the J represents a standard astronomical coordinate system, and the numbers are the position of the pulsar in those coordinates. Quasar - believed to be caused by a supermassive black hole in the center of an otherwise normal galaxy, quasars are known to emit enormous amounts of energy. Recent observations imply most have features called jets, which are collimated streams of matter emitted at high velocity from the poles of the quasar. Remember: because light travels at a finite speed, the farther away an object is, the longer it takes for its light to reach us. We see the object as it was when the light left it, which means we are looking into the past as we look farther from the Earth! The amount of time in the past we see an object is called the lookback time. Radio Photon - represents the low energy, low frequency, long wavelength end of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, like all photons, it moves at the speed of light, 300,000 km/sec (3x10 5 km/sec) and has no mass.

5 Sun - our nearest star, the Sun gives us all of the heat and light we need to survive and thrive. An average star, the Sun is about halfway through its 9 billion year main sequence lifetime (burning nuclear fuel in its core to produce the sunlight that we see). Supernova - when a massive star runs out of fuel, it explodes in a spectacular event called a supernova. New elements are created in the explosions and spewed out into space to form the raw materials of the next generation of stars, planets, and people. Games to Play WAR - Focus on: Scientific Notation and Operations Skills This game can be played with 2 or 4 players. Begin the game by dealing cards until the deck is split equally among the players. Play begins with all players, at the same time, turning over the top card from their pile and laying it face up. Look at all of the face up cards to see which card has the higher/highest value. The player of the higher/highest card wins all the face up cards. That player collects the cards and puts them into a separate pile. When players have used up all the cards in their pile, they continue play with the cards from their won pile. The game continues until someone has all 52 cards in his or her pile, in which case the game is over. WAR occurs when two players lay down cards of the same value. If this happens, three cards from each player must be placed face down and a fourth card placed face up. First card represents I ; Second card represents DO ; Third card represents DECLARE ; Fourth card represents WAR. The cards that are face up should be evaluated to see which card has the higher/highest value. The player of the higher/highest card value wins all of the cards involved in the WAR. WAR can be declared as many times as necessary until the face up cards are different. You can add some higher level thinking to the WAR game by having students at WAR multiplying or dividing the values on the cards to create either the (1) largest number or (2) the smallest number in order to win. GO FISH - Focus on: Identification of Astronomical Objects To play, deal each player 7 cards. Place the remaining cards face down in the center of the table as a drawing pile. Players lay down any matches that they have and read the objects aloud. For example, a player might have 2 or more supernova cards or black hole cards. Beginning with the player to the left of the dealer, a player asks another specific player for an object that he/she can match. For example, the player might say Laura, do you have any Suns? If the player addressed has the card, he/she hands it over. If not, he/she replies, Go Fish. Whenever players Go Fish, they pick up a card from the top of the drawing pile. When a player gets a match, he/she states the object matched and reads the captions on the cards. His/her turn continues until he/she gets the Go Fish response. Any player who runs out of cards, just sits and watches until there is only 1 player left with cards. The winner is the one who collected the most pairs.

6 MODIFIED POKER - Focus on: Object Identification and Units The game must be modified since the cards do not rank in each of the suits (so no straights are possible). Each player is dealt 5 cards. Players try to get hands of (ranked in order from highest to lowest): Four of a Kind - All 4 cards of the same object, such as 4 Nebula with Pulsars or 4 Optical Photons. Full House - Three of a kind and a pair, such as 3 Comets and 2 Earth Objects. Flush - All of the cards are the same suit, such as all of mass or all of energy. Three of a Kind - 3 cards of the same object, such as 3 Quasars or 3 Pulsars. Two Pair - two sets of two of a kind, such as 2 Milky Way Galaxies and 2 Radio Photons. Pair - 2 cards of the same object, such as 2 Gamma Ray Photons or 2 Suns. After looking at the 5 cards received in the deal, each player may ask the dealer for up to 4 new cards, by discarding the requested number of cards back to the dealer and receiving new cards from the top of the deck. All players must then reveal and read aloud (object, power, and units) the cards in their hands. The player with the highest ranking hand wins. Additional Classroom Investigations and Activities 1. Challenge your students to find additional parallels with other games, in addition to creating their own games. You might even hold a science game event and invite other classes to participate. 2. Using ratios, bend segments of wire to make scale models of the wavelengths of the different photons shown on the cards. Considering the scales involved, how many different regions can you create models for before you run into difficulties? Does it matter what you chose to be your unit length? Experiment and discover! Then relate the models to our everyday use of energy (microwave ovens, radar, lights, etc.) 3. Investigate how the energy from the Sun is created. If the photons from the Sun have no mass, then is the mass of the Sun constant? Investigate and explain. 4. Categorize the types of energy referenced on the energy cards as potential, kinetic, or electromagnetic. Devise a simple demonstration to compare the three types using a slinky. 5. Have a game of Charades: a student or student team draws a card, acts out the descriptor and its unit category. 6. Become an expert. Have a student draw a card, research the descriptor, and prepare a multi-media presentation on the subject. 7. Create a manipulative model of large numbers, convert scientific notation to standard numerical form by having students use number cutouts (1-9) and M&Ms (or pennies) for zeroes. Perform functions (+, -, /, x) on the number models. 8. Create scale models using balls, newspaper, clay, etc. to compare the mass and distance of/between Earth and selected bodies. How many Earths could fit inside the Sun? How many solar diameters could line up across the diameter of a supernova remnant? 9. Convert seconds to hours and relate to human activities (age, time spent at school or work, etc.).

7 10. Power Operation-pairs of students choose an operation (+, -, /, x) and one card each from the top of the deck of cards. Students perform the operation on those two cards. Teachers should ask students to play this game for at least 15 rounds, and show their work on a sheet of paper to be turned in to the teacher. 11. Powerful Problems- students choose 5 cards from the deck and write 5 word problems that contain the numbers and objects on each of the 5 cards chosen. Related Lesson Plans The following lessons all depend on students understanding scientific notation, and possessing the ability to perform basic mathematical functions with them, such as (+, -, /, x). They are all wrapped in cool astronomy problems that will engage students as well as show them that scientists really do use this notation -- and with good reason! Have them try to solve these activities without using it! The URLs at which you can find the complete lesson plans are given. The Power of These -- page23.html Gamma Ray Bursts are the most powerful phenomena in the Universe, but what does that mean? Examine a bar graph comparing the power of gamma ray bursts to campfires, nuclear power plants, supernova explosions, and more. A group activity allows students to represent one of the different phenomena presented on the X-axis of the bar graph. Just how far apart they should stand from one another depends on their mastery of exponential notation. Lotto or Life: What are the Chances? -- lotto_cover.html Tapping into a student s curiosity about the possibility of intelligent life in other parts of our Universe, this lesson uniquely combines the concepts of astronomy and mathematical probability in order for students to compare the likelihood of intelligent life existing elsewhere in the Universe versus winning the lottery. Tin Foil, Balloons, and Black Holes -- imagine/page11.html#tin Just what happens when a star collapses into a black hole? What does it all mean? And where does the material go? Examine the formation of a black hole with this hands-on activity of mind boggling magnitude! Additional Resources Powers of 10 Video, Book, and CD Rom - these items can be obtained from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP). They have a catalog online at their website, Cosmic Voyage - originally an IMAX movie, it is now available on VHS. This item is also available from the ASP catalog. Imagine the Universe! Web site - provides excellent background materials for all of the objects and phenomena used on the cards. The site also contains a Teacher s Corner full of resources and lessons.

8 Swift mission Web site - provides innovative materials for educators including lesson plans and activities, as well as background materials on the gamma-ray sky and the phenomena of gamma-ray bursts. Notes to the Teacher 1.) Several cards are related to photons -- radio, optical, and gamma-ray. You can use them to reinforce to your students the things they should know about the electromagnetic spectrum. For example, each photon has zero mass and takes 500 sec to travel from the Sun to the Earth (because they travel at the same speed, 300,000 km/s), but they have very different wavelengths and energies. 2.) Several sets of cards refer to phases in the life cycles of stars -- Sun, supernova, pulsar, black hole -- you can use them in reviewing this science standard. 3.) Take care: some of the cards differ only by digits in the decimal place; some have negative exponents (be mindful of students who think this means they represent numbers less than zero). 4.) Objects related to the Earth were included in order to give students everyday reference points. Consider having students investigate the meaning of the Earth values relative to the space values. 5.) You can create additional decks of cards using the templates found at materials/cards.html. Be sure to use heavy paper or else cover the back with some sort of graphic so that the print cannot be seen through the paper by the player s competitor! Also, to demo this, teachers can print or photocopy the card deck onto transparencies to create an overhead version. National Science Content Standards Involved Grades 5-8 Physical Science: Transfer of Energy The Sun is a major source of energy for changes on the earth s surface. The sun loses energy by emitting light. A tiny fraction of that light reaches the Earth, transferring energy from the Sun to the Earth. The sun s energy arrives as light with a range of wavelengths, consisting of visible light, infrared, and ultraviolet radiation. Grades 9-12 Physical Science: Conservation of Energy and the Increase of Disorder The total energy of the universe is constant. Energy can be transferred by collisions in chemical and nuclear reactions, by light waves and other radiations, and in many other ways; All energy can be considered to be either kinetic energy, which is the energy of motion; potential energy, which depends on relative position; or energy contained by a field, such as electromagnetic waves. Interactions of Energy and Matter: Waves, including sound and seismic waves, waves on water, and light waves, have energy and can transfer energy when they interact with matter; Electromagnetic waves result when a charged object is accelerated or decelerated. Electromagnetic waves include radio waves (the longest wavelength), microwaves, infrared radiation (radiant heat), visible light, ultraviolet radiation, x-rays, and gamma rays. The energy of electromagnetic waves is carried in packets whose magnitude is inversely proportional to the wavelength. Grades 9-12 Earth/Space Science: Origin and Evolution of the Universe: Early in the history of the universe, matter, primarily in the form of hydrogen and helium, clumped

9 together by gravitational attraction to form countless trillions of stars. Billions of galaxies, each of which is a gravitationally bound cluster of billions of stars, now form most of the visible mass of the universe; Stars produce energy from nuclear reactions, primarily the fusion of hydrogen to form helium. These and other processes in stars have led to the formation of all the other elements. National Mathematics Content Standards Involved Grades 6-8, 9-12 Numbers and Operations: Understand numbers, ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems - Develop an understanding of large numbers and recognize and appropriately use exponential, scientific, and calculator notation Grades 6-8 Measurement: Understand measurable attributes of objects and the units, systems, and processes of measurement -Understand relationships among units and convert from one unit to another within the same system Grades 9-12 Measurement: Understand measurable attributes of objects and the units, systems, and processes of measurement - Make decisions about units and scales that are appropriate for problem situations involving measurement - Use unit analysis to check measurement computations National Mathematics Process Standards Involved Connections Representation Credits ********** This material was produced as part of the Education and Public Outreach program of NASA s Swift mission. The material was developed by: Dr. Laura Whitlock, Sonoma State University & NASA s Swift Mission Kara C. Granger, Teacher, Maria Carrillo HS, Santa Rosa, CA Special thank-yous go to the following for their useful additions, suggestions, and comments: Dr. Thomas Arnold, Teacher, State College HS, State College, PA Dr. Lynn R. Cominsky, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA Bruce Hemp, Teacher, Ft. Defiance HS, Ft. Defiance, VA Dr. Phil Plait, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA Joan Sanders, Education Specialist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD Scot Wigert, Teacher, Technology High School, Rohnert Park, CA The color art on the card backs was created by David Armbrecht of Spectrum Astro, Inc., Gilbert, AZ. The art on the card fronts and in the booklet was created by Aurore Simonnet of Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA.

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