  Within the efforts to bring frontline interactive astrophysics and astronomy
to the classroom, the Hands on Universe (HOU) developed a set of exercises and
platform using real data obtained by some of the most advanced ground and space
observatories. The backbone of this endeavour is a new free software Web tool -
Such a Lovely Software for Astronomy based on Image J (Salsa J). It is
student-friendly and developed specifically for the HOU project and targets
middle and high schools. It allows students to display, analyze, and explore
professionally obtained astronomical images, while learning concepts on
gravitational dynamics, kinematics, nuclear fusion, electromagnetism. The
continuous evolving set of exercises and tutorials is being completed with real
(professionally obtained) data to download and detailed tutorials. The
flexibility of the Salsa J platform tool enables students and teachers to
extend the exercises with their own observations. The software developed for
the HOU program has been designed to be a multi-platform, multi-lingual
experience for image manipulation and analysis in the classroom. Its design
enables easy implementation of new facilities (extensions and plugins), minimal
in-situ maintenance and flexibility for exercise plugin. Here, we describe some
of the most advanced exercises about astrophysics in the classroom, addressing
particular examples on gravitational dynamics, concepts currently introduced in
most sciences curricula in middle and high schools.
