Astronomy Interactives

Online Interactives Editor

As part of our Flash to HTML transition we have made an online editor for making HTML-based ranking tasks:

March 5, 2020: the editor now supports labeled image ranking tasks.

March 12, 2021: the editor now publishes entire quizzes and individual ranking tasks.

April 16, 2021: the editor now allows background pages to be individually named.

October 31, 2022: the editor now allows the creation of both ranking tasks and sorting tasks.

March 31, 2023: the editor now has added support for bins with background images in sorting tasks. This allows more sophisticated questions, where items gain context by being placed within an image. An "image" can be more than just a diagram or picture -- it can be a table of data, for instance. SVG support makes using such images more practical.

January 30, 2024: the editor now has added support for labeling tasks. This allows more general questions focusing upon familiarity with terminology.

The demonstration video below shows how to use the editor to create ranking tasks. (The video does not show the creation of labeled image ranking tasks nor sorting or labeling tasks at this time.)

• Demonstration Video (Offsite Link)
• Demo-2 - a page with four ranking tasks created by the editor
• Demo-files-2.zip - source files used by the project
• Demo-2.iep - the project file, which can be opened by the editor

New Ranking and Sorting Tasks

New formative assessment tasks have been created making use of the new interactives editor capabilities. These are a mixture of ranking, sorting, and labeling tasks specifically targeted at smartphones. The tasks are designed for either introductory astrobiology or introductory astronomy, but many have utility in both classes. These will be posted as they become useful, but will be improved over time. They will eventually be pushed together with the older tasks below into a larger series.

• Convergent Evolution: task on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – asks students to sort pairs of animals into those which display convergent evolution and those that don't (typically 'cousins' on the tree of life).
• Earth's Atmosphere: tasks on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – asks students to order the gases of the Earth's present atmosphere and identify those that are still around from the primordial atmosphere.
• Earth's Interior: tasks on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – asks students to order the interior regions of Earth using properties of temperature, density, and seismic waves.
• Eclipses: tasks on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – this suite of tasks explores the underlying geometry of the two different major types of eclipses (solar and lunar) and the six distinct types of eclipses.
• Elemental Abundances: iep file
  • Task set tailored for Astronomy: tasks on the web, zip file, QR code – tasks that focus on elemental abundance with a metallicity in astronomy focus (Metals).
  • Task set tailored for Astrobiology: tasks on the web, zip file, QR code – tasks that focus on elemental abundance with an elements needed for life focus (CHNOPS).
• Elongation:
  • Introductory: tasks on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – straightforward tasks for getting started with elongation.
  • Capstone: tasks on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – explores the defintion of elongation and the 6 special configurations (3 for inferior planets and 3 for superior planets).
• Galilean Moons: tasks on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – asks students to identify the large moons of our solar sytem that orbit Jupiter, order those moons in terms of distance from Jupiter, and then order them in terms of density.
• Hydrogen Emission Lines: task on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file — asks students to sort color swatches into those that are produced by an H discharge tube and those that aren't. Use in class after looking at H tubes.
• Hydrogen Electron Transitions: tasks on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – a representative set of randomized tasks (5 total) tackling both the energy and orbital transitions of the H atom electron.
  • All Hydrogen Electron Transitions: the entire set of tasks on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – the entire larger collection of randomized tasks (19 total) tackling both the energy and orbital transitions of the H atom electron.
• Habitable Zones: tasks on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – asks students to rank icons representing spectral class bins according to the width of the habitable zone, main sequence lifetime, and the HZ Longevity (the product or the two) which is calculated in an .svg table.
• Liquids for Life: tasks on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – asks students to work with the density of water as well as substances that could play the role of water in the cold outer solar system.
• Nebulae: task on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – this labeling task asks students to identify the three types of nebulae (dark, emission, and reflection) that are all present in one image.
• Nuclear Binding Energy: tasks on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – asks students to work with concepts related to the binding energy per nucleon graph like the number of nucleons, binding energy, and the processes for fusion and fission.
• Overarching Concepts: task on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – an introductory task on the underlying principles of astrobiology and a more advanced task on the Copernican Principle.
• Radioactivity: task on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – a task focusing on the practical implementation of radioactive half-life.
• Solar System Models: tasks on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – a set of tasks focusing on the debate among the models of the solar system in the late Renaissance.
• Spectral Classification: tasks on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – a set of tasks focusing on the order, temperatures, and colors of spectral types.
• Tree Of Life:
  • Introductory: task on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – focuses on the linkage with taxonomy.
  • Advanced: task on the web, zip file, QR code, iep file – focuses on the membership and characteristics of the three domains as well as the characteristics of LUCA.