Welcome to the Hands-On Universe (HOU) Standalone Course. Here you will find many resources to help you use Hands-On Universe in your classroom. This material can be used by teachers, students, and others to understand the science, math, and technology involved with HOU.

To jump right in without introduction, select your link below:

A bit of an introduction...

This course has two sections:

Traditionally, HOU courses have been held for two consecutive summers in order to provide teachers a chance to learn the material, implement the curriculum, and then come back to learn more. Some teachers have taken HOU courses three or more summers in a row. The standalone course tries to emulate that kind of ongoing support.

The standalone course includes

• Content pages for many HOU topic areas
• Associated curriculum activities
• Technical hints to get you through potential stumbling blocks
• Self-Check Quizzes to see how you are doing
• Links to online course assignments for Course Credit participants.

The red buttons on the top navigation bar will take you to the index pages of the various components of the course. The blue buttons will take you outside this site to the WebCT coursesite or to the main HOU program website. As a convenience, links to points outside your course site (your own computer) generally are opened in a separate browser window. this way, when you are done working with the remote site material and close the remote site window, you are automatically back at the same page of the course as when you started the "side-trip."

Light green buttons are course navigation buttons—they take you to other course pages or elements associated with a specific content page. For instance,

The and buttons will allow you go advance and go backwards through the content pages.

The button will link to HOU curriculum activities (usually from the HOU booklets) that are associated with content on the page being viewed, if available.

The button will link to specific technical hints needed for material on the content page being viewed..

The button will link to a self-test on the content for the page or a series of previous pages, when available. These self-tests are for personal use and do not affect grades for those taking the course for credit.

The button is for those who are taking the HOU course for credit. This will link to an area with assignments and exams that are graded by HOU Teacher Resource Agents. This part of the course is password protected and you must enroll through the HOU homepage to have access.