A Road Map for Impacting Pre-college Science and Engineering Education
Through Cosmology

Primary Goals

• Building foundational skills and knowledge for science and engineering starting with all students in the earliest grades
• Motivating students to pursue science and engineering careers
• Graduating students from high school with an understanding evidence for the minimum straightforward standard model (MSSM) of cosmology

Training and Assisting Future Scientists as Teachers - Next Generation Ambassadors

• Training as educators in college, graduate school, and in early career development
• Offering experience in Education and Outreach as part of career activities, in addition to providing connections and support for future K-12 work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2005 Center for Science and Engineering Education (CSEE) students Paul Higgins and Kyra Azalee Bostroem with mentors George Smoot and High School teachers Laura Guthrie and Laurie Kerrigan.

Our Goals for Graduating High School Students

Students would know and be able to discuss evidence for the minimum straightforward standard
model of cosmology (MSSM = Big Bang Theory)

Know and explain evidence using five pillars of MSSM Cosmology

• The dark night sky – describe alternative theories
• Elemental composition of the universe - explain origin of elements on Periodic Table
• Expanding universe – calculate Hubble constant
• Cosmic microwave background radiation – utilize electromagnetic spectrum
• “Wrinkles in time” – describe the history and fate of the universe

Students would know and be able to discuss:

Evidence using Earth and space-based astronomy reveal the structure, scale, and changes
in stars, galaxies, and the universe over time.

Students know:

-Structure of Milky Way galaxy
-Galaxies sizes and shapes
-Elements and their origins
-Life cycle of stars
-Structure of nucleus
-Standard Model of Elementary Particles
-Speed of light
-The electromagnetic spectrum

Students are able to:

-Design and build a telescope
-Locate a star or galaxy using astronomical coordinates
-Calculate energy and mass conversions
-Calculate gravitational forces

The behavior of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) photons moving through the early universe is analogous to the propagation of optical light through the Earth's atmosphere. Water droplets in a cloud are very effective at scattering light, while optical light moves freely through clear air. Thus, on a cloudy day, we can look through the air out towards the clouds, but can not see through the opaque clouds. Cosmologists studying the cosmic microwave background radiation can look through much of the universe back to when it was opaque: a view back to 400,000 years after the Big Bang. This “wall of light“ is called the surface of last scattering since it was the last time most of the CMB photons directly scattered off of matter. When we make maps of the temperature of the CMB, we are mapping this surface of last scattering. Read more

Image: NASA/WMAP

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Dr. Smoot directs the Cal Marching Band reenacting the Big Bang on the field of Memorial Stadium. Video

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Cosmology Through the K-8 Grades

Science knowledge and skills through the grades:

Elementary School

• Position, motion, and reference points
• Observation of electrical, magnetic and gravitational forces
• Observe the apparent motion of the sun, moon, stars, and patterns of change over time
• Energy as heat, light, and motion
• Difference between observation and opinion

Middle School

• Energy conversion between heat, light, and motion
• Light and optics
• Electromagnetic spectrum
• Utilize the Periodic Table
• Structure of the atom
• Structure of the solar system
• Heat transfer by conduction, convection, and radiation
• Age of the earth, its formation, and changes over time
• Stars, galaxies, distances in light years
• Scientific inquiry – hypothesis and testing