Hubble Data Story
The First Prototype
The Hubble Data Story (HubbleDS) is the first prototype story under development by the CosmicDS team. In the HubbleDS, learners use real astronomical data to answer questions like, “Has the universe always existed? If not, how long ago did it form?”
Students also learn about the scientific process, and in particular, how scientists use their data to assess how reliable their results are when it is not possible to look up answers to new questions online or in the back of a textbook.
The team performed pilot tests of the HubbleDS in high school and Astro 101 classrooms in the 2022-2023 school year.
Subject Matter Experts
The HubbleDS utilizes spectra and imagery data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Given that SDSS has targeted millions of galaxies, we needed to pare down the data set to those most appropriate for the HubbleDS methods and learning goals. A team of astronomy subject matter experts (SMEs) based at UCLA, led by Prof. Alice Shapley and including graduate students Jordan Runco, Tony Pahl, and former student Dr. Xinnan Du (now at KIPAC), assisted with this process. The HubbleDS SME team queried the relevant scientific databases to assemble the materials we needed, and they lent their expertise in the interpretation of galaxy spectra.
