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Books
Textbooks
As
an educator I am required by law to rotely state that your textbook is an
excellent resource.
Oddly enough in this particular case it is.
The accompanying CD contains many of the images from the text should you
want them in an electronic form. In addition, there are more than a dozen books
that are intended as textbooks to an introduction to astronomy course in VCU’s
Branch Library. Since these are all written on the level that this
laboratory is intended, they should be prime sources of information and
diagrams.
Dictionaries
Do not underestimate the value of a
dictionary. The unabridged variety even explains the phases of the
moon. Incidentally, a Webster's unabridged dictionary can be found on many
bargain bookshelves for $20.
Encyclopedias
Like the dictionary, this backbone
of high school research is a good starting place. Just make sure you go
beyond these Cliff Notes of general knowledge and use some other sources as
well.
Materials on the Internet
Search Engines
I use http://www.google.com,
but go ahead, take your pick. Be prepared to refine your search with
additional terms if you get too many hits.
Bad Astronomy
http://www.badastronomy.com/
This amusing website has several short articles about
astronomical misconceptions. These are excellent examples of critical
reasoning and logical analysis. Additionally, movies touching on anything
scientific get put through the grinder in terms of accuracy and basic
logic. Just a warning, the movie reviews contain spoilers. The links
here are also quite good.
The Nine Planets
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/billa/tnp
The pages are incredibly concise, yet the
links are extremely thorough. I found this through NASA's website.
Enchanted Learning's Zoom
Astronomy Website
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/
NASA's Websites
NASA's Home Page
http://www.nasa.gov/
Jump point to resources for presentations as well as
updated news written for the layperson.
NASA's
Multimedia Gallery
http://www.nasa.gov/gallery/index.html
Though only the Photo Gallery is likely to be used for
presentations, the other galleries warrant exploration.
NASA's Photo
Gallery
http://www.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/
For those of you
wanting to spice up a presentation with photos, this is a godsend. A
fittingly astronomical number of photographs and images directly from
NASA. Thankfully the photos are sufficiently well organized as to be able
to find a representative picture of just about anything out of this world,
moreover their use is perfectly legal.
NASA's
Educational Resources
http://education.nasa.gov/
Everything you could possibly need is either here or
within one of this sites links. Unfortunately it is such veritable morass
of astronomical elucidation that you may not be able to locate what it is you
seek.
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