Exploring Black Holes: A Science CD Class Overview

1. Blackholes: The Ultimate Abyss Cathi Thomas 5/12/2008 WeExcel

2. Overview • This is a science class in a CD special education resource room at a lower income high school. • The classroom contains 11 high school students, 7 boys and 4 girls, who have a 1st through 4th grade reading level.

3. Standards: • Grade 9-Ohio 1- Explain how stars and other celestial objects provide information about the processes that cause changes in composition and scale of the universe.

4. Formative Assessment: • Student’s were given a pretest to see what they know about black holes at the very beginning of the lesson. • The video downloaded from United Streaming was viewed. Discussion Questions were: • 1. Describe how a black hole is formed from the time a massive star begins its collapse. • 2. Describe the steps involved in determining the mass of a black hole. What do you have to measure or observe in order to estimate the mass? • 3. If you were observing a probe entering the event horizon of a black hole, you would see it “hovering for an eternity and destroyed in an instant.” Discuss the meaning of this phrase as it applies to conditions near a black hole. • 4. Discuss Einstein’s theory of gravity and the curvature of space time.

5. Formative continued • Project: Divide class into 3 groups of 4, giving each a different kind of black hole to research. Group one did Stellar Mass black holes. Group 2 did Super Mass black holes and group 3 did mini black holes. • They were assessed on the research project using the following rubrics: • • 3 points: report well-researched, information clearly and logically organized, presentation interesting and lively • • 2 points: report adequately researched, information sufficiently organized, presentation dull • • 1 point: report insufficiently researched, information inadequately organized, presentation poorly prepared

6. Summative Assessment • Students were given a final test. This was basically the 1st test they were given for the summative assessment, rewritten slightly so that it was more at their reading level.

7. Data and Results

11. 4 of the 8 Questions used on the Pretest and Final Test

12. One of the Discussion Questions after the Movie • 1. Describe how a black hole is formed from the time a massive star begins its collapse. • We discussed, as we saw in the movie, that first there was a huge explosion, followed by huge implosion and then an incredible concentration of mass. • What was previously the size of 10 of our suns is now the size of Washington D. C. We discussed prior lab with the sun and showing how many earths we could line across it. • Then we drew the pinpoint on just one of those earths representing something the size of Washington DC.

13. 1. To detect black holes, astronomers look for____.  ultraviolet radiation they emit   objects falling out of space-time   nuclear reactions at their centers   stars circling massive compact objects 1. To find black holes, astronomers look for _______. Ultraviolet radiation they spit out Objects falling out of space and time Nuclear reactions at their centers Stars circling huge invisible objects An example of an accommodation for the 1st question:

14. Overall Reflection • All students had improved their scores much better than I had anticipated. • Research was hard for the students as they read at such a low level but they still were able to gather enough data to do a Venn Diagram which we will do this week. • Next time I will try to have sites that they may be able to comprehend better. • I’ll also remember that if the lesson plan states that it can be done in two 50 minute class periods, that a special ed group may actually need at least twice as much time, if not 3 times as much.