Students learn how scientists use a variety of telescopes to study objects in space.
By the end of eighth grade, students will develop an understanding of technological design. Students make a spectroscope and use the spectroscope to separate white light from an incandescent light bulb into the different colors of the spectrum. Students study the shape of a convex lens and determine that a convex lens can magnify the sizes of objects viewed through it. Students then repeat the exercise with a hand lens. They position both lenses to make a refracting telescope and use it to observe distant objects.