Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Finding Jupiter's Moons

For Teachers 4th - 10th
Students explore Jupiter's Moons. They calculate and predict the location of Jupiter's 4 large moons. In addition, they draw Jupiter with its moons correctly shown for the time of the observation.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Planet Earth

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd
Students explore the planet Earth, outer space, and Earth's axis. They demonstrate reading comprehension skills, including literal meaning, inference and critical analysis.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Our Planet Earth

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students brainstorm and discuss cultural relevance of the moon to the Native American community. They utilize the internet to research items about the moon, use a digital camera to take pictures, and then write a report over what they...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Planets Database

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students research and create a database about planets and share the information.
Handout
Curated OER

The Planet Venus

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
In this worksheet on the planet Venus, students look at a picture of the planet and read accompanying facts, along with a brief paragraph.
Handout
Curated OER

The Planet Mars

For Students 3rd - 4th
In this worksheet on the planet Mars, students look at a picture of the planet and read accompanying facts, along with a brief paragraph.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Where Is Saturn in the Solar System? Where Am I in the Solar System?

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
Students discover the planets and their location in the solar system. They complete a KWL chart on Saturn and discuss. They complete the lesson with a writing activity.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Out of this World! 2

For Students 5th - 6th
In this science and research skills activity, students use Internet searches to find the answers to 15 questions about the planets in the solar system.
Interactive
American Museum of Natural History

What is Astronomy?

For Students 6th - 12th
Go study the universe. Pupils learn seven aspects about astronomy and astronomers. They begin to learn about constellations; distance and motion between objects; gravity; the electromagnetic spectrum; dark matter and energy; and teams of...
Interactive
CK-12 Foundation

Orbital Motion

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Why do planets orbit the sun in ellipses when moons orbit their planet in circles? Pupils control the semi-major axis, eccentricity of the orbit, and position angle. The resulting orbital appears with the related force vectors as...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Discovering Saturn, The Real "Lord of the Rings"

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Reading, writing, and rings! A lesson from NASA combines space science with authentic reading and writing tasks. Included in this lesson are pre-reading activities, four mini informational booklets on Saturn, a structured...
App
Curated OER

Solar System

For Students 4th - 8th
Explore the solar system in detail, from it's origins to its components.  Visual data gathered by actual space missions has been used to create the images and animations on each page of this stellar electronic book about the solar...
Lesson Plan
Journey Through the Universe

Impact Craters: A Look at the Past

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
The Galle crater on Mars is also known as the Happy Face crater because of its appearance. First, scholars use pebbles and flour to simulate craters and study their properties. They then apply this knowledge to help decipher the history...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Solar Eclipse

For Teachers K - 3rd
Pupils demonstrate the revolution of the moon around the earth and the effect of its direct alignment in between the earth and the sun.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Volcanoes in Space

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students research volcanoes on the Internet to compare/contrast the volcanoes on Earth to the ones found on Io, a moon of Jupiter. Students list the similarities and differences in science journals, and illustrate pictures of the volcanoes.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Spacecraft Launched on Mission to Pluto

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Young scholars read a news article about a space mission being launched to the planet Pluto. They study the necessary vocabulary and complete an anticipation guide of questions which they revisit after they read the article.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Watch This Space!

For Students 7th - 9th
In this space activity, students, with a partner, answer five questions about the universe and read and discuss ten questions regarding astronomy.
Interactive
Curated OER

A Mission-To-Mars Quiz

For Students 6th - 8th
In this space exploration worksheet, students complete a 6 question multiple choice on-line interactive exercise about the exploration of Mars.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Earth

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Young scholars study the earth in relation to the solar system.  In this planetary lesson students complete several investigations into the measurement of the earth and its magnetic field.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Impact Craters

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Young scholars investigate the factors affecting the size of a crater. In this space science instructional activity, students collect data from the activity and graph them. They explain how velocity of impact relate to crater size.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Timing the Tides

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students collect data and describe how and why the high and low tides change from day to day.  In exploring tides lesson students study tides by taking notes, recording data and analyzing their findings. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Solar System: Uranus

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students research Uranus and its geological formation, atmosphere, magnetic field, satellites, and rings.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Solar System

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders identify the basic concepts of celestial bodies. They discover the difference between perihelion and aphelion and demonstrate how the universe is expanding. They also discover how gravity and centrifugal force are...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Heavens Above

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students study the stars and their positions.  In this astronomy lesson students see how scientists can predict the positions of the stars and can tell how they would have appeared in the past.