NASA
Discovering Some of Your “Yardsticks” Are Actually “Meter-sticks”
The Milky Way gets great reviews on Trip Advisor — 100 million stars. The activity allows scholars to rethink their assumptions and prior knowledge. Pupils observe a set of two lights at equal distance and brightness, but they believe...
NASA
States of Matter
Water, one of the basic needs of humans, is found in all three states of matter on Earth; no other planet—that we know of—possesses this quality. Here is a unit that allows learners to explore through experimentation what it...
Museum of Tolerance
Oral History Activity
Oral history has brought a multitude of lessons, stories, and factoids to our current knowledge of the past. Let us continue to use oral history traditions through a lesson that encourages pupils to discover and appreciate...
NASA
Tools to Study Tornadoes and Galaxies
Take your class on an intergalactic journey as they explore the galaxy and various meteorological events taking place in our atmosphere each day. Learners investigate electromagnetic waves and the Doppler Effect before gathering radar...
Curated OER
Charting The Progress of New Horizons
Learners explore the long distances and timescales involved in space travel. They track the progress of the New Horizons spacecraft and access the New Horizons website to discover the distance of the spacecraft from the Sun, and then...
Curated OER
Launches for the Stars
Students are introduced to rockets and the space shuttle program. After viewing a 1960s show, they examine the role and history of NASA and how it evolved into having a space shuttle program. In groups, they create their own model rocket...
Curated OER
Finding Extra-Solar Planets
Students plot and analyze NASA data to determine the period of an invisible planet orbiting a wobbling star. They explore the motion of a two-body system around a center of mass to better explain how extra-solar planets are discovered.
Curated OER
Captain Invincible and the Space Shapes
Learners identify geometric solids. In this geometric shapes lesson, students listen to the teacher read Captain Invincible and the Space Shapes by Stuart J. Murphy. Learners then visit a web site where they identify types of...
Curated OER
Discovering Planet X
Students investigate the movements of the planet Pluto. Students participate in a hands-on activity to record data similar to the movements of the planet Pluto. Students compare their data to that found on a website.
Journey Through the Universe
Is There Anyone Out There?
What is an alien's favorite game? All-star baseball! Scholars start defining living and non-living. Then, they conduct experiments to research if life exists, keeping in mind that life could be in many forms, not just human.
Curated OER
Doin' The Moonwalk
If you are looking for an outstanding lesson on the Moon for your budding astronomers, look no further! This outstanding plan is full of wonderful, meaningful activities for your charges to engage in. Pupils will discover why there are...
Curated OER
Worksheet 19: Ship Positions
In this math worksheet, students read informational paragraphs and then answer 18 questions using data from their readings. Questions are about vectors, positions, distance and orbits.
Curated OER
Up in the Sky
First graders associate events and objects with day or night. They create a word bank and use is as a reference to create sentences about the sun. They conduct sun-themed experiments and art projects.
Space Awareness
Coma Cluster of Galaxies
Scientists classify everything from the smallest cells to the largest galaxies, but how do they decide on a classification system? Scholars use 40 pictures of galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to sort and try creating their...
Messenger Education
My Angle on Cooling—Effect of Distance and Inclination
When exploring Mars, spacecrafts are exposed to 5-11 times more sunlight than when near Earth. Groups of pupils complete a hands-on activity to explore how distance and angle of the sun affect temperature. Through discussions, they then...
Curated OER
The Magic School Bus Out of This World
Students learn along with Ms. Frizzle's class. In this Magic School Bus lesson plan, students explore craters that objects of different sizes and weights (marbles, Ping-Pong balls, and aluminum foil balls) create.
Curated OER
Hubble Spies Colliding Asteroids!
In this colliding asteroids activity, students are given the equation to determine the collision time for asteroids. Students use this equation to solve 4 problems including finding the area of a cross-section through the body of an...
Curated OER
An Introduction to the Night Sky and Movement Astronomy
Basically, this is an interactive exploration of educational astronomy software and an app. Young astronomers discover how the apparent motion of the sky relates to Earth's movements and the position of the observer. It is out of this...
Curated OER
My Angle on Cooling
Students explore how the angle and distance of an object can change it's temperature. After reviewing how the position of the Earth affects the temperature of the planet, student groups design and perform an experiment to test how...
Curated OER
Searching For Protoplanetary Disks
Learners download NASA Hubble Space Telescope views of star-forming regions in nebulae and look for evidence of planetary systems forming beyond our own solar system. They hypothesize about mysterious objects in NASA HST images.
Curated OER
Attack of the Raging River
Learners explore mass and volume. In this mass and volume lesson, students pretend to be on a hike and have lost their way. Learners must cross a river get back on track. Students must use mass, volume, surface area, density, property...
Curated OER
How To Measure Area
Geometers learn how to measure the area in square units. They use the floor in the classroom as a visual to measure a square foot area. They use classmates to fill the space and expand the measured area square foot by square foot until...
Curated OER
Stars and Slopes
More of a math lesson than physics or space science, high schoolers take a set of data and plot it on a log-log coordinate system. The write-up for day two was never completed, but day one, "Stars and Slopes," is complex and cohesive....
Curated OER
Colored Pencil Value Practice
Budding artists discover what color value means with regard to art. They read the definition of color value at the top of the page, choose three different colored pencils, then use the provided spaces to create color values with each. By...