Seeing the Invisible: Dust in the Universe

Dust is all around us: at home, on Earth, and in space. Explore the properties of dust and the astronomical research of dust in space with these three inquiry based activities from McDonald Observatory.

Resources
About the Spitzer Space Telescope
Dust in your Home and Dust in Space
Resources
Resources and activities for grades K-8 in Spanish
StarDate and Universo radio shows

Activities for grades K - 8
K-2 Dust Hunt
An extension to Dust Hunt is a story sequence activity called Dusty and Ashley's Big Adventure
For this activity, you will also need a picture page.
3-5 How is the Mystery Substance Like Interstellar Dust?
6-8 Properties of Dust

Activity for grades 9-12
"From Molecular Cores to Stars" student guide and teacher guide.

In addition to the PDF files (linked above), you must also download a PowerPoint presentation (Windows or Mac), and two movies: 1994-24-a-low_mpeg.mpg and 2001-13-b-low_mpeg.mpg. The PowerPoint file and both movies must be saved in the same folder on your PC's hard drive. If you do not have Microsoft PowerPoint installed on your computer, please download the presentation in PDF format here.