This activity helps students understand blackbodies and the role of photons in emitted and reflected electromagnetic waves. Students will also analyze graphical displays of data, calculate peak wavelength, and apply their understanding to novel scenarios.

This activity helps students understand blackbodies and the role of photons in emitted and reflected electromagnetic waves. Students will also analyze graphical displays of data, calculate peak wavelength, and apply their understanding to novel scenarios.

In this class activity, students will be given "data" in the form of cutout paper stars from different stellar clusters. By making scatter plots of these data, they will look for correlations and ultimately discover the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram. Templates for the paper stars are provided in accompanying documents.