What can stars reveal about galaxies and what can cultures reveal about stars?

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 social studies.

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 Professor Raja GuhaThakurta and Dr Amanda Quirk, astrophysicists at the University of California Santa Cruz, USA. They are investigating the movement of stars in the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies. It also features the work of Professor Annette S. Lee, director of Native Skywatchers, who is revitalising Indigenous star knowledge.

• This resource contains interviews with Raja, Amanda and Annette, and students they have worked with. If your students have questions for them, they can send the questions to them 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). Raja, Amanda and Annette will reply!

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Raja, Amanda and Annette research and challenges them to consider their own relationship with the stars.

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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