Describe the variety of equipment scientists use to collect data and the principles upon which they work (telecopes at all ranges of the EM spectrum, spectroscopes, particle accelerators).

Understand and model the way the data is processed and interpreted using computers.

Explain how a scientific model of the universe is generated using mathematical models and computer simulations.

Most of what we believe we know about the universe must be inferred by using tools to look at small slices of space and time. Students, therefore, make assumptions based on earth bound knowledge and experiences and the limited data available to them about the universe.

Most students don't comprehend the size and scope of the universe. They don't realize that what we know about stars and galaxies comes from light and that since the light we receive from distance objects takes a large amount of time to reach us that we are really looking back in time.

Comparing travel times via light and the fastest rocket to objects in our universe would help gain an understanding of the scope of the universe and the idea that the light reaching us from the furthest galaxies left them at a time not long after the beginning of the universe.

Students should compare data received from a wide variety of tools such as different telescopes receiving information from all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, particle accelerators and computers aiding in data analysis.

Students should model how patterns can be found in data to form theories of the workings of the universe (such as the Big Bang theory).