The special Spring 2012 issue of The Earth Scientist is sponsored by the Chandra X-ray Observatory's Education and Public Outreach Office. In this issue, educators from Chandra describe four of the classroom-ready activities that have been developed for middle and high school educators. Two articles discuss imaging, including an introduction to images - Decoding Starlight: From Pixels to Images, and Investigating Supernova Remnants which uses the ds9 image analysis software and data from the Chandra public archive.
Two articles introduce Chandra's newest classroom activities. Ice Core Records -From Volcanoes to Supernovas uses ice core data and absolute and relative dating techniques to date volcanic eruptions, solar proton events, and historical supernova events. Pulsating Variable Stars and the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram involves plotting pulsating variable stars to give a more dynamic model of how stars transition through instability strips as they evolve through stages of stellar evolution.