This is a two-page lithograph featuring the Cepheid Variable Star RS Puppis, an example of a special class of bright pulsating stars whose light and energy outputs vary over a set period of time. The text on the lithograph explains the historic... (View More) importance of Cepheid variable stars as distance markers. The accompanying classroom activity In Search of … Cepheid Variable Stars is a curriculum support tool designed for use as an introductory inquiry activity. During the classroom activity, students use the images and text on this lithograph to generate questions about Cepheid variable stars. They will conduct research to answer their questions and will create a presentation to demonstrate their understanding of the material, providing supporting evidence from their research. (View Less)

This image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals a panorama of turbulent star birth, located close enough to Earth that Hubble can resolve individual stars. The star factory resides 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small... (View More) satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. Included are suggestions for using this in the classroom and an introductory activity in which students use the images and text on this lithograph to generate questions, and research answers, about star formation. (View Less)

This Hubble Space Telescope image reveals two galaxies that look like they are slamming into each other, but they are actually separated by many millions of light-years. The system consists of a face-on spiral galaxy that lies in front of another... (View More) larger spiral galaxy. The image offers a rare view of a pair of overlapping galaxies. The accompanying classroom activity - In Search of … Nature’s Deception: Overlapping Galaxies - is designed as an introductory inquiry activity. During the activity, students use the images and text on this lithograph to generate questions about overlapping galaxies. They will conduct research to answer their questions to determine how astronomers decide whether galaxies are interacting or overlapping. Students will create a presentation to demonstrate their understanding of the material, providing supporting evidence from their research. (View Less)