Origins of the Universe pcMEL

The Models

Model A: Space, time, and matter came into existence a finite time ago in a hot dense state. It has been expanding and cooling ever since.
Model B: The Universe began a finite time ago when a small ball of matter exploded. The matter then spread out throughout space.

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Student Handouts

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Origins pcMEL

Provenance: Carla McAuliffe, IGES
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

• Origins pcMEL Model Plausibility Ratings (Acrobat (PDF) 146kB Jul10 25)
• Origins pcMEL Diagram (Acrobat (PDF) 183kB Jul10 25)
• Explanation Task (Acrobat (PDF) 52kB May6 24)

Lines of Evidence

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Evidence #3. Table 1. Ages of objects and events in the Universe.

Provenance: Carla McAuliffe, IGES
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

Evidence #1: Astronomers observe a uniform glow in the background of the sky no matter where we look.
Evidence #2: All galaxies are moving with space. Galaxies that are farther from Earth are moving faster than galaxies closer to Earth. Most galaxies are moving away from each other.
Evidence #3: The Universe has a predictable age based on its rate of expansion. Nothing in the Universe is older than that age.
Evidence #4: The Universe was once extremely hot and allowed for matter and energy to spontaneously convert back and forth into each other. Today, the Universe is far cooler than it once was.

Student Handouts

• Origins pcMEL - Evidence Texts Color (Acrobat (PDF) 1.2MB Jul31 24)
• Origins pcMEL - Evidence Texts BW (Acrobat (PDF) 681kB Jul31 24)

Virtual MEL

The Google Drive folder below contains MEL resource documents in the Google formats. In order to maximize the flexibility of our activities, the MEL Project Team wanted to make more resources compatible with virtual settings. We have made our MEL scaffolds available in Google formats, so that they can be copied, modified, and uploaded more easily on a variety of platforms and devices. Please note that to access all the materials for each MEL scaffold, you will need a Google account. View the README file first.

• README First Instructions & FAQ (Acrobat (PDF) 70kB May24 21)
• Virtual Origins MEL Resource Documents in Google Drive