A unit for lower secondary physics classes (grades 8–10) on detecting exoplanets with analogy experiments. Published in Unterricht Physik in 2023, it starts where students’ misconceptions are — with the (wrong) assumption that you can just look at exoplanets through a telescope — and works forward from there.
Stellar evolution is now in the NRW physics curriculum, but there are almost no direct experiments you can do with it. Two responses: some DIY smartphone experiments for stellar formation, and a board game called “Staub und Sterne” (Dust and Stars) that lets students play through the stellar lifecycle. Both grew from the astro-lab project at the University of Cologne.
In September 2020 I gave a teacher training talk on stellar formation and the misconceptions students bring into class. The misconception list was long enough to be its own document. Here it is, with commentary. Includes: the Sun as a heat-planet, gravity that only works when things move, metals that always existed, and the obligatory complaint about quantum leaps.