Saturday Morning Astrophysics at Purdue
Saturday Morning Astrophysics at Purdue (SMAP) is one of our flagship programs in Physics and Astronomy Outreach, offering monthly remote programming for students in grades 8-12.
Explore the Cosmos with us!
- When: Third Saturdays monthly*
- Time: 11:00 AM Eastern (U.S.)
- Format: Live on Zoom
*Subject to change with holidays and special events.
Learn about things you do not typically hear about in school. Do experiments and activities with us at home, explore the structure and behavior of the cosmos, and talk with the experts. Learn cool stuff about what’s going on in space right now.
Grade 8-12 students: Want to catch our next session?
Grade 8-12 Students Sign up for SMAP
We will introduce you to discoveries of ancient times and cosmological marvels, as well as up-to-date current research. Check out Alan explaining how the James Webb Space Telescope images the cosmos with infrared light.
Astronomy faculty and staff, and an occasional “historical figure,” introduce SMAP sessions with the background and tools relevant to the topic in question – what is significant, what science is involved, what questions exist, what methods are used, and what do our findings tell us?
Curious to know more?
Check out some of our recent SMAP sessions and experiments.
Black holes are admittedly one of the most fascinating and mysterious object in the Cosmos. How do the affect light? How do they affect space and time? If you passed the event horizon, is there ever a return? What would you see and feel?
How do we search for unknown planets outside our solar system? Analyze your own data with the transit method and learn how astronomers tackle the issues. Could there really be life?
Ancient observers of the night sky only had their eyes, their curiosity and their imagination. Learn about successive attempts to understand the workings of our solar system in the science we call Cosmology.
Take a fascinating journey try for yourself using your own color scheme to bring out the details of actual JWST images.
Use common materials available at home to measure crater diameter and depth. Use these data to graph potential energy based on the mass of the impactor and its height above the surface.
Here’s one for the teachers out there. A giant balloon, your eyeball and a pearl head pin is all you need to demonstrate a total solar eclipse to scale. Pretty cool!
Subscribe to the SMAP YouTube Channel
Grade 8-12 Students Sign up for SMAP
Teachers too! Educators, program directors, science administrators, we have you covered. Register here and we will notify you of upcoming sessions, videos, and latest experiments.
Teachers for SMAP Selected Lessons Classroom Poster PDF
For information about SMAP, Teachers for SMAP, our lessons and activities, please contact Purdue Physics and Astronomy Outreach Coordinator, Dr. David Sederberg, dsederbe@purdue.edu.