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)