Beyond Einstein Teachers' Academy

Using black holes to teach high school physics!

Physics Curriculum Topic	Type of project	Description of project	Files	Author/Author team
Forces	Problem Sets	These problems involve forces between different objects. This includes opposing forces, gravitational forces, and tidal forces. This is a problem set which could be broken up and given to students when they are being taught forces. Since many of these problems involve gravitational forces, those need to be used after gravitational forces are taught.	Forces_Problems.doc	Marvin Lowenthal Spingarn Senior High School Washington, DC Daniel Burr Middletown High School Frederick County, MD Lee Hirsch Thomas S. Wootton High School Montgomery County, MD
Gravity	Problem Sets	These problems look at the effects of gravity and what information can be gained from examining how objects are affected by gravity. The main topics are orbits, Kepler's Laws, Schwarzschild radius, and the structure of space. This is a problem set which could be broken up and given to students in order to make the teaching of these topics more interesting during the unit on Gravity.	Gravity_Problems.doc
Gravitation	3-4 day sequence of lessons	This lesson sequence can be used after Kepler’s Laws and Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation have been introduced. The lessons include a presentation on the topic of dark matter, gravitational lensing, general relativity, precession of Mercury, tides, and black holes. Orbits around black holes and strong gravity are demonstrated both with computer modeling and with marbles on a latex sheet. The lessons are designed for the teacher to draw exercises from the gravity and force problem that are included on this site.	BlkHoleStrongGrav.doc	Lee Hirsch, Thomas S. Wootton High School Montgomery County, MD
	Mini-lesson	This is a PowerPoint presentation on dark matter. While not specifically related to black holes and strong gravity, this presentation serves as a good application of Kepler's Laws and Newtonian Gravity and it is very accessible at the high school level.	DarkMatter.ppt
	Mini-lesson	This is shortened version of John L. Safko’s "Essay on the General Theory of Relativity." It has been shortened for the high school level as well as to be covered in about 20 minutes. The pictures have been enlarged so they can be directly viewed by students by using the file in conjunction with a projector.	GeneralRelativityEssay.doc
	Mini-lesson	This is a PowerPoint file on gravitational lensing that is an extraction from "Detecting Dark Matter with the Chandra X-ray Satellite" Lecture 8, May 22 Spring 1999 Compton Lecture Series "Exploring the Mysteries of Our Evolving Universe: Observational Tests of Big Bang Cosmology" by Joe Mohr, University of Chicago, Website. It can be used both with discussion of detection of dark matter as well as detection of strong gravity and black holes.	gravLensing.ppt
Kinematics	A PowerPoint Presentation and a word file with a list of resources	Kinematics has a strong connection to geometry in the vicinity of a black hole, because General Relativity connects trajectories with the shape of space itself. Space-time diagrams are close relatives of kinematic diagrams, and might help students get the idea of how to represent motion using algebra and basic calculus and a little geometry. Looking at how light or other objects travel around black holes might help convince students that algebra and geometry are useful tools. Interpreting slope as a speed might be helped by seeing world lines on space-time diagrams with "maximum slope" of 45° being the speed of light. On the other hand, for traditional classes with rigid schedules, adding the concept of reference frames and falling through space will likely overcomplicate the introductory discussion of kinematics. A Power Point file accompanying these notes explores a few of these concepts.	Black Holes in Kinematics.ppt BlackHole KinematicsNotes.doc equ2.mpg equv.mpg plunge_i80l.avi	Yau-Jong Twu Eleanor Roosevelt High School Prince Georges County, MD
Newton's Laws	Problem Set	The purpose of this set of problems is to engage students in classical physics using black holes to stimulate interest. The concepts covered in this problem set include Newton's Laws of motion. Most ideas and vocabulary are readily understandable for instructors, but some things may need explanation for students. The Accretion Disk is a disk of gas that surrounds a black hole. As the material spirals closer to the black hole, it accelerates and bumps into itself creating of heat. All this energy needs to go somewhere, so the disk actually starts to glow. The outgoing radiation can get strong enough to exert a noticeable force. This force is called radiation pressure and is mentioned in a few problems. The numbers used in the problems are arbitrary and can be changed to fit student's needs.	Black Hole Questions.doc	Daniel Burr Middletown High School Frederick County, MD
Optics	A Lesson Plan in Word Document	Many high school students have already heard of black holes and want to know more about them. This lesson discusses how a black hole can bend light rays by warping the space around it, and how it can be related to the traditional ray tracing lesson in optics.	BlackHoleOptics.doc	Sun Kang Winston Churchill High School Montgomery County, MD
Position, Frames of Reference	Power Point presentation	This lesson covers polar coordinate frames, the right ascension/declination frame used in astronomy, the position of the black hole located at the center of the Milky way Galaxy, and how we know that there is a black hole at that location. Use after position and frames of reference have been taught as an interesting example.	Lesson on reference frames and black holes.ppt	Jean Martin River Hill High School Howard County, MD
Thermodynamics	Power Point Presentation	Students are fascinated by the idea of black holes. This presentation discusses how a high school class can learn about the exotic behavior of these objects from the perspective of thermodynamics. For example, why does a black hole get hotter and brighter as it loses energy through Hawking radiation? Explanatory notes are attached to many slides. There is also a description of an in-class demonstration of a black hole included as a note to slide #13.	Thermodynamics and Black Holes (BET).ppt	Eric Kearsley Albert Einstein High School Montgomery County, MD
Using the Discovery of an Intermediate Mass Black Hole to Reinforce Reading Comprehension	Lesson plan for an astronomy class with accompanying powerpoint presentation.	This describes a lesson called "Using the Discovery of an Intermediate Mass Black Hole to Reinforce Reading Comprehension." This lesson uses the recent discovery (April 2008) that a 40,000 solar-mass black hole resides in the center of our Galaxy's largest globular cluster Omega Centauri. It has students start by watching a 5 minute Hubblecast video on the discovery and then has them read through the scientific paper "Gemini and Hubble Space Telescope Evidence for an Intermediate Mass Black Hole in Omega Centauri" by Eva Noyola and Karl Gebhardt. Students read through this paper using a reading comprehension technique known as "Reciprocal Teaching." This technique has students work together where they Summarize, Question, Clarify, and Predict to help them understand scientific writing better. A PowerPoint document details the lesson described above.	Sivell Black Hole Lesson.doc Sivell Lesson.ppt	Michael Sivell Hammond High School Howard County, MD
Black Holes	Internet Activity for an astronomy class	Lesson using the Website "Black Holes: Gravity's Relentless Pull"	Sivell Black Holes Activity.doc
Exploring Black Holes and Strong Gravity Through NASA's Beyond Einstein Program	Lesson plan to have students learn about the missions in NASA's Beyond Einstein program	This lesson plan has students learn about the future Beyond Einstein missions by having students go to the various Websites.	Sivell Beyond Einstein Missions.doc