Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Climate Change: Is there a Controversy

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students explore climate changes. In this climate changes instructional activity, students research what causes changes. Students search the Internet, summarize reports they find and create a poster with the information.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Making of a Star

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students create schematic diagrams of the new Russian space station module. They compose an imaginary yet realistic series of diary entries from the point of view of an astronaut living on board the completed space station.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Early Space Missions

For Students 6th - 12th
In this space missions worksheet, students read about the launch of the space shuttle Magellan and its exploration of Venus. Students complete 2 short answer questions based on the reading.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Space Exploration - Boom or Bust?

For Students 5th - 8th
In this space exploration worksheet, learners will label if 5 statements support space exploration or not. Then students will complete 2 short answer questions giving their opinion about three things that are good and three things that...
Organizer
Curated OER

Fly Away Moon Experiment

For Students 5th - 6th
In this fly away moon experiment instructional activity, students follow the procedures to demonstrate the effects of gravity on the earth and the moon.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Distance Makes a Difference

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students create a clay model of the Sun and Earth. In this space science lesson, students explain how distance affects the appearance of objects. They write a poem or riddle about the Sun in their journal.
Lesson Plan
Space Awareness

How Light Pollution Affects the Stars: Magnitude Readers

For Students 5th - 12th Standards
Did you know light can decrease visibility? Light pollution absolutely makes it more difficult to see stars. Scholars build a simple magnitude reader to determine the magnitude of stars. They use these data to estimate the impact of...
Activity
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Teach Engineering

The Great Gravity Escape

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Groups simulate an orbit using a piece of string and a water balloon. Individuals spin in a circular path and calculate the balloon's velocity when the clothes pin can no longer hold onto the balloon.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mission Survival

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students determine ways to survive the extreme conditions of Antarctica. In this space and earth sciences instructional activity, students work as a group to determine how to survive after a plane crash in Antarctica. They...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ecotourism in National Parks and Wilderness

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students develop a plan for ecotourism after researching a nearby national park or wild area.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fires and Fire Suppression

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students examine their assumptions about forest fires. They explore the conflicts involved with the forest service's new strategy. in addition, they will study one case where a prescribed natural burn had a significant impact on a later,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Formation and Value of Temperate Grasslands

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students study the Temperate Grasslands biome of North America. They explain that it is an endangered ecosystem because the rich soils have been converted to farming in most areas. They view videos imbedded in this plan, then complete...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Our Amazing, Powerful Sun

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students examine where energy comes from and how it can be used.  In this solar energy lesson plan students explore different aspects of the sun. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Satellite Orbits

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students explore satellite orbits and gravitational force.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Can a Spacecraft Always Face the Sun?

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students determine the correct orbital path for a satellite that collects data about the sun so that its view of the sun never be obstructed by the Earth.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Solar Storms

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners investigate the cycles of solar activity. They plot the solar activity and use the graph to answer a number of questions and explain the relationship between the solar storms and sunspots and the impact on earth and space travel.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Space Salad

For Teachers 4th - 10th
Students identify and analyze some of the similarities between Earth and Mars. Students identify why scientists believe that living things such as plants can live on Mars. Students evaluate each of the Growing Space modules identify in...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Pangaea Puzzle

For Teachers 5th - 11th
Learners explore plate tectonics and the formations of the Earth's surface and why maps are distorted.  In this Earth's surface lesson students complete a lab and answer questions. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sky Pictures

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students investigate constellations. In this space science lesson, students view transparencies of constellations and identify the zodiac constellations. Students research the legends connected with the constellations.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Let the North Star Tell You Where You Are

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students participate in activities in which they find the Big Dipper and locate the North Star in the night sky, examine the relationship between the angle to Polaris and latitude, and determine latitude by using an astrolabe.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Tides

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Students experience a computer based applet that explains why the Earth experiences tides.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Astronauts Train in Deep-Space Brine

For Teachers 5th - 9th
Students examine an article on astronauts training in deep space brine then discuss what they learned.  In this investigative lesson students get into groups and design an exercise that includes isolation, silence and conflict...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lewis and Clark: The Language of Discovery

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Young scholars replicate some of the trailblazing methods of Lewis and Clark on a fifteen-minute "writing journey" through the school or neighborhood.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Let's Take a Rock Apart!

For Teachers K - 12th
Students examine a crushed rock and sort the minerals they find in that rock by color and other properties.