Give your pupils a front row seat at the biggest light show in the sky this year! In addition to admiring the total solar eclipse, young astronomers can explain the phenomenon with a little help from an inquiry-based lesson. The focus of...

Venus is the second brightest object in the night sky after the moon. Here is an interesting lesson that explores three planets — Venus, Earth, and Mars — specifically their surfaces and atmospheres. Through an analysis of their spectra,...

Third graders construct a model of the earth-sun-moon system using students as the sun, moon, and earth. They discuss ways that time is related to the movement of the earth and moon.

NASA has crafted an imaginative and memorable series of lessons, "NASA and Jamestown Education Module." This lesson is one of the five components. In it, middle schoolers connect history and science by comparing the settlement of...

How do different parts of the world experience day and night? Introduce scholars to the concept of global citizenship while teaching about animal behavior with discussion of nocturnal and diurnal animals. Then, learners complete...

Middle schoolers analyze given data on density and diameter of objects in space by graphing the data and then discussing their findings. This ninth installment of a 22-part series emphasizes the Galilean moons as compared to other...

Can you name the three planets with rings in our solar system? Everyone knows Saturn, many know Uranus, but most people are surprised to learn that Jupiter also has a ring. The third in a series of six teaches pupils what is around...

Go on a moon mining expedition from the safety of your classroom with this space exploration simulation. Using simple models of the moon's surface prepared ahead of time by the teacher, young scientists are challenged with locating and...

Saturn's rings are made of dust, ice, and solid chunks of material. Individuals use spectrographs in this final installment of 22 lessons to determine the atmospheric elements. They analyze spectrums from Titan's atmosphere and...

NASA presents a mini-unit on distances in our solar system. It incorporates scientific concepts of gravity, mass, density, and payload while your aspiring astronauts also employ mathematics skills. They calculate speed, they determine...

A scripted lesson can be a big help for new teachers. This fully scripted three-day learning activity provides teachers with the means to demonstrate how to compare and contrast two topics in two texts. Learners will work as a class to...

Pupils compare and contrast the environments of the moon and the earth. They discover how the differences might change one's daily activities.

Third graders draw what they believe is in space on a dry erase board. In groups, they are given a beaker half filled with water and they add a teaspoon of oil, observing the different layers that form. To end the instructional...

Why does Earth experience summer, fall, winter, and spring? Using an informative demonstration, learners see how the angle of the sun on Earth and the rotation of Earth determine the seasons. Scholars work in pairs to learn that the...

Students explain the difference between regolith formation on Earth and the Moon. In this space science lesson, students model the different factors affecting regolith formation on Earth. They identify the different types of weathering.

Students create scale models of Earth, the Moon, and the distances within the universe. Working in groups, they construct their models of Earth and the Moon on a scale of 50:1 and calculate how far apart to place their models. They...

Students explore why when you examine the moon depends on its location in relationship to the sun and Earth. The moon never goes away or changes shape-we just see a different fraction of sunlight being reflected from the moon to Earth.

Students develop a timeline of all the major events involved in the formation of the Earth and the emergence of humans. In groups, they focus on a specific topic by watching a PBS program and taking notes. After the video, they list...

High schoolers explore the possibility of an asteroid hitting planet earth. In this planetary lesson students complete a lab activity to see the effects of an asteroid hitting earth and compare different craters.

Young scholars study the physical properties of the Moon.  In this life on the moon activity students describe the ways life on the Moon would be different than on Earth. 

Students investigate the Earth and the Moon. They select activities from a menu of options including viewing videos, drawing magnetic fields and plate tectonics, creating vocabulary flashcards, observing the phases of the moon over a...

Students compare/contrast the environments of our moon and earth, and examine examples of how these differences would affect their daily activities on our moon. They develop lists of emergency supplies to bring if their spaceship crashed...

Students demonstrate size and orbits of Earth, Moon, and Mars. In this space science lesson plan, students will use balloons to show how the size and distance between the planets and satellite compare.

Fifth graders identify the physical characteristics of the Earth and compare them to the physical characteristics of the moon. They produce a chart with Microsoft Excel to record the physical characteristics of both the Earth and the moon.