When astronauts get hungry in outer space, they can't just call and have a pizza delivered. In order to gain an appreciation for the challenges associated with space travel, young learners are given the task of selecting,...

Fifth graders study the components and function of the nervous system. They investigate how engineers design biomedical equipment to assist the nervous system and explain how the five senses are affected during spaceflight.

Students study the ideas behind the heliocentric theory of Copernicus. They examine about retrograde motion of the planets as they move around the sun. They study astronomers who include Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Galileo.

Students observe and explore the characteristics of light.

Pupils discuss how the horizontal transport of heat from equatorial regions polewards drives global wind systems.

Students discuss the way vertical convection transports heat from the surface upwards, and associated pressure and temperature profiles of the atmosphere.

Students distinguish between the centripetal and centrifugal forces.

High schoolers participate in a qualitative discussion of the distinction between weight and mass, followed by a description of astronaut mass measurements in a zero-g environment.

Students study the heliocentric theory of Copernicus, the ideas behind it and the explanations which it displaced. A discussion of retrograde motion of planets helps students explain the logic underlying the ideas of both Ptolemy and...

Students engage in an overview of solar and lunar calendars, their history and lore. Also, of the day and the month, and their relations to the rotation period of the Earth and the orbital period of the Moon.

High schoolers explore concept of acceleration and motion under the influence of gravity, starting with free fall and ending with motions that start out with both horizontal and vertical initial velocities.

Students explore Newton's laws, including what they state, and what the intuitive meaning is of the first and third laws.

Students brainstorm names of astronauts from NASA space missions. They are explained that the Cold War was not actually a war but pervasive tension that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union for several decades...

Learners examine the observation of "coronal holes," by x-rays, also about related fast streams and moderate magnetic storms that recur at 27 day intervals. They study NASA'S great observatories.

High schoolers explore magnetism and magnetic phenomena on the Sun.

Students discuss the solar heating of the Earth and atmosphere, its heat loss proceses, and the way these relate to weather and climate.

Pupils explore rotating frames of reference, focusing on the weightless environment in space and the Coriolis force.

Students discuss the application of frames of reference to an airplane flying with a constant velocity v through the air.

High schoolers study about deriving centripetal acceleration for motion at constant speed around a circle.

Students trace the beginning of the heliocentric theory of the solar system--the idea that the solar system revolves around the Sun--to an observation by the Greek astronomer Aristarchus, which convinced him that the Sun was much bigger...

Students explain how Hipparchus, around 130 BC, used a shift in the predicted location of a lunar eclipse to detect a slight shift in the path of the Sun around the sky. They examine the elliptical orbit in which the Earth travels around...

Students recognize the daily motion of the Sun across the sky, defining the main directions of east, west, south and north. They see how the first calendars were based on changes in the Sun's noontime elevation, and on locations of...

Young scholars study the constellations fo the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia and their use in finding the Pole Star. They realize that other celestial objects--Sun, Moon and planets--share the rotation (and hence rise and set), even though...

Young scholars study elevation of the Sun above the horizon and the angle of the rays and their heating power.