About This Lesson
Explore gravitational lensing with a free lesson for grades 9–12 (ages 14–18), with introductory college extensions. Students use a simplified teaching model to investigate multiple images of one background source, relative arrival times, geometric and gravitational-potential timing contributions, and mirrored image parity. Generated model cases are clearly distinguished from real astronomical observations.
The teaching kit includes a seven-page printable packet, guided learner tasks, worked answers, teacher notes, an assessment rubric, selected standards mappings, a semantic HTML lesson, a plain-text response template and an optional offline Python verifier.
Allow 45–55 minutes, or 35–40 minutes without the algebra extension. A calculator is sufficient for the paper route. Prerequisites include signed arithmetic, subtraction, division and unit conversion; Task 4 adds formula rearrangement.
Publisher-authored mappings cover selected NGSS Practices 2, 5 and 6 and Crosscutting Concept 4, plus CCSS HSN.Q.A.1 and HSA.CED.A.4 (Task 4 required). These mappings do not claim completion of an entire NGSS performance expectation.
No student account, payment or online answer submission is required. Downloaded paper/HTML materials work offline. The optional Python verifier requires Python 3.9+ and its standard library. Accessibility features include tagged PDF reading order, headings/bookmarks, table headers, descriptive links and diagram alternative text, plus HTML/plain-text alternatives.
Created by Lance Jepsen, Dark Science Docs.
The PDF uploaded here is the Share My Lesson edition, licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. Give credit, use it noncommercially and share adaptations under the same license. The linked website provides the full kit under its separately stated terms.
