  Dark matter is estimated to make up ~84% of all normal/baryonic matter, but
cannot be directly imaged. Despite the fact that dark matter cannot be directly
observed yet, its influence on the motion of stars and gas in spiral galaxies
have been detected. One way to show motion in galaxies are rotation curves that
are plots of velocity measurements of how fast stars and gas move in a galaxy
around the center of mass. According to Newton's Law of Gravitation, the
rotational velocity is an indication of the amount of visible and non-visible
mass in the galaxy. Given that the visible matter is measurable using
photometry, dark matter mass can therefore be estimated, offering an insight
into the size distribution in galaxies. In order to gain a greater appreciation
of the research scientists' findings about dark matter, their method should be
easily reproduced by any curious individual. Our interactive workshop is an
excellent educational tool to investigate how dark matter impacts the rotation
of visible matter by providing a guide to produce galactic rotation curves. The
Python-based notebooks are set up to walk you through the whole process of
producing rotation curves using an online database (SPARC) and to allow you to
learn about each component of the galaxy. The three steps of the rotation curve
building process is plotting the measured velocity data, constructing the
rotation curves for each component, and fitting the total velocity to the
measured values.
