SDSS data will give students a unique opportunity to conduct astronomical research using the same data that professional astronomers use. Students will create Hubble Diagrams to illustrate the expansion of the universe, and will create Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams, which will allow them to find the ages of and distances to stars and star clusters. Because these activities use real data, students will be led through some the difficulties that professional astronomers experience in analyzing data.

All SDSS data will be available on the SkyServer web site, http://skyserver.sdss.org. The vast amount of data—13 million objects so far—can be browsed and searched using a variety of tools. The data range from tri-color images and processed spectra to raw image files to magnitude data in 5 different wavelengths. Student lessons available on the SkyServer web site range from the elementary to the introductory college level. Each lesson is designed to meet national standards for science education. Each lesson also has an extensive section of teacher notes available, providing appropriate background information and ideas for student evaluation.