Astrophysics and computational cosmology: A superpowered model of the whole universe

Suitable for 14-19-year olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, STEM clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 physics and astronomy.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Dr Sownak Bose, a computational cosmologist at Durham University, UK. He is using sophisticated simulations of the Universe to uncover the properties of dark matter and how it influenced the development of galaxies and stars.

• This resource also contains an interview with Sownak and offers an insight into careers in computational cosmology. If your students have questions for Sownak, they can send them to him online. All they need to do is to go to the article online (see the Futurum link below), scroll down to the end and type in the question(s). Sownak will reply!

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Sownak’s research and challenges them to create their own virtual universe.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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