Pupil Research Briefs – Astro-science Briefs

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This Pupil Research Brief (PRB), designed by a team at the Centre for Science Education, supports the teaching and learning of astro-science at GCSE and Scottish Standard Grade levels. Each brief was targeted at a topic within the curriculum at the time. The study guide provides a structure to guide the students through the brief and includes sections entitled ‘Setting the scene’, ‘Syllabus targets’, ‘Route through the brief’ and ‘Outcome checklist’. Each topic is accompanied by a teachers' guide.

The briefs
• Collision course
Assessing the risk that a massive rocks from space will crashed into Earth; experiments to estimate the damage such an impact would; consideration of plans to detect and track nearby massive objects in space to give us an early warning of danger.

• Cosmic web site
Creating a web site to explains the science behind the Big Bang theory of the origin of the Universe. With the help of a starter pack,

• ET phone Earth
Writing an article for a journal about the possibility of life existing in other parts of the Universe. A range of articles and papers on this topic are provided as useful background material for planning and writing the article.

• Shooting stars
Carrying out research into meteors ('shooting stars').

• Star trail
Producing materials for a talk and science trail exhibition on the topic of stars. Finding out about new research on stars, especially the Sun, and why studying the solar wind and sunspot activity is important.

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