Inquiry question: What evidence is there for the origins of the elements?
Students:
● investigate the processes that led to the transformation of radiation into matter that followed the ‘Big Bang’
● investigate the evidence that led to the discovery of the expansion of the Universe by Hubble (ACSPH138)
● analyse and apply Einstein’s description of the equivalence of energy and mass and relate this to the nuclear reactions that occur in stars (ACSPH031)
● account for the production of emission and absorption spectra and compare these with a continuous black body spectrum (ACSPH137)
● investigate the key features of stellar spectra and describe how these are used to classify stars
● investigate the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and how it can be used to determine the following about a star:
– characteristics and evolutionary stage
– surface temperature
– colour
– luminosity
● investigate the types of nucleosynthesis reactions involved in Main Sequence and Post-Main Sequence stars, including but not limited to:
– proton–proton chain
– CNO (carbon-nitrogen-oxygen) cycle
Extract from Physics Stage 6 Syllabus © 2017 NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA)