These activities cover topics in Galaxies and Cosmology, aligned with the OpenStax Astronomy textbook. Topics cover chapters 1, 5, 6, 24-30, and sections of chapter 17 and 19 concerning distance. All activities are designed to be done in small groups in the classroom, but most can be adapted for use as homework or projects. Quantitative and Hands-on activities may be used as labs.

This is one part of an astronomy resource collection by Lane Community College. This collection was built by Andrea Goering (goeringa@lanecc.edu) and Richard Wagner (wagnerr@lanecc.edu), instructors of physics and astronomy at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, USA. Development of these resources was funded through LCC's OER Initiative (https://inside.lanecc.edu/oer). We'd love to hear about your use of these resources! Let us know what you're using, sign up for updates, and submit corrections, suggestions, or comments here: https://forms.gle/un49RUNs55GU3ZNF6

Find the full collection here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/142FgVMDHZ7bu53gihe3kJ_-5PzsnuzfMklJ1ZLMFk2E/edit#gid=315930953

This book is written for anybody who is curious about nature and motion. Curiosity about how people, animals, things, images and empty space move leads to many adventures. This volume presents the best of them in the domains of relativity and cosmology. In the study of motion – physics – special and general relativity form two important building blocks.

Astronomy is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of one- or two-semester introductory astronomy courses. The book begins with relevant scientific fundamentals and progresses through an exploration of the solar system, stars, galaxies, and cosmology. The Astronomy textbook builds student understanding through the use of relevant analogies, clear and non-technical explanations, and rich illustrations. Mathematics is included in a flexible manner to meet the needs of individual instructors.

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Princeton cosmologist Jim Peebles for a discussion of his intellectual odyssey. They discuss his contributions to cosmology and the future of the field. (56 min)

This course provides an overview of astrophysical cosmology with emphasis on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, galaxies and related phenomena at high redshift, and cosmic structure formation. Additional topics include cosmic inflation, nucleosynthesis and baryosynthesis, quasar (QSO) absorption lines, and gamma-ray bursts. Some background in general relativity is assumed.

This 10-minute video lesson looks at the beginnings of life on Earth. Life and photosynthesis start to thrive in the Archean Eon. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 39 of 85]

This 10-minute video lesson looks at the formation of the Earth which is a the byproduct of a local supernova. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 38 of 85]

In this video from NOVA scienceNOW, learn how scientists detect potential signs of life on distant planets.

Study of physical effects in the vicinity of a black hole as a basis for understanding general relativity, astrophysics, and elements of cosmology. Extension to current developments in theory and observation. Energy and momentum in flat spacetime; the metric; curvature of spacetime near rotating and nonrotating centers of attraction; trajectories and orbits of particles and light; elementary models of the Cosmos. Weekly meetings include an evening seminar and recitation. The last third of the semester is reserved for collaborative research projects on topics such as the Global Positioning System, solar system tests of relativity, descending into a black hole, gravitational lensing, gravitational waves, Gravity Probe B, and more advanced models of the Cosmos.

The Foothill College AstroSims project is ensuring continued access to astro-education simulations past the deprecation of Java and Flash. This site includes:

* re-implementations in HTML5/Javascript of existing astro-education simulations,
* new simulations of previously unaddressed topics, and
* a frequently updated list of astro-education simulations.

This video lesson has the goal of introducing students to galaxies as large collections of gravitationally bound stars. It explores the amount of matter needed for a star to remain bound and then brings in the idea of Dark Matter, a new kind of matter that does not interact with light. It is best if students have had some high school level mechanics, ideally Newton's laws, orbital motion and centripetal force. The teacher guide segment has a derivation of centripetal acceleration. This lesson should be mostly accessible to students with no physics background. The video portion of this lesson runs about 30 minutes, and the questions and demonstrations will give a total activity time of about an hour if the materials are all at hand and the students work quickly. However, 1 1/2 hours is a more comfortable amount of time. There are several demonstrations that can be carried out using string, ten or so balls of a few inches in diameter, a stopwatch or clock with a sweep second hand and some tape. The demonstrations are best done outside, but can also be carried out in a gymnasium or other large room. If the materials or space are not available, there are videos of the demonstrations in the module and these may be used.

8.962 is MIT’s graduate course in general relativity, which covers the basic principles of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, differential geometry, experimental tests of general relativity, black holes, and cosmology.

Motivated by questions in cosmology, the open-content text Geometry with an Introduction to Cosmic Topology uses Mobius transformations to develop hyperbolic, elliptic, and Euclidean geometry - three possibilities for the global geometry of the universe.

The text, written for students who have taken vector calculus, also explores the interplay between the shape of a space and the type of geometry it admits. Geometry is suitable for a semester course in non-Euclidean geometry or as a guide to independent study, with over 200 exercises and several essays on topics including the history of geometry, parallax and curvature, and research aimed at determining the shape of the universe.

These interactive lecture slides cover topics in Galaxies and Cosmology, aligned with the the OpenStax Astronomy textbook. Topics cover chapters 1, 5, 6, 24-30, and sections of chapter 17 and 19 concerning distance. While aligned with topics in the textbook, slides are not a 1-to-1 mapping of the textbook and contain additional content, ideas, and discussion.

Opportunities for active engagement and interaction using peer instruction techniques (think-pair-share and discussion questions) are built into the slides. References to related activities and labs are also included. Slides are provided as Google Slides documents for easy adaptation. Each chapter has a complete version of the slides along with separated slides for different topics in the chapter.

This is one part of an astronomy resource collection by Lane Community College. This collection was built by Andrea Goering (goeringa@lanecc.edu) and Richard Wagner (wagnerr@lanecc.edu), instructors of physics and astronomy at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, USA. Development of these resources was funded through LCC's OER Initiative (https://inside.lanecc.edu/oer). We'd love to hear about your use of these resources! Let us know what you're using, sign up for updates, and submit corrections, suggestions, or comments here: https://forms.gle/un49RUNs55GU3ZNF6

Find the full collection here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/142FgVMDHZ7bu53gihe3kJ_-5PzsnuzfMklJ1ZLMFk2E/edit#gid=315930953

This collection includes resources for teaching college-level introductory astronomy courses. The resources include interactive lecture slides, class activities, and projects. Topics include solar system astronomy, stellar astronomy, and galaxies and cosmology. Sample schedules are included for a sequence of three 10-week courses.This collection was created by Andrea Goering (goeringa@lanecc.edu) and Richard Wagner (wagnerr@lanecc.edu), instructors of physics and astronomy at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, USA. Development of these resources was funded through LCC's OER Initiative (https://inside.lanecc.edu/oer).

This class explores the creation (and creativity) of the modern scientific and cultural world through study of western Europe in the 17th century, the age of Descartes and Newton, Shakespeare, Milton and Ford. It compares period thinking to present-day debates about the scientific method, art, religion, and society. This team-taught, interdisciplinary subject draws on a wide range of literary, dramatic, historical, and scientific texts and images, and involves theatrical experimentation as well as reading, writing, researching and conversing.
The primary theme of the class is to explore how England in the mid-seventeenth century became “a world turned upside down” by the new ideas and upheavals in religion, politics, and philosophy, ideas that would shape our modern world. Paying special attention to the “theatricality” of the new models and perspectives afforded by scientific experimentation, the class will read plays by Shakespeare, Tate, Brecht, Ford, Churchill, and Kushner, as well as primary and secondary texts from a wide range of disciplines. Students will also compose and perform in scenes based on that material.

This course explores the applications of physics (Newtonian, statistical, and quantum mechanics) to fundamental processes that occur in celestial objects. The list of topics includes Main-sequence Stars, Collapsed Stars (White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars, and Black Holes), Pulsars, Supernovae, the Interstellar Medium, Galaxies, and as time permits, Active Galaxies, Quasars, and Cosmology. Observational data is also discussed.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity is a landmark in our understanding of the universe. It gave rise to the notion of a spacetime continuum against which all physical phenomena play out. But over the decades, it has inspired many questions that have yet to be answered: How can Einstein’s equations describe forces other than gravity? And what are the "dark" forms of energy and matter that cause the universe to expand and galaxies to evolve? In a new article, author Piotr Ogonowski offers a seemingly simple solution – the theories of spacetime and electromagnetism are describing the same things. Beginning from Einstein’s field equations, Ogonowski reveals their ability to describe all known physical interactions, including those described by classical electromagnetism. Spacetime, it appears, may simply be the way we perceive electromagnetic fields..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.