The Nebraska Astronomy Applet Project
Online Labs for Introductory Level Astronomy
- Solar System Models
- Basic Coordinates and Seasons
- The Rotating Sky
- Motions of the Sun
- Planetary Orbit Simulator
- Lunar Phase Simulator
- Blackbody Curves & UBV Filters
- Hydrogen Energy Levels
- Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
- Eclipsing Binary Stars
- Atmospheric Retention
- Extrasolar Planets
- Variable Star Photometry
- Cosmic Distance Ladder
- Habitable Zones
The Nebraska Astronomy Applet Project provides online laboratories targeting the undergraduate introductory astronomy audience. Each lab consists of background materials and one or more simulators that students use as they work through a student guide. Pretests and posttests can be used to gauge student learning.
NAAP materials are designed to be flexible to accommodate a variety of needs. Student guides are provided in MS Word format (in addition to PDF format) so that they can be edited if necessary. Demonstration guides and in-class worksheets are provided for some labs, helping instructors make use of NAAP simulations even if they don't assign the accompanying lab.
Please visit the instructor information page for more details on using the NAAP labs, or the lab descriptions page for a summary of the NAAP labs. You may also want to visit the simulations list page, which includes animations from the ClassAction project as well.