Decoding the Sun
Web link opens in a new tab; file link initiates download.
This project introduces high school students to programming concepts through writing a Python script that finds and counts sunspots in real images of the Sun. Across five class periods, students work in pairs and learn about how images are processed by a computer, how to create and traverse a 2D array, and write a complete sunspot detection program. This requires setting brightness cutoffs to separate the dark spots from the bright surface, tagging the pixels that qualify, grouping the touching pixels into individual spots, and filtering out specks too small to count. In addition to programming concepts, students will also learn to justify their choices. Because deciding how dark or big a sunspot must be and where its edges lie has no objectively correct answer, each student’s decisions when writing their program become arguments they must explain. Students then validate their automated counts against a human count by their peers, and analyze why the two differ.
