TRUMP Astrophysics Project

The Teaching Resources Unit for Modern Physics (TRUMP) is a collaboration between school teachers and academic experts whose aim is to support the teaching of modern physics in post-16 courses. The Astophysics package was published in 1997. It was written primarily to support modules currently available in the A level physics syllabuses at that time. Parts of package were also relevant to astronomical topics within International Baccalaureate and GCSE courses as well as to adult and continuing education. The development work was supported by Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), the Nuffield Foundation, the Institute of Physics and the University of York.

Publications:

1. Introduction to Astrophysics
2. Observational Properties of Astronomical Objects
3. Star Formation and Evolution
4. Planets and Orbits
5. Telescopes and Instruments
6. Galaxies, Cosmology and Relativity

Components of the publications

Each of the resources consisted of three main components:

• Study notes for teachers
• Teaching notes discussing the student activities and teaching approaches
• Student sheets providing a bank of resources for class use.