Why Do the Stars Have

Different Colors?

A WebQuest for 6th-7th Grade Science

Introduction:

"One, two, three,..." Let's look up at the starry sky and count the stars. How many stars can you find? Can you find yellow stars? Red stars? Or blue stars? Why do the stars have different colors? As an astronomer, you will explore the stars and find out the clues to these questions.

The Tasks:

On this star WebQuest, you will learn the factors that affect the colors of the stars such as size, temperature, formation, and life-style.

You will explore the stars.
You will analyze why the stars have different colors.
You will compare the formation and death of the stars.
You will find out the unique characteristics of the sun.
You will create your own chart about the stars and the sun.

The Process:

Now, let's blast into space and explore the stars. You will visit several WebSites to explore the different colors of the stars and find out which factors affect the colors of the stars. During your journey into space, you will also explore all of the different sizes and shapes of the stars. This WebQuest will help you construct and create your own knowledge about the stars.

1. Do you want to know why the stars change colors? It will explain to you how the temperature affects the colors of the stars. After touring this Website, create a graph that compare temperatures and colors.
2. What makes up the blue stars? And what makes up the red stars? Have you ever seen the red stars? You will find information about the factors that make color different. After exploring these Websites, go to a Word Processing program and write at least two page journal about the factors that make the color different.
3. Why do stars twinkle in different colors? It will give you the secrets of beautiful twinkling stars in the dark sky. Do you find the secrets? Compose a 500-600 word short, fairy story by using those factors.
4. How are the stars born and do they die? It will tell you how stars are formed and how the stars end up in space. How many different types of formation and death did you find? Make a chart of comparison of those styles for the group presentation.
5. Have you ever had questions about the sun? Is the sun one of the stars? What are the differences between the sun and the other stars? You will explore why the sun is hot, and why the other stars are not. It will also tell you that there are stars hotter and bigger than the sun. After exploring this Website, draw a K.W.L. chart about the sun for your own presentation.
6. What kinds of life-cycles do stars have? Do they evolve? Search these Websites, you will find the life-styles of the stars in the sky. After touring around these Websites, summarizes the lyfe-cycles of stars in 2 pages.

The Evaluation:

Your knowledge about the stars will be evaluated in Process 1 through 4. You can discuss the characteristics of the stars with your friends. And you can also exchange information you got with your friends. However, your final grade will be made by your own creative star chart.

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4
What kinds of factors do affect the colors of the stars?	Go to the Websites. Find the one factor that affects colors.	Characterize at least two factors that influence on the colors of the stars.	Compare at least three factors that affect the colors of the stars and be prepared to make a chart.	Describe at least four factors that affect the colors of the stars and make a factor chart.
How are the stars formed? And how do the stars end up in the space?	Go to the Websites and find types of formation of the stars.	Go to the Websites and find types of death of the stars.	Compare the characteristics of formation and death. Describe the general life- style of the stars.	Describe at least three different types of formation and death. Make an analysis chart of influence of the life-style of stars on colors of the stars.
Is the sun one of the stars? What are the differences between the sun and the other stars?	Go to the Website and find the general information about the sun.	Describe the general characteristics of the stars you have learned from this WebQuest.	Compare the factors that make the differences, and describe the differences between the sun and the other stars.	Use your integral knowledge you have learned from this WebQuest, and describe at least four specific characteristics of the sun that makes the sun very unique.
Are you ready to make your own chart about the stars?	Collect all the information about the stars you have learned through this WebQuest.	Collect all the information about the sun you have learned through this WebQuest.	Analyze and categorize the special characteristics of the stars and the sun.	Create your own comparison chart about the stars and the sun. Let's blast into the space!

Conclusion:

    When you finish traveling on this WebQuest, You need to know the factors that affect the colors of the stars. There are red, orange, yellow, blue, green, violet and white star. The major factors that influence the colors of the stars are the temperature and size of the stars. The stars are formed from the high dense gas called nebulae.
    However, they have three different types of death. They collapse due to their gravity, end up as a neutron star, or become a black hole because they are too massive to penetrate the light and to have matter.
    The sun is a natural hydrogen fueled nuclear power plant. The knowledge you have learned through this WebQuest will help you to understand the system and formation of constellation and galaxy.

Credits & References:

I deeply appreciate the people who helped me complete this WebQuest. I give special thanks to Dr. Bruce Lewis, Chad Thompson, Dana Helton, and Brenda Hall.

Teacher Advice:

This is the WebQuest for the 6th-7th grade science that tells the general and integral knowledge about the colors, the formation and death, and the life expectancy of the stars.

Before starting this WebQuest, I want you to observe the dark sky to find the different colors of the stars as many as you can by using binoculars or a telescope. You will have a great experiment to use scientific tools to observe or search for the stars.

This lesson is composed of a whole week unit for science project. You will study about the factors that affect the colors of the stars, first. And then, you will continuously study other factors such as the size, the life-style, the formation, and the death of the stars. You will also study the differences between the sun and the other stars.

This WebQuest is providing the basic level of knowledge about the stars. The knowledge from this WebQuest will help you when you want to analyze and compare the constellations or galaxies. Thus, do not try to study the phenomenon of the constellation or galaxy through this WebQuest.

The teacher needs to know the basic technique to handle Internet information. The novice teacher will get the information through this WebQuest with the basic handling skills of computer.

If the teacher is planning the group cooperative teaching model for this WebQuest, the teacher needs to give each major subject to each group of five or six students. A week later, when they finish investigating this WebQuest, each group must be responsible for the presentation about the given subject. The students will collect information from group presentations, and construct their own knowledge about the stars.

If the teacher or the students need the specific information about the stars, they can invite a special speaker or communicate with the specialists through email.

Created for EDU 506 @ FHU School of Education by Grace Kang on July 24, 2001.