Pupils take an active role in this demonstration on light waves to show the Doppler effect in this video for KS3/4 physics lessons.
Pupils find out what it's like to be a light wave travelling to Earth from a distant star in a playground demonstration, which shows redshift and blueshift as a result of the Doppler effect.
Red- and blue-shifting of light is a difficult idea to grasp without a visual aid. This demonstration is a practical way of explaining the idea of light changing when the emitter is moving relative to the observer.
Downloads
Teaching notes: Red Shift (PDF 272610 Kb)
Teaching notes on Red Shift
Useful websites
Find out what Hubble has shown us about the universe
Remotely control the Liverpool Telescope from your school and make your own observations
The Royal Astronomical Society
The UK's professional astronomical society, which has a teachers section with links to resources
Education resources
Education section of NASA's website
The Institute of Physics' Education Website
Support for the teaching of astronomy and space
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Lots of resources including the Lunar Sample loan scheme
Anyone can take part by studying images of galaxies to provide valuable and useful data to the astronomy community
The home of telescopes for astronomy education. From these pages you can access the world's largest robotic telescopes and carry out the observations of your choice
Fly through the universe with this free space simulation software
Look up into the night sky with this free planetarium software
