Jewels of the Night
The Jewels of the Night is a hands-on, teacher-tested activity for
middle school and older students. Students
measure the color and brightness of stars in the Jewelbox
Cluster from a color image. They determine
the age of the cluster by plotting their measurements
in a color-brightness diagram. The activity develops
classification and graphing skills and fosters observation,
communication, and cooperative learning skills. Students
are exposed to ideas about the nature of stars, temperature
and color, stellar evolution, the time scales of astronomical
phenomena, and how astronomers can determine the ages of objects
in the universe.
The activity is designed to be printed for use in the classroom.
The student instructions, student answer sheet, and graph worksheet
can be printed directly from these Web pages in black and white,
and reproduced for classroom use. The Jewelbox Image and StarGauge
must be printed with a good quality color printer. Several image
formats and resolutions are provided for convenience.
The Jewels of the Night activity was developed by NOAO astronomers
working together with Tucson teachers.
If you have suggestions or comments on this activity, address them
The NOAO Education
Outreach Office offers further information
about education programs and resources at NOAO.
National Optical Astronomy Observatories, 950 North Cherry Avenue, P.O. Box
26732, Tucson, Arizona 85726, Phone: (520) 318-8000, Fax: (520) 318-8360